Lake Duluti Day Trip

You are collected in Arusha, Moshi or at KIA. The lake is about 40 minutes from Arusha city centre (14 km), 1–1½ hours from KIA (30 km) and 2–3 hours from Moshi (60–70 km). It is easy to reach by vehicle or on foot from the Arusha–Moshi road.

Start on the water with a canoe trip, one of the lake's best-loved activities. Feel the cool breeze as you paddle past the nests of Nile monitors and watch them swimming away from your boat. Then go birding. The lake's varied habitats offer food, shelter and nesting sites for small birds, waders, waterfowl and songbirds, including cormorants, egrets, weavers, turacos, robins and pigeons. At certain times of year the papyrus and reed beds are dotted with yellow, red and orange breeding birds, with nests hanging over the water.

After lunch, follow the narrow forest path around the lake. It is shady enough to walk even in the hottest part of the day, and it isn't steep, with frequent rests at the picnic sites along the way. Look out for the caves in the crater walls, surrounded by huge buttressed figs, forest ferns and Newtonia buchananii trees, where savannah monitors, agamas, skinks and some snakes take refuge. The caves have long been used, together with the hills, as places of prayer by Christians and people of other faiths. To some they are sacred, to others a refuge, and they matter to people, plants and animals alike. You then return to your pick-up point.