The long rains have struck and the second half of March has certainly been a very muddy and wet affair. A few big storms have ensured the plains are now completely soaked and most of the grass is very tall. A severe storm down at Sabora did a fair amount of destruction on 26th – all the guest tents in the camp being damaged. Fortunately no guests were in camp and all the due to arrive new guests were moved up to Sasakwa. Updates from February include the sighting (just once) of the male lion who had his snare removed last month – good news. No further sightings of him or his 2 siblings since, means in all likelihood they are south of our areas, inside the Serengeti National Park.

Ol Doinyo Lengai continues to erupt this year and has been throwing clouds of gas and dust even higher into the air during March. The huge clouds are now believed to be at least 30 000 ft into the sky. It was even visible from Sasakwa on a few calm mornings. This very unique volcanoe is the only volcanoe of its kind in the world that erupts with carbonatite; all other volcanoes have a larva composed of silica-rich basalts. It erupts at 500 – 600 °C (very cool) and the carbonatite lava is very fluid, about as thick as water. This larva does glow orange at night but is nowhere as bright, or hot, as silica-based larva. Thanks to Tansy Glanz for the pictures.