Safari! Day 1 - Elephants!

Our guide (Sam) picked us up at our house at 9am, for the 3 hour drive to our first day at Tarangira National Park.  We stopped in Arusha, the local capital and third largest city in Tanzania (which we learned Is not pronounced “Tan Zan ee a” but rather “Tanz Anya”) to allow Sam to pick up our box lunches for the day.  As soon as we pulled into the parking spot, we were swarmed by street vendors trying their absolute best to sell us stuff through the windows.  Rachel had been sitting up front to prevent car sickness but felt a little intimidated so climbed over the seat back to us in the back and someone reached in and took Sam’s cell phone right from her seat!  I was distracted by the street vendors on my side but Jen saw them running away and Rachel realized that it was the cell phone they had taken.  This was a pretty disappointing start to our trip.  Rachel was pretty upset about it and considered it her fault but Sam was very good about it and said it was really his fault for leaving it out in the open and that they may have reached right over her to get it even if she had stayed up front and he was happier that she was OK.  Luckily the guides all carry multiple cell phones and radio’s so no real impact to our trip (beyond a quick stop to shut down the service while we went into a local “supermarket” to pick up some snacks.  We have enjoyed doing this to see what the locals pay for groceries as it gives us a good sense of how expensive things are for them.  Just like in Costa Rica, we found the groceries about the same or perhaps a bit more than home - considering that the average Tanzanian makes less than $7/day, I don’t know how they survive.  They certainly don’t buy $5 cans of Pringles!

Arusha is also the town that was featured in John Wayne’s cheesy but likeable flick called Hatari! (Danger! In Kiswahali).  They would come into town to have a few bar dustups and during one scene, the Duke’s love interest (a sexy young French photographer) had somehow let her pet baby elephants loose for a path of destruction through the town.  This film also featured the song Baby Elephant Walk – a memorable tune you’d know if you heard it.  Unfortunately, Arusha is also famous for holding the UN war crimes tribunal on neighbouring Rowanda. 

After Arusha, it was about another 90 minute drive to Tarangira National Park.  The roads are quite good 2 lane paved roads… certainly better than Costa Rica.  Along the way, we saw hundreds of little Masai villages or perhaps communities – a cluster of round mud huts (Boma’s) with open doors and thatched roofs surrounded by a ring of thorn branches to keep the wildlife away.  Near each of these, we’d see some small boy (4-8 or so) sheparding 50-100 goats and sheep and further away, we’d see a young Masai warrior sheparding a similar number of cattle (that all looked as if they hadn’t had a decent blade of grass in a month).  It is almost the start of the short rain season here so things are VERY dry… as evidenced by the dust devils we could see rolling across the plains… typically you could see 5-6 at any one time.  It’s a very tough life.

We got to Tarangira safely and stopped at the park gates so that Sam could get the permits and we got out to walk around.  They had the skulls of all the local animals mounted on posts along the walk so we could try our hand at figuring them out.  The elephant skull completely baffled Shawn as he had it backwards and upside down.  We had lots of fun with that.

After that, it was into the park.  Tarangira is known for Elephants and the Baobob trees.  Right at the park gate, there are several large Baobob trees.  You have to see these things to believe them.  The local Masai are said to believe that God was angry with the Baobob tree and planted it upside down.  Without leaves on the branches, it certainly does look like that.  They also have leaves (some did and some didn’t) as well as tasty fruits and white flowers in season.  The trunks on these trees are perhaps 10-15’ in diameter and most show severe scars caused by elephants using their tusks to tear them apart to get at the bark and outer wood which contains vitamin C.  Some of these scars are more like shark bites that go most of the way through the trunk and a few large holes you could walk upright through side by side with two of your friends.  They were really quite astonishing.  The park is full of them and we’d see one for every 20-30 Acacia Trees (those famous umbrella like trees you often see Lion’s under in the movies).  Lots of palm/fig like trees as well as low shrubs.  A very desert looking place but is actually a swamp with a natural river that flows year round – although for long stretches it flows under a sandy river bottom out of sight.

