Featured Writer: Wanderlustress
Fires were everywhere as we drove along 6,000 kilometers through the remote hills of Western Tanzania in order to get to the hard to reach national parks typically accessible only by flight. Bush camping, fighting tse tse flies and rationing water along the way, we found healthy national parks, extremely poor road conditions and some of the most unforgettable faces of the African people. The biggest impression, however, was of forest fires. I left Africa with a lasting sensation of heat, the smell of smoke and the concern for Africa’s natural resources.
Bucket List Publications 
I have been wanting to go to Africa for years. Your entry is amazing. Great blog, you make me want to be more adventurous!!!
xoxo
amysvintagecloset.wordpress.com
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Thanks Amy! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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Fire is an essential and natural part of the African landscape. The beautiful rolling plains that support the massive herds of grazing animals, are dependant on fire. Fire burns dead vegetation and open the land for new growth. The forests are kept in check by fire, the edges or ecotone zones are delineated by fire, and many of the flowering plants of the plains and savannah are germinated by fire. Fire can be damaging if unnatural and uncontrolled, but natural Africa, before interference and over-exploitation, was a place where the smell of smoke and ash was also a natural part of the landscape.
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Thank you, Trevor, for your valuable insights and explanation. I really hope that the fires I experienced in Tanzania were indeed natural and controlled.
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My pleasure!
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I live in SA and have visited other parts of this incredible continent… Once Africa catches your heart, there’s no getting it back!
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So true Sarah! I managed to get to nine sub-Saharan countries and then returned years later to work in Sudan…and I STILL want/need to go back.
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Great posting, and true was the other comment says about the brush fires, or I guess you can just simply the good comes with the bad 🙂
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Thank you.
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You are welcome, because you are absolutely correct about the workings of nature. Indeed, you have a perceptive eye! 🙂
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Seeing SA for myself has been on my life’s agenda since childhood. A beautiful sky in this pic btw =) nice take!
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SA is wonderful and so diverse. You will love it. For some reason Africa has what I call “BIG” skies, so immense and intense.
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So very worrying and terrible, those African fires! Thanks for the update here!
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Woow nice..
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