Executive

Over breakfast of liver and chapati, we discussed today’s journey. The plan is to visit Nyerere National Park for a few days to continue our discussions on species initiatives and collaborations at the headquarters.

From Morogoro the most direct journey towards the lowlands of the Park winds through the lush Uluguru Mountains, blanketed all morning by low clouds with minarets poking out wherever there are villages. Recent heavy rains linked to El Niño have flooded some banana and maize fields, killing crops and carving muddy channels in the soft earth. Very full rivers churning with terracotta coloured water. One of those journeys where you wonder how it can possibly take so long based on the distance.

Unfortunately accommodation inside the Park is full so we are in some allegedly ‘executive’ lodgings (pictured) in a village outside where I’ve stayed once before, and where the presence of deafening bars didn’t facilitate sleep last time. The presence of cockroaches on my sink pales into comparison.

It’s very warm in these lowlands in January. Expecting to have reached the National Park today, but being scuppered by the journey time, I had to shed my boots and trousers as quickly as possible. A strange afternoon and evening trying to nap and remain cool within a vortex of constant power fluctuations.