Northern Tanzania safari, Sept.-Oct. 2013

[Zubbie15]

I’ve noticed that people like to see the lodging in the TRs, so I’ll try to give a brief overview of everywhere we stayed. Our first lodging was the Arumeru River Lodge, located in Usa River on the outskirts of Arusha. This was a completely reasonable place to stay – it’s off a major road, but sufficiently isolated that there wasn’t much in the way of traffic noise. The grounds are nicely manicured, and as mentioned previously contain several pairs of Dik-diks.

 

 

 

We didn’t spend a lot of time birding the grounds, but they apparently can have some good sightings. We did see this Sunbird (I think it's a Variable Sunbird, but would welcome a correction) going around the garden.

 

 

There were also Vulturine Guineafowl wandering the grounds.

 

 

The hotel was set up with a variety of buildings, each containing 2 rooms. This is the main building, which had a fireplace, a bar, and the eating area:

 

 

The inside was a reasonable size, and included a good size bed (with our first mosquito nets – we got excited about very minor things!).

 

 

Overall, the place was good, comfortable, and the food acceptable. I think during the rainy season there may be some issues with insects, as there is a small stream running through the property, but at the end of the dry season we were fine. The one issue we did have was on our last night in Tanzania – we had booked a day room in order to shower and eat dinner prior to our KLM flight out of Arusha. The dinner service was very slow, and had we gotten to the airport about 10 minutes later we wouldn’t have been able to get on the flight (we saw a couple – not staying at ARL – arrive and be told they were too late to check-in. Not really sure why, we spent an hour after security waiting for the plane, but we definitely cut it close).

[Zubbie15]

Day 3: On the road to Tarangire

 

The next day, we planned to make it to Tarangire by lunchtime, so we left after breakfast. After a couple of stops in Arusha to get groceries and to exchange some money (making the mistake of not counting what we got until getting back in the car, at which point we realized we’d been short-changed), we hit the road. Along the way, jetlag hit most of us, so the car was fairly quite as we dozed. However, we did get our first glimpse of just how dry things can get at the end of the dry season.

 

 

We arrived at the park entrance and picnic area right around lunchtime. While our guide dealt with the formalities, we photographed some of the animals that were hanging around looking for scraps of food.

 

 

 

One of the things that some of us wanted was a picture of the Vervet Monkey’s most distinct anatomical feature. It took a little patience, but eventually we were rewarded.

 

 

Having then finished our lunch, we headed off into the park. For whatever reason, and despite having spent the previous day in Arusha NP, this felt like the true start of the safari. We quickly located a variety of new animals, including:

 

Impala

 

 

Giraffe (technically not new, but we did not get good, close views in Arusha NP)

 

 

Lilac-breasted Roller

 

 

Wildebeest

 

 

The wildebeest was cooling his hooves in a small marshy area, which proved quite popular with the animals during the course of our days there. Of course, the giant Baobabs were in view all over the place.

 

 

And there seemed to elephants everywhere we turned.

 

 

We slowly made our way to an turn-about that overlooked the Tarangire River, and spent quite a bit of time there watching the wildlife go by.

 

 

One of the enjoyable parts of the time there was watching the elephants take their mudbaths.

 

 

 

 

While we were focused on the elephants in the river bed below us, at one point our guide grabbed his binoculars and started looking under some trees quite a distance away. While they were hard to see (photo below is a 300mm lens, with 2x teleconverter, on a crop body = 960 mm equivalent), there were a couple of cheetahs lazily sleeping in the shade.

 

 

We hung around for a while hoping they would move, but in the end “only” got to watch the elephants the procession of elephants coming down to the river.

 

 

 

 

We eventually decided that the cheetahs weren’t likely to move, as the day was getting rather warm, so we continued on further into the park. We came across this Tawny Eagle (I think...) perched in a Baobab, scanning for a meal.

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Zubbie15

 

Your trip report is enjoyable in all respects. It's nice of you to include accommodation images and information.

The intense colors of both the flamingo and the sunbird brighten up a grey Beijing morning.

Thank you for sharing such a pleasing variety of images.

Your safari looks to have been great fun!

Tom K.

[Marks]

Nice job with the baobab and blue skies. Also like the "mirrored elephants" (one of the last images in post #27).

[michael-ibk]

Tarangire is such a great place ... I just love that river view. Incredibly beautiful! And Cheetah on you second day, fantastic!

[TonyQ]

I really like the colobus pictures - and lovely elephant photos. I like the wildebeest cooling its hooves!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks all for the kind words. @@Tom Kellie, it definitely was a fun trip... but then aren't all days on safari fun?

[Tom Kellie]

Thanks all for the kind words. @@Tom Kellie, it definitely was a fun trip... but then aren't all days on safari fun?

 

~ @@Zubbie15

 

Absolutely!

Every day on safari is a joy.

The only bittersweet aspect of any safari is getting up on the last day, knowing that it will end that day...until the next safari!

Tom K.

[Zubbie15]

Day 3, continued...

 

After this sighting, we started toward the Tarangire Safari Lodge turn-off. There had been reports that there were lions in the area, so we went to check that out. The first thing we saw was a very nice Waterbuck.

