Tanzania - Tarangire (days 2-3)

Woo hoo!  It’s Wednesday and our first official day of the safari.  We headed to Tarangire National Park, after first picking up a picnic lunch at Naipenda’s office in Arusha.  The drive took approximately 2.5 hours and the countryside was beautiful. The landscape becomes increasingly rural after leaving Arusha, with tin towns giving way to thatched settlements and domestic herds of cows or goats being watched over by the colorful Masai children.  It was pretty flat and dry, with hues of yellow grass, brown terrain and mountains in the distance.  Luckily the road was paved.   

 

We lunched at the gate to the park and it was hot!  The picnic area was overrun by velvet monkeys who steal your food, so be careful!  Ok, so they don’t skimp on the food here but it’s perhaps not the healthiest.  Our boxed lunch was huge – fried chicken, samosas, donut, crepe, juice box and fruit.  Carbs much?  Fried much?  Who cares, it was filling and good!

We then popped the top of the modified/extended Land Cruiser so we could stand and look for animals!  It felt somewhat like we were on a ride at Disneyland – had to remind ourselves these are wild, unpredictable animals!   

Our first real wildlife sightings in the park were the impalas (nicknamed “fast food” for the lions because they have a black “M” on their rears, ha!) and wart hogs.  We were so giddy.   

We then saw a ton of elephants at the river, wow.  They eat constantly!  There are thousands of elephants in the Tarangire and they’re so cute!  This group wasn’t bothered by the car at all and they just wandered slowly across the road, right next to us.  Our driver/guide, who was a wealth of information informed us the pachyderms get itchy from the rain so they cover themselves in the dirt (which was red), thus making them more red than gray.  

In the afternoon, the sky opened up and it down poured, which really cooled things off and kinda sent the animals packing.  Not as much activity when it rains.  Some of the roads were pretty slick and turning into little rivers themselves.  We came across a big tortoise crossing the road.  Hello Mr. Tortoise.

After that the rain stopped and we saw some cheetahs, but they were far off in the distance.  On the way to our camp, I spotted 3 lions on a rock and then another one ran right in front of our car, clearly on the hunt.   

We also admired the huge baobab trees, acacia trees, woodlands and marshlands.  The terrain was stunning and constantly changing!  Today’s wildlife sightings also included ostriches, baboons, mongoose, giraffes and some little animal who finds refuge in rocks. 

It took us over an hour to drive 24 KM to the camp – our car got stuck in the red mud at one point and it was generally slow-going overall.  We finally made it and upon arrival were greeted with cold towels and hibiscus tea.   

Oliver’s Camp (http://oliverscamp.asiliaafrica.com/Home.aspx) is a permanent tented camp in the Southern Tarangire.  The camp offered posh accommodations for a “camp”, with super secluded thatched huts, en suite facilities and outdoor showers.  Amazing (a theme for all our lodging)!

We were warned of the infamous “honey badger” and had to turn over all of our snacks and any lotions etc. that were “food smelling”.  Apparently this little critter likes to break in to the huts and can unzip bags if it smells food!  Our hut had proper doors, but they didn’t lock or anything.  We thought this was all a myth until Matt Googled it.  We also overheard a conversation where someone had called on the radio at midnight about an “unwelcome visitor” in their hut.  Uh oh.  Just have to keep bad thoughts out of your head!  After taking a glorious outdoor shower, how fun, we enjoyed sundowners around the campfire before dinner.  Most of the dinners have guests sitting around a communal table and they start with an appetizer (usually soup), followed by a main course and then dessert (there were only 10 cabins so the table wasn’t too big).  The food was consistently delicious, diverse and pretty fancy for being in the middle of nowhere!   Chicken pesto, beef curry, lots of soups, hamburgers, potato wedges, onion rings, pork loin, fish, fried chicken, salads, fruits, mousses, tartes, pudding, crepes, muffins, wine, beer…….we did not go hungry on this trip and actually think we all gained weight! 

It was funny, everyone we met thought Matt and Shaun were brothers!   Well, they did dress alike most of the time, but didn’t people notice Shaun’s English accent and Matt’s American accent?

