River crossing

Occasionally the Chimpanzees travel to the southern region of their territory in search of food. This area is probably the most difficult part of their territory for us to track the Chimpanzees as the forest is very dense with the largest river running through it.


Yesterday we found the Chimpanzees on the other side of the river which because of the rains was higher than normal. No problem though, Lazaro was guiding and decided to build a rock bridge so the guests could cross with out getting wet feet. Thanks to Lazaro our guests had a great sighting.



Wedding bells in Mahale

Last night was a special evening here at Greystoke, not only was the sunset one of the best I have ever seen but our guest Frank Soroste proposed to his girlfriend Katia during their private dinner and she accepted. The giant Tanzanite rock Frank put on Katia’s finger may have helped. 

Thanks Frank, Kiri wants to know where her rock is now!

Congratulations from the Greystoke Mahale team. We hope to see you back for the honey moon.

Birding Quiz

Guests Mary and Rob quizzed us on what birds they had seen in Arusha, their descriptions were:

1)      black stripes on the side, finch style beak, finch size

2)      crested with distinct call

3)      like I image a guinea fowl would look like with a crest

We managed to correctly identify 2 out of the 3, our identification were as follows:

1)      Black and White Mannikin

2)      White-headed Mousebird

3)      Crested Guinea Fowl

Can you guess which one was incorrect?

The answer is #3, it was Purple Crested Turaco

A Welcome Surprise

Listening to the chimps vocalizing as we enjoyed our sundowners…  what a way to end the perfect day.  Fortunately, this means the chimps nested for the night just outside of camp.  Unfortunately, it means a early breakfast, in order to get to the chimps before they start heading back up into the forest.

Goldilocks at Mahale

After lunch we came across Mama, Papa, and Baby Black Faced Vervet Monkeys sitting in our library. I think mom and pops were trying to teach their child to read.  Evolution in progress?

Uncle Larry's Marshmallows

We have just  fully entertained each other for a full hour this past evening toasting pink marshmallows over the open fire.  We started with nails on the end of walking sticks but quickly switched to tiny kabob sticks for fear of tetanus.  In an effort to get the perfect “Uncle Larry Mallow” using the tiny kabob sticks forced us to get a little too cozy with the blazing fire.  After having roasted the marshmallow to past perfection, we moved on to attempting to create “witchy-foo-foo”.  For those of you not in the know, this involves mushing a marshmallow back and forth between your thumb and forefinger for many minutes in an effort to turn the mallow into taffy (we might have had better luck trying to turn water into wine).  Apparently, Tanzania marshmallows are unable to produce the desired effect,   as this just ended in a gooey mess landed on Mark’s safari boot, which we then attempted to remove with other tiny kabobs sticks.  Mark face was slightly pinker after this evening of merriment, the cause of which is indiscernible.  It may have been the close proximity to the fire, the embarrassment of the mallow that got away, or simply the imbibing of several (meaning many several) glasses of red wine, made from grapes not water.