Safari-licious! Tarangire National Park

When we first arrived in Tanzania our safari seemed a long way off, but before we knew it we were meeting Gift at our hotel and hashing out the pick up time for the start of our grand adventure. Meru Slopes also hooked us up with a SIM card, to help us get around while in Arusha and on the road, which is a lovely addition to their services.

Just as a heads up, I'm presenting my photos the way we experienced them. I'm hoping that this will give you, dear reader, a sense of what we experienced on our safari. It's my wish that you can feel the amazement of seeing the wildlife as we did. First at a distance, and then as our journey progresses, closer. Welcome to our safari!

Almost ready to hit the road

The day was finally here! We met our guide, Jacob, a very affable fellow, prone to teasing - in a kind way. He was a little surprised at our lack of baggage, as we only had three small bags and our "day" bag and camera case. (We'd left our "city clothes" in Zanzibar.) He actually had more luggage than we did!

Our destination of the day was Tarangire Wildlife Park, but we had to make a pit stop to pick up our lunch hamper. Little did I know that this, well, trunk, honestly would accompany us on the rest of our journey.

Teddy & Jacob, you can just see the top of the lunch hamper
behind Teddy's head

The highway is quite pleasant, and seems newly paved, but Jacob says it was done about 10 years ago, or so. He pointed out trees and told us about the use of some of the land, We saw some rice fields, corn fields and lots of Masai with their cows and goats. There were also a few honey farms along the way and a herd of zebras, that I caught a quick photo of from a distance. I was a bit panicked...what if that were the only zebras we saw? (Spoiler alert: it was not)

Zebras by the highway!

After after around three hours of driving, we turned off onto a dirt road, to enjoy our first (of many) "Tanzanian massages". The roads are rutted and many are washboard in nature, even with the superior suspension of the jeep, we got jostled around fairly vigorously. We started to see our first Baobab trees. Our first up close wildlife spotting was a group (mongaggle!) of mongooses (mongeese?). They were quite entertaining, with their frenetic scurrying and obsessive security checking.

I swear it's dust from the jeeps, not out of focus!

There were tons of birds and beautiful baobab trees as we waited for Jacob to purchase our entry permit.

A male Starling - quite striking, he also judges you.

                         

Then we entered the park and got swept away with the magic that is Africa. We saw elephants, a hart bock, Grant gazelles, giraffes, water buffalo and amazingly beautiful birds, weird birds and big birds (ostriches). This was on top of the sweeping views of wide open plains, dotted with Acacia and Baobab trees.

Baobab Tree

Dead Acacia Tree

We couldn't believe everything that we were able to see and Jacob described it as the "appetizer".

 

Red Horn Bill

Water Buffalo

Our first giraffe sighting

Here he is, closer

Lilac Breasted Roller

Great Crowned Crane

Our first elephant sighting

I can't describe the amount of angst on that first day. "What would we see? Oh my god, is that a giraffe? That's incredible! What if we don't see any others, was that the last time I'd see zebras? I didn't get a picture! This is amazing! " It was a roller coaster ride. Just as a tip: if you're on safari and it's your first day, you're 100% going to be seeing more of these animals, you'll likely see them much closer up and you'll get to be in their environments in ways that you don't even understand yet.

Ostriches

A whole herd of elephants!

Vervet Monkey

Once we completed our first wildlife drive we headed to Eileen's Trees Inn (we stayed in the Avocado suite), a hotel on the edge of the larger national parks. 

Our front patio, we never used it

 

Just a part of the suite, not shown bonus room & bath

We had dinner and settled in for the night, we were shooting for a 7am breakfast and then heading off into the storied Serengeti. We were heading to the "meat and potatoes" of the safari.