It wasn’t long after that that we saw our first elephant.  He was a very large solitary male harassing a Baobob tree naturally!  It was right at the side of the road.  He was quite oblivious to our presence until we started getting excited and then decided he wasn’t quite sure about us and faced the Land Cruiser head on, flared out his ears, trumpeted very loudly and took a couple of quick steps toward us!  That kept us quiet!   Then he, turned and sauntered off.  Wow…  we were all quite glad to be inside the vehicle at that point!  I should mention that the Land Cruiser has a pop up roof so we were all able to stand up under the canopy.  He was right at eye level with us and perhaps 10-15 feet away.  We got some great shots of him.

Sorry that the shot wasn't perfectly centered but I was more concerned that we were going to get flattened!

Then on to a lesser used track to see other animals… it wasn’t long before we were seeing small groups of Zebra’s, Impala, Giraffes, Antelope, Wildebeasts, Wart Hogs and pairs of Dik Dik’s.  Dik Diks are small, dog sized, antelope.  Very cute with big ears and big eyes.  They pair for life and are very territorial as they hang around the roots of small shrubs within a 500 metre radius.  They also will leave their droppings in one spot.  Most times, you could look around the plains and see several pairs of Dik Dik’s..  Jen saw the first group of Elephant off in the distance.  Sam told her she had good bush eyes as they were quite well hidden.  Jen’s always had astonishing distance vision so this was no surprise to me.  This particular herd had about 17 elephants ranging from 4-5 years old up to 50 or so.  They are very majestic creatures.  We’re told that Tarangira has the highest density of elephants of any park in the world…  2-3 per square kilometer and I don’t doubt it.  There are about 10,000 of them across the 27000 square kilometers of Tarangira and over the next few days we’d see dozens of similar sized herds. 

We got to one particular valley where we could see three different herds, two of which were digging in the sand of the seemingly dry river bed and coming up with water.  There were elephants standing a respectful distance back patiently waiting for their time at the hole.  With the rest of the heard facing outward looking in every direction.  Totally fascinating! 

We could also see several Cape Buffalo.  We have been told several times that these are among the most dangerous animals in Africa and I don’t doubt it from looking at their horns!  They are large black animals with horns that curve outward towards you when you are facing them.  He horns have a particular “braided” look, so they actually look something like those German girls you see with the braids and brindles…  almost laughable but I’d sure hate to have one of them take a run at us!  None of them seemed the slightest concerned about us however much we laughed at them.  

We then came across a male and several female Ostriches… very large animals.  The male has bright pink neck and black feathers while the females are very plain dusty colour.  The females sit on the nest during the day and blend in well with the local scrub, while the males sit on it at night and are black enough to remain invisible (and hold in heat).  A single male will have several females if he’s lucky otherwise, he’ll wander around looking to take on other males for the right.  Much like many of the animals out here… although I wonder how the heck they manage so many wives.  I’ve always had a challenge with even one! J

We didn’t see any lions this day but with all the other animals we had seen up close, we weren’t the slightest bit disappointed.  After a few hours of this, we left the park to head to our Lodge.  This was quite a splurge for us and we had chosen a “Tented Lodge” true safari experience and we were not disappointed!  The kids and Jen/I had our own tents (next to each other) although calling these tents is a bit of a stretch!  They are built on raised 20’x40’ platforms much like a deck on piers at home, only the wood of the decks is fine furniture quality wood polished to a high sheen.  Then the tent would be made from 2x4 frame with canvas panels with detachable, roll up, panels covering large screen windows.  They all have thatched roofs (covering tin and then the tent inside) so no real danger of leaks.  Inside, there is a tented partition for the large bathroom with top end fixtures. Each tent has a 200 gallon tank with a large solar water heater and a few high efficiency light bulbs.  All extremely comfortable with a large king++ sized bed (more like two queens attached together) with a mosquito net canopy.  Very decadent and I’d be completely comfortable living in this as a house.  The meals were served in a separate inside/outside dining area at the main lodge.  Each of these tents are 50’ or so apart and are separated by sand paths that are brushed daily but are still well covered by Zebra and Impala tracks.  I should mention that at any time you can see dozens of these animals grazing around in the (not so) distance. 

The porters also serve as quides and escort you to and from your tents at night with flashlights.  One explained to us that they used to be armed but there are no lions around anymore so they no longer bother with that!  Later that night as we were sleeping, we could hear Zebra and Impala’s right up against the tent…. One of whom was using one of the pier supports to scratch his back!  It was magical.  What a great way to end our first day on Safari!