Stabilisation

The vast Nyerere/Selous ecosystem of south-central Tanzania was one of the ecosystems most hammered by the ivory poaching crisis which affected most of Africa’s elephant populations during the 2010s. It’s very encouraging to see elephant numbers here now stabilising and set to increase, although this has a long lag time due to long gestational periods.

We had a successful meeting with Park management at Nyerere headquarters about ways to partner more effectively on species initiatives. Our interest is principally at the southern end of this vast ecosystem where Nyerere connects to a wildlife corridor that also connects with Mozambique. With our ‘landscape lens’, to use a phrase we’d trot out to donors, we are particularly interested in projects that promote connectivity and reduce barriers to movement.

We wrapped up in early afternoon, so we agreed there was enough time to travel back through the Uluguru Mountains to Morogoro. This was too ambitious so we eventually crawled into our lodgings at some point in the evening.

I repeat my assertion that Kisaki, the village where we stayed near Nyerere for a few nights, isn’t charming. Grabbing some food before we left, I drank most of a Pepsi before realising there was an old bottle top merrily fizzing away at the bottom. I was wondering about the persistent metallic taste.