In the mornings, tea/coffee and biscuits were brought to the rooms and when it got dark, a guide escorted you to/from your hut for safety reasons. Talk about catering to our needs!  Oh, and the sounds of nature are so loud here, I had no idea.  They kept the mesh windows open in our tent so we’d get a nice breeze and could enjoy the view, but it made for some noisy nights.

On our second morning in the Tarangire we went on a walking safari, with a guide who carried a rifle, a ranger who carried a rifle and a local Masai tribesman who lives at the camp.  After signing our lives away on the liability waiver we were off!  I was a bit scared at first, I must admit.  We saw a lot of trees, birds, insects, massive termite hills and animal bones, but not a lot of animals (which was fine by me!)  The guide was very informative and the Masai guy showed us how he brushes his teeth (with a special twig).  We spotted some impala, reed buck, water buffalo, funnel spiders and picked up a small tortoise.  It was very serene to be bush-walking here!  We passed through long brush, short brush, woodlands, dense forest, sparse forest and also walked along the river for a bit.  It was an awesome experience.  And every time we returned to camp there were cold towels and some sort of beverage waiting for us.  Talk about pampering!

 

 

In the evening we went on a night drive in a big open-sided jeep (with the same ranger and Masai tribesman from our morning walk) and had our first and really only encounter with the pesky tsetse flies we had been worried about (bug spray etc. does not work on them).  For the first hour, we were constantly “wind-milling” ourselves and batting them away.  The poor English woman who was with us had gotten bit numerous times earlier in the day!  They go away when it gets dark, phew.  It was very bumpy and bouncy and there wasn’t a whole lot of animal activity but we enjoyed the scenery.  We saw a puff of red smoke and then a wart hog jumped up and ran away, which was pretty funny (I think we awoke it from its slumper).  There were also impala, monkeys, kudu and the mile-high termite mounds.  When it got dark, the Masai switched on the flood-light and we were impressed that he could still spot animals.  It would be black, black, black and then you’d see a pair of yellow eyes, or several pairs of yellow eyes staring back at you!  The road was filled with ruts and it was quite bumpy!  We saw lightning on the horizon, which was pretty cool.  Thankfully, it didn’t rain on us though.

 
It rained during the night, which was great because it made things quieter and the sound of the rain was soothing.  I heard something very early in the morning and spotted a little creature scampering under one of our lounge chairs on the deck.  I thought it was the infamous “honey badger” but it was actually a little spotted janet cat, which looks like a really big house cat (with spots) but with a longer, fluffier tail.  She then started to drink water from a bowl on the edge of our veranda, how cool!  And when we walked up to breakfast, we saw a lot of different paw prints in the sand!  Most seemed to be from the cute little dik-dik’s though (they seem harmless).

On our way out of Oliver’s Camp we got stuck in deep, sticky, black mud from the prior night’s rain.  Matt and Shaun had to get out and push while Molly and I stood in the marshy grass snapping photos.  We all got pretty dirty trekking through the wet grass back to the car, but they say you haven’t truly been on safari until you get stuck!   

We then came upon a group of ostriches just hanging out in the road, which was pretty cool.   

After that it was more elephants (we backed up to give them room to pass) and giraffes... 

 

... and baboons ...

 

... impalas, water bucks, gazelles, mongoose, reed bucks and loads of birds (including an eagle eating a dead fox).

We stopped at a toilet and our guide spotted lion prints on the ground so he did a loop to make sure we “were in the clear”.  We saw the 3 lions shortly thereafter, just hanging out on a rock across from the rest stop! 

Before lunch we also had our first wildebeest sighting.  He was all alone.  Apparently, he didn’t get the memo about migrating with his 1.4 million friends!  

 
The last thing we saw was a dead impala up in a tree.  Our guide had eagle eyes!  Apparently, a leopard killed it earlier and when she thought the coast was clear, would come back for it (they eat in trees).   

We had another picnic lunch at the gate to the park and one devilish monkey jumped up on our table – so what did Matt do?  He went for his camera to take a picture!  Meanwhile, the monkey stole his sandwich and he didn’t even get a photo!  It was beyond hysterical and we made so much of him because he seemed genuinely shocked the little guy got his food!  After that, we had to throw rocks at the monkeys to keep them away.  They’re total scavengers!