Wednesday, January 10, 2024
We ate breakfast, then loaded on a Land Cruiser (LC) for Tarangire National Park. It was a pretty long ride through countryside. Pete sat up front with our guide James. We learned about the area and people, especially the Maasai. We saw lots of livestock, all with Maasai shepherds. There were many colorful birds and we learned that James is an avid birder, so he was a great resource in identifying birds.
Tarangire National Park is one of the largest national parks in Tanzania and is best known for its herds of elephants and landscapes dotted with baobab trees. These large pulpy trees may be as old as California Redwoods and can branch out as much as 50 feet in diameter.
We stopped at a small ‘shop’ at the entrance and had a demo of carving and painting, very nice. We went into the park which was very, very wet due to recent rains, the wettest our guide has seen. It was a fantastic visit, we observed many animals including some elephants within feet of LC. We saw many great birds, lots of red hornbills, superb starlings, go away birds, love birds, white headed shrike and others. See our post about birds for more details. Also saw ostriches, mongooses, vervet monkeys, giraffes (distant), impalas, water bucks, gray crowned cranes, grant’s gazelles and a few warthogs. As we left we intersected dozens of cow and calf elephants which were heading to the road, we stopped and they crossed on all sides of us. Magnificent! We also intersected 40 +/- impalas running across the road. We lunched at Tarangire Safari Lodge with a magnificent view. Very nice meal.
We arrived at Burunge Lake Tent Camp and got a free cocktail at happy hour. Pete and Gayle shared a duplex with a connecting door with Joyce. It was a great meal at lodge; the whole staff marched out singing several songs for Zara’s birthday. Very impressive. We went back to ‘room’ to try to get a good night’s sleep and were in bed by 9:30 or so. This lodge was one of several places where we needed an escort to walk to/from tents after dark due to the possibility of encountering an animal.
