Safaris - Part I

Since Wabes is writing about Moshi and our adventures in urban areas, I thought I'd write about the wild side of Tanzania. Since we wanted to do both a Safari and visit Zanzibar we crammed a lot into the past few days. But overall we think it all worked out. It's always best to leave wanting more.

The safari portion of our trip left from Arusha (see past posts created from the safari office before Wabes and I jumped into the safari vehicle and took off). Because we arranged such a short safari we were unexpectedly alone on the trek. Driving to and from parks it was just the two of us, our guide/driver Lazaro, and our cook Emmanuel. Around the parks it was just Wabes, Lazaro, and I.

At first we though it might be more fun to have some other tourists along but we quickly realized how spoiled we would be having the vehicle to ourselves. For much of the first day at Tarangire, we stood in the van with our head's sticking out of the roof hatch, stopping and starting whenever we pleased. This meant that we decided it was worth going down one path rather than another in order to try to find a leopard (spotted earlier in the day by another group) but we were not willing to wait around for it. We decided to be happy with what we could find rather than spending all our times searching for the hidden lions and cheetahs. This meant we spent a long time along a river bank watch a herd of elephants (with several babies and a mother who stared us down and made serious noise any time the little ones stumbled off and got between us and the adults) roaming and playing around our vehicle. And it meant we could stop amongst a family of baboons for as long as we pleased, watching them circle the van (also with babies, only this time clinging to their mother's backs) and listening to them hoot at us. Sometimes we'd just watch giraffes along the side of the road until they crossed right in front of our vehicle giving us the perfect picture. We were even interested in the numerous birds - and Lazarro was more than happy to tell us what most of them were (we got the feeling he usually has westerners who only interested in seeing lions and leopards - he seemed to appreciate the fact that we were perfectly happy with the warthogs and water buffalo).We camped just outside the park and stayed in small but comfortable tent set up by the Masai man who maintained the site. Emmanuel cooked us a mix of Tanzanian food for dinner (curried chicken, pilau) and the next morning we had tea with omelettes for breakfast.

We spent day two at Lake Manyara National Park, notable for the diverstiy of ecosystems (rainforrest shifted to savannah shifted lakshore). We saw many of the same animals (though its always exciting to turn left and be faced by a giraffe) but the new animals for the day were the hippos lazing about by the park's "hipppo pool." We tried to capture the amazing view: pelicans and hippos in the foreground, wildebeests and zebras not far behind, and giraffes in the distance. The photos don't do the moment justice, but I've posted one below, anyway.

The end of our safari left us tired but not burned out. Though short, the trek proved to be the ideal length. And a few days in Zanzibar would follow, so we were excited about the next leg of the trip...