We leave early after breakfast from our accomodation as we have to pick up our guide, again, this time from the intersection to Gibb’s Farm. And it is a 30 minutes drive as we drive carefully to ensure the police has no pretext to stop us. It is the same guide as last time so we both recognize each other and then it is time for him to lead us to the first goal for the day, the so named Elephant Trail. Or Waterfall Trail. Or Endoro Trail. We are not sure but we know it is close to Gibb’s Farm.
We arrive at the Endoro Gate Post and our guide negotiates for the required escort. We get a woman with an AK47, quite seriously armed and then we are on our way towards the Elephant Caves.
The trail is well defined and starts going up almost immediately. But we stop a lot to look for birds and therefore we can get rest quite often along the way so we do not feel the climb really.
There are quite a few interesting birds along the way like a Black Cuckooshrike and a Chinspot Batis and we enjoy in general walking through the jungle.
And the lifers are coming fast, a Cardinal Woodpecker here an African Hill Babbler there, there are lots of beautiful and rare birds here. Rare because most of the protected area in the national parks that can be accessed is savanna and there aren’t many places you can walk into the forest.
As we get higher the views open up and we can see far in the distance. It is quite beautiful and worth the climb in our opinion.
From here our guide tells us that there is a good chance to see turacos and if we want to see them. Of course we want so both he and the ranger are starting to stalk the trees looking for these beautiful birds.
There is no luck on the turaco front at first. We do see a Grey Cuckooshrike and our guide hears a turaco but it stays well hidden.
And then just as we are looking at a Black-Headed Mountain Greenbul the ranger and then the guide start pointing frantically and we see the Schalow’s Turaco close by. We watch it in awe and then it flies away, another special bird on our list is crossed now.
And then slowly it is time to return and bird on the way back. While we see lots of birds we miss probably more because it is a jungle after all. Everything is green and there are lots of leaves and it is difficult to pick up the birds as they move from branch to branch always hidden seemingly.
But the birds we see are beautiful and special enough. The Black-throated Wattle-Eye, for example, gives us some good looks and it is such a smart looking bird.
And above us there are hawks and vultures. We are especially enthralled by a pair of African Harrier Hawks doing a courtship dance above us, it is quite spectacular to watch.
Of course birds aren’t the only things that catch our eye. There are lots of butterflies to and we try to capture some photos as they move from flower to flower.
As this forest is protected as part of Ngorongoro Park it is quite a special place where you can look far in the distance and see only trees, not many places like this remaining.
As we start descending we find a few more birds like the impressive African Paradise-Flycatcher, impressive due to its tail mainly.
By now the shade has retreated from most of the trail so we are happy that we are descending and try to stop only in the few spots where there is still some shade to look for birds.
As we reach the trailhead again we suddenly remember that we didn’t see either the Elephant Salt Lick or the waterfall. Guess our guide negotiated just for a birdwatching tour, still it was fun and we saw lots of birds. And have a chance to see even more as we are going now to Gibb’s Farm next door almost for birdwatching and lunch.
