Tarangire National Park
Our last day of safari was spent at Tarangire River, famous for elephants. We had seen quite a few elephants already, but nothing prepared us for today.The drive back from Ngorongoro had been fairly long, so one of our first stops in Tarangire was for lunch at the designated picnic site (you can only picnic at certain places. Actually, there are other rules when it comes to safari: you can only drive on the roads and you're not allowed out of the jeep under any circumstances (except at picnic grounds), for example). Our site was along a small cliff where we had a view of the plain; it was also inhabited by a family of monkeys. We were assured that, unlike with the birds the day previous, we would have no problems with the monkeys. It was obvious that the monkeys weren't shy: they meandered around at will, climbing the fence between us and allowing us great photo ops. One particular monkey gave quite the show, carrying her little baby on her stomach and posing for us. What we didn't know was, at the same time, her consort was positioning himself for attack. While we were innocently photographing mom and baby, the other monkey dove off the fence, ran across the short space to our picnic site and swiped Riccardo's juicebox from our picnic table! Shockhorror! After having chased away all the monkeys to prevent another theft, the three of us had a good chuckle at our luck - particular Riccardo's, since he lost bits of his lunch two days in a row! Upon leaving the picnic site we met up with another Tanzania Adventure couple and warned them to watch the monkeys; when we ran into them later at our camp, they informed us that they too had been attacked, having a sandwich snatched from their hand from behind!
We had the most amazing elephant experience at Tarangire: we ended up in the middle of a migration of over 200 elephants (we counted!) as they made their way from the plain to the river. It was absolutely unforgettable to have so many enormous and majestic creatures stroll up so close to us.
Finally we ended our day with a stay at the Tarangire River Camp, where we slept in a tent. This tent, however, was unlike anything I've seen. It was on stilts and had a wooden floor, and verandah that overlooked the park. It had a huge bed and a full plumbed-in bathroom, but I swear, it was a tent! We shared dinner with the couple we had run into at lunch (looking forward to keeping in contact with Eva and Gerhard from Vienna) in the rustic open-air log lodge, before nervously heading off to bed at the end of our amazing safari.
The next morning was Christmas morning: definitely the strangest Christmas I've ever experienced, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Post a Comment