A ride through our world in Mwadui

On Sunday afternoon, Grant and I collected Wessel (remember my IT friend and helper with all things electronic?) from his house and drove off into the bush. We were going to do a spot of birding. We hadn't been out together for about three months  as we'd been on leave in September, and Wessel was out in October;  so we had lots of news to catch up on. 

We had ridden for about twenty minutes when we realized that we'd not seen one bird or even a sign of wild life. Nevertheless, the drive was beautiful; since the last time we'd all been along this route together, we'd had ample rain and the world had greened up considerably. 

Grant stopped several times for me to get out and take photos of the village I'd posted about many months ago. Wessel told us that during the eighties, a whole settlement of people stayed in between these trees. To this day there are still the remains of buildings and rubble. Now it is just nature but still every bit as beautiful and peaceful as it must have been then.

Summertime [in Tanzania] and the living is easy...

All three of us spotted a movement along the road at the same time and all three shouted ["what's that ahead?"] at once! As we drew closer, we saw that it was a lady on a bicycle and not deer or large bird. She made such a pretty picture against the beautiful trees, that I had to capture the image.

Women riding bicycles is a common sight in Tanzania

We put the lack of birds down to the fact that a huge storm was brewing on the horizon. Grant stopped so that I could photograph a tree in full bloom against the brooding sky.

Is this not the most heart-stopping beauty? 

On the way back, Grant stopped so that I could take photos and Wessel could have a smoke break. He and Wessel continued talking about whatever they were talking about in the car! 

Wessel and Grant chat up a storm! (no pun intended!)

Thanks for the comments on my post about our ride around the mine on Saturday. The mining photos I posted are of the "pit". When we talk about the mine, it is the whole area: the dams, the processing plant (we have no access to this) the sort-house (ditto, re access!) and the conveyors and other machinery that make up the mining operations.

I have linked with Our World Tuesday which you can see by clicking here