Tanzanianology: Kitulo National Park

Just a simple picture blog today about Kitulo National Park, known as Bustani ya Mungu or God's Garden. This remote, yet not terribly difficult to get to National Park is rarely visited by tourists. There are several endemic species...monkeys and flowers and the towering cedar trees. Unfortunately, we were unable to afford the route that allows you to see the monkeys and giant trees, however, we were very pleased with the flowers we saw on our day hike. The park boasts 45 different types of orchids among several other flowers belonging to the touch-me-not, pea, daisy, and other families. It is required to take a guide with you, which was absolutely fine considering he was very knowledgeable on all the flowers. I was actually quite surprised on how much he knew his flora! There is on-going research in the park. While we hiked, there were two researchers present. Besides the researchers and their workers, we had the entire park to ourselves that day. While it rained all around us, we lucked out, finishing our hike on the Matamba ridge down into the valley of Kitulo about 20 minutes before the rain started coming down.