 

 

This was then followed closely by several zebras, all focused quite closely off to the side.

 

 

That pointed us to the place to look, where we found lions doing their favorite thing –sleeping!

 

If you look closely, it's obvious one of the lions was sleeping on her back, as there is a paw up in the air. For whatever reason, this seemed to be a common pose (there will be more pictures) in Tarangire, but we never saw it elsewhere. Eventually, one got up, but only to switch positions.

 

 

While we were hopeful the movement might lead to something more, they quickly went back to sleep. Shortly afterward, we heard a commotion from behind us, and found this elephant slowly making his way toward us, and ultimately across the road.

 

 

 

He was headed somewhat in the direction of the sleeping lions, so we were somewhat hopefully that he’d notice they were there and try to chase them off, but no luck. With the lions sound asleep, with no signs of moving, we decided to move along and see what else we could locate. As expected, being late in the dry season, Tarangire was full of elephants.

 

 

 

One difficulty in being 6 people, even though we all knew each other, was that there were different priorities for game viewing for different people. I can only imagine how challenging this can be for a guide when there are a bunch of strangers, and the potential for frustration in such a situation. In our case, while I would happily have stopped for any good bird viewings, some people were solely there for the mammals. That reduced our abilities to photograph the birdlife that we saw, but we did get some good looks. For example, this Von Der Decken's Hornbill.

 

 

 

Not much of note happened for the next while – it’s amazing how quickly seeing “another” elephant loses its excitement. However, eventually there was some excitement over the car radio, and we headed in that direction. A pair of cheetahs had been located close to the road. Unfortunately, the cheetahs were very relaxed, and our view consisted of the following:

 

 

This was also the first of 3 (well, more like 2.5) situations where the behavior of the humans wasn’t great. There were a couple of sightings in this area at the same time, and so it felt like most of the cars in the park had converged on these cheetahs. There had to have been at least 15 trucks, three deep, along the road. Everyone was jostling for a view – at one point, an Asian tourist decided he would see better by climbing out the back of the pop-up and standing on the roof. His guide didn’t realize that, and saw and opening and started to move car. Needless to say he almost fell off.

 

Because of the zoo-like atmosphere, we moved on to check out the other sighting in the area. Only a couple of hundred meters down the road, a leopard was sleeping in a tree. Unfortunately, it was quite far off – however, because of this there were only a couple of cars there. After a short while he got up and looked more alert, so we were hoping he’d start moving.

 

 

However, he only moved to another branch and then settled down again, unfortunately.

 

Because the sun was setting, and as I mentioned previously we made the mistake of booking accommodation outside the park, we needed to start making our way toward the gate. Our route took us again past the cheetahs, where we stopped briefly to see if we would get a better view. We were rewarded with one getting up to change position – not very exciting in the grand scheme!

 

 

Once he was back to being settled, we continued toward the gate, although we were quickly stopped by an interesting sighting of a lioness in a position we hadn't seen before.

 

 

We located all three large cats in the space of 37 minutes (based on our camera’s time stamps) – it seemed like this safari stuff was easy. The lion seemed quite content being there, and we were pushing it for getting out of the park on time, so we continued quite quickly. I had the goal of trying to get a reasonable sunset picture, since the sun was peeking out from a fairly cloudy sky. The best option we ended up seeing was as follows.

 

 

 

While not the greatest sunset pictures ever, I really felt the baobab and elephant combination nicely summarized Tarangire for me. I think we were the last car out the gate that night, but it was worth it.

[Zubbie15]

Day 4. Tarangire, continued

 

This day we got off to a late start – I have no recollection why, but we definitely weren’t on the road as early as I had hoped. Our plan was to spend the whole day in the park, making our way down to Silale Swamp for lunch and then slowly returning. Once we got into the park, the typical cast of characters were quickly found.

 

Giraffes

 

 

 

 

Impala

 

 

 

And Ostrich

 

 

When we got to the swampy area again, this time there was a warthog taking advantage.

 

 

 

As we continued along, we noted this Eastern Chanting-Goshawk in a Baobab.

 

 

We returned to the viewpoint from yesterday to see what was happening along the river, but all we saw were “just” some elephants.

 

 

 

One of my initial thoughts from Tanzania was that I wished the Starlings we had in our area were as attractive as the Superb Starling’s here.

 

 

Continuing along brought us to our first view of a reasonable size herd of Wildebeest.

 

 

We then went across the river, we then followed a track that paralleled the water for a while. At one point, we ended up in the midst of a breeding herd of elephants. It was our closest interaction with the animals, and was particularly special as there were no other vehicles in the area. Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t realize it right away, until they decided to put the “breeding” in breeding herd, but there was a male with the group.

 

 

They meandered away from the river, and our road, so we moved on, finding a variety of birdlife to admire:

 

Male ostrich

 

 

Egyptian geese

 

 

Black-winged Stilt

 

 

These were followed by a group of Banded Mongooses, which were moving around non-stop, making it hard to get any reasonable pictures. Eventually one decided to check us out and pose:

 

 

From there we went to a small copse of trees that often has a leopard, but we weren’t in luck. However, shortly after we came across a solitary female lion, strolling quite purposefully. We were hoping there might be some action, since there were a variety of herbivores around, but they were well aware of her presence.

 

 

Ultimately, she must have been thirsty, as she disappeared down into the riverbed.

[pault]

Tarangire is really delivering a lot for you - the resting cats are pretty typical unfortunately, unless you catch them really early or late, but the elephants seem to have more than made up for the lack of cat action so far. The wider angle elephants and Baobab are perfectly symbolic of Tarangire to me.

[twaffle]

I love your sunset with the elephants and baobab … very Tarangire.

[Marks]

The last two shots in post #34 are beautiful.

 

I also like the giraffe "skin texture" photo. I've also attempted this before, but never quite so successfully. Great job with the dusting ele and wildebeest trio facing the camera (a real Three Musketeers moment).

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@pault and @@twaffle, I appreciate the kind words. @@Marks, I think the giraffe skin picture was a case of beginner's luck, there were definitely several that did not look very good!

[Treepol]

@@Zubbie15 I'm so enjoying your TR - Tarangire really turned it on for you.

 

3 big cat species in 37 minutes is pretty good going and I have never seen lions in Tarangire. The lion in the tree shot is a great memory and something I have yet to see. The sunset baobabs are fabulous shots and 'true Tarangire.'

[Zubbie15]

@@Treepol (and @@pault, as I didn't respond to this part of your comment) I think we didn't appreciate at the time how well things went for us in Tarangire. We definitely had some quieter days, particularly around Seronera.

[Zubbie15]

Day 4, afternoon

 

Following along, we again had a nice close Elephant encounter, this time with a solitary male.

 

 

Still heading toward the swamp, we went through a fairly quiet period, with minimal sightings beyond some zebra.

 

 

However, as we approached the swamp a car coming in the other direction informed us there were a couple of lions up ahead. Proceeding slowly, we did eventually find them, but they were much too comfortable.

 

 

Finally, we reached the swamp, where the wet and the fresh vegetation had attracted a large number of animals.

 

 

We stopped at the picnic site here for our lunch. I took advantage of this, and the White-headed buffalo-weavers in the area that were trying to steal our crumbs, to get a photograph of this bird, which I found to be quite an attractive species.

 

 

We left the swamp and headed off in a different direction, through a much more wooded area. Being the middle of the day, it seemed a lot of the wildlife was relaxing in the shade, as we didn’t see much activity. One new species we did get acquainted with around here, though (no pictures), was the Tse Tse fly, which was less than enjoyable.

 

Once we got back to the central area of the park, our guide met a friend of his who pointed us in a certain direction. As we continued along, we could see vultures in the trees, indicating that we were approaching our desired location. After a bit of searching, we ultimately found our target:

 

 

He was guarding a buffalo carcass, which was off to the side (right of the frame). It smelled quite ripe at that point, so it had been around for a while. He watched him for a while, but the smell, combined with the heat and his apparent lack of interest in moving, made us decide to move on. Still, our first adult male lion was something to be happy about.

 

We continued along north, slowly making our way toward the gate. We ended up in the midst of a large troop of baboons, where we enjoyed their antics.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, as we continued out the park we stopped at several locations to again admire the elephants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got back to camp just as the sun was going down past the Great Rift Escarpment, so we enjoyed sundowners on the terrace, quite happy with what we'd seen during the day.

[elefromoz]

Hello@@Zubbie15, enjoying re-visiting Tanzania via your report. We stayed at Arumeru too and we're lucky enough to be able to enjoy a beer and see Mt Kili "out" in all her glory from the deck of the Lodge in the afternoon. Arusha NP is lovely I think with its Flamingoes and Black and White Colobus. We visited in May, your photos in the "dry" show quite a different Tarangire. Nice Ele photos, thank you.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks for the comment @@elefromoz, we unfortunately didn't get that view! I agree about Arusha NP, it's definitely a little gem.

[Zubbie15]

Day 5. Tarangire comes to a close…

 

Today, we had a final half day in Tarangire prior to moving on. Two members of our group decided to stay at the hotel and lounge by the pool all morning, so there were just 4 of us out in the truck. Upon entering the park, we quite quickly came across a rather odd scene.

 

 

During the night a Wildebeest had died near the road. The carcass had been left untouched by any predator or scavenger, and there were no such animals, including any vultures, to be seen in the area. However, these two Giraffes were standing over the body, and kept putting their heads down to examine it. Our guide had never seen anything like that previously – the closest being Giraffes trying to get calcium from bones, not an intact carcass – so we had no clue what was going on. We watched for a while, but never really understood the scene!

Moving along, we came across this Long-Crested Eagle, which posed nicely for us but being framed against the sky gave my camera (certainly not me!) issues exposing properly.

 

 

 

This was shortly followed another Giraffe, who seemed quite interested in checking us out.

 

 

While we were checking out the Giraffe, our guide eventually asked us if we heard anything. None of us did, but he slowