Our second day at Africa Amini Life

We were awakened just before 6 AM for our final day at African Amini Life, because the morning was crystal clear and we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunrise.  The staff delivered pots of coffee and tea to our hut along with some small muffins to tide us over until breakfast, and we sat on the verandah of the hut to take in the view

After breakfast we went for an herb walk with our guide, Lowassa. 

Mt. Kilimanjaro loomed in the distance

He identified several species of acacia trees on our walk – out of the 56 varieties in all

This one, the yellow bark acacia

is the giraffe’s favorite.  It also provides good firewood.  Here it is grouped with a lime and olive tree; all planted deliberately in a location where they are fed by water runoff from a hut;s shower



Next he pointed to an acacia which grew from the mother tree standing nearby. 

This one is grouped with a “blessing plant” and a “toothbrush plant.” The Maasai will cut the leaves and branches from blessing plants and place them on the ground to catch the first blood from a purchased goat to ensure that any evils in the goat cast out; (the goat roasted that was roasted for us last night, for example, had been bought, not raised by the lodge, so we had been protected by the use of these branches.  As for the toothbrush plant, its  stems and leaves make brush; freshly cut smaller branches are chewed to produce tooth-cleaning fluid, then used as a toothbrush and cut smaller and smaller.   Boiling the branches also produced tea that acts as malaria medicine by inducing vomiting and diarrhea to purge the malaria

He used his stick to point to a chameleon well camouflaged in the bush
           

The yellow aloe vera

grows well in this area because, unlike the green aloe vera, which can outlast a long drought, this one thrives on more water, is used for treating burns: you cut the tips while they are fresh to get the soothing yellow liquid good for treating burns (Nancy and I in fact used it during our last day in Zanzibar after getting back from our days at the beach in Jambiani, because Nafisa had some growing in the garden at Wajamama)

Next we passed an umbrella acacia, whose large spread makes the shade for Maasai community meetings.  In addition, as its long roots spread and approach the surface, the water they hold cools to make it better for sitting.  Fences are made from this acacia, creating corrals

as well as fencing off plantings as we had seen the day before. Elephants will rub up against the umbrella acacias’ trunks to get the water out

The fruit contains hard seeds

Impala and other animals will gather near na acasion to eat them (so cheetah may be waiting up in tree to pounce on them).    The seeds are hard and won’t sprout without being germinated, such as in stool of animals eating them. ^The acacia’s bark is good to soothe clicking joints

There was an owl up in the branches of a tree



And a woodpecker’s nest in trunk.

Lowassa explained the nest goes downward to safeguard eggs because snakes will go up (why?)

This pit is a former shallow termite mound – such pits are used for building when nest is killed by aardvarks eating. 

In areas where see tall termite mounds (such as this one the day before)





, that construction is used as a  protection against aardvarks because they can’t climb


Next we paused to examine the whistling thorn acacia

It is so named because of their fruits with little holes, which whistle in the wind\




The plants have a symbiotic relationship with ants that burrow into fruits when they young and red; the content of the fruit is sweet, and the ants eat it.  When the fruit dries out, the ants nest there; when the bush is hit (and Lowassa gave is a demonstration by whacking the plant with this stick), the ants come out of their nests and bite animals who may have come to eat the leaves





The bark has a medicinal character – tea made from the bark helps a mother who has recently delivered restore her appetite

Next we stopped by a “special mint”





Its leaves are used for herbal tea, its tiny purple fruits are slightly sweet






I took these shots of some of the details of Lowassa’s attire, typical of what we saw young Maasai men wearing

On returning to the lodge, we were offered hibiscus tea as a refreshing drink, flavored with cinnamon and lime; a delicious combination I’ll aim to try at home

Before we departed for the next leg of our vacation, we took a half hour to explore the grounds of the place that we had been too busy to see because our time was quite full with drives and walks

There was a large pool up the hill

and just below the pool the “mirror cave,” a sitting area with a wall full of mirrors

Both offered a broad view across the valley and toward Mt. Kilimanjaro

Off to the left was a pathway to a wooden chair sitting high atop a hill




Had we more time, this would have been a pleasant place to hang around for a few hours.  But it was time to have lunch and get into a car to be driving to our next destination – the Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge just outside Arusha National Park.