Safari! Day 2 - Lions!

For me, this was the real reason I wanted to come on Safari…  I wanted to see these majestic creatures up close – and boy, did we ever!   First up was a large, solitary, male lying up against the base of a large Baobob tree.  He was initially faced away from us so we couldn’t get a clear view of all of him, and being the lazy creatures they are, wasn’t about to get up and move around where we could see him better either!   Sam told us that if he was around, his pride would not be far off (he was so big that Sam was sure he’d have his own pride).   Only a few hundred yards later, just over the crest of a hill, we spotted 5-6 females lying under a tree… and then a hundred feet away or so, another bunch of females.  One of whom was sitting up looking around keeping an eye on things.  They are such beautiful creatures… you just want to run up and wrap your arms around them.  We all had a great laugh at how they’d roll into each other with paws outstretched so it looked like they were embracing each other.  We watched them for about 40 minutes even though they weren’t doing much as we had such a good view. 

Then we noticed another Land Cruiser over at a bush about 200’ away down by the dried up river bed so we went over there to take a look… and we saw 2 females with a bunch of very young cubs.  Sam said he thought they must be about 2 months old as the mom’s don’t let them out before then.  They were initially fairly well hidden deep in the thicket and behind one of the mom’s but every now and then you’d catch a glimpse of one of them climbing over or around the Mom to nurse or just to try to get her up – without the slightest bit of success.  The other female got tired of this, so got up and moved to an adjacent bush to have some peace and quiet… but it wasn’t more than a minute or two before the first cub got up the courage to run across the open space to join her… and then SIX more followed in short order!  Then they’d go back to the other female… this went on for quite a while.  They’d all get to one side and then they’d turn around and go back… just like they were working up their courage.  It was magical as any one of these could have been baby Elsa.   We stayed for a long time (> 45 minutes) and then saw a big elephant come down the dried up river bed towards the lions (and us)… when he got to about a 100’ away, he apparently caught their scent and trumpeted loudly and made a head long dash towards the bush (which was safely high up on the river bank).  The lioness’s weren’t fazed by this and the elephant moved on but kept on coming back under their “den”.  It was clear he couldn’t see them, but he sure knew they were there!

There's six more and another mom you can't see.

It was about lunch time so we decided we’d leave them alone and headed back towards the other lionesses and as we were doing that, we could see a large herd of elephants coming up out of the stream bed towards them!  This certainly got our attention – especially as they had several young calves with them.  It didn’t take the elephants long to figure out there were lions around and they started flaring out the ears and making short runs towards them…  this was enough for the lioness’s and they up and moved to a tree within about 10’ of us!  We hadn’t realized it but in that pile of lioness’s were 23 lions – including some young (perhaps a year old).  Wow… it was something to have them walk right up to the vehicle (and then promptly ignore us).  A couple of them caught sight of a warthog up the hill and started to stalk him… a few of the young ones tagged along but it wasn’t long before they spooked him and he took off for safer grounds…. So no kill on that try.  Then we headed back past the big guy we called Mufassa, who by now was wide awake and sitting up.  So some great shots.  Looking into their eyes you get a sense of how mesmerized their prey must get.  A fantastic morning!

Yup, he's king of the Jungle alright!

Then we drove over to a picnic lunch area high up on a ridge over looking much of the river bed.  From there we could see scores of Cape Buffalo, Zebras, Giraffes and herds of Elephants.  As we were pulling in, Sam told us we had to close the roof and wind up all the windows to protect against the local thieves… then he told us he meant the local monkeys and baboons!  Walking down to the picnic tables, we saw what he meant.  The place was crawling with these little monkeys but no sign of the baboons.  We enjoyed a nice box lunch while Sam regaled us of stories… one of which we found particularly relevant.  It seems that these Baboons know the difference between Black and White people.  Apparently the last time he was there, he was with three young women and had told them that the Baboons and Monkeys were leaving them alone because he was there.  They didn’t believe him, and so they asked up to walk away to prove his “theory”.  He said he got about 50’ away before he heard the screams.  They were swarmed by Baboons and one of them had one of the women on the ground!    Needless to say, we decided against our own personal demonstration!  As we were driving out, however, we discovered a Land Cruiser that didn’t have its pop up roof retracted, and inside was one large monkey throwing up packages of food to another sitting on the roof!  It didn’t take those two long to get through the cookies!  Sam, backed us up and then called out to the guides to see which one had left his roof up and one sheepish looking one came running trying to figure out how to get an aggressive monkey out of his vehicle!  We all had a great laugh over that!

In the afternoon, lots more of all the other animals before we, regrettably, had to leave the park as our permit was about to expire.   About 5 kms out of the park, there was a small town, having a local Masai farmer’s market. We weren’t keen to get in the middle of it but Sam backed the truck up gainst this old shack, jumped out and then started jacking the vehicle up to take off the rear tire.  A man of few words, our Sam!  Anyway, it turned out the tire had developed a slow leak so he wanted to get it repaired.  It was a complete mystery to us why he didn’t drop us off at the lodge first (another 5km’s away) but this is Africa, and we’d been told to grin and enjoy the adventure so we did… although it was quite hot in that vehicle.  It wasn’t much more than about another minute before we again got streamed with hordes of street vendors trying to sell us stuff (or just young kids mouthing with their hands that they were hungry).  By this time, we’d learned enough Swahili to say “No thank you” so it was just bothersome rather than frightening.  One particular guy, wouldn’t leave Jen alone… even after she made it very clear we had not brought any money along with us for the day – we’d told Sam, we had no capability of carrying tourist stuff with us so weren’t interested in local markets, etc.  This guy told us his name was Moses and that he lived in a village about 40 kms away called Mosquito River.  His English was pretty good and he told us he was studying tourism at college and just wanted to practice so Jen obliged him nicely.  Meanwhile some little urchin was reaching through the window on my side and prodding me in the ribs to ensure I knew he was there!  Anyway, after about 45 minutes, and two attempts to fix the flat, they put a tube in it and mounted back on the vehicle.  I looked at the tires and Sam claimed they only had 7000 kms on them..  Looking at them, you’d think they were 20 years old and had 700,000 kms.  Large chunks of tread were peeling off.  They were Goodyears.  The fronts were well worn as well but at least didn’t seem to be coming apart.  He said they had 22K Kms.  It’s a good thing, all these vehicles carry two spares! 

Anyway, after that, back to the lodge for a nice hot shower to wash away the dust and a quick beer at the lounge before sitting down for dinner.  The previous night, we’d met a nice Dutch family that had flown in 2 days before that had kids a bit younger than Shawn/Rachel’s age.  The parents spoke good English (unlike me!) but unfortunately, the kids hadn’t learned any yet.  We again shared our daily experiences and they volunteered that their kids were getting bored.  Luckily ours were still totally fascinated by the experience.  Rachel had discovered that if she held her new iPod Touch up to the binoculars she could get some great shots of distant objects so she got some of the best shots of the lion cubs.  By about 9pm, we were all beat, and the porters guided us back to the tents and we hit the sack for another night.  The next am, we were off to Lake Manyara.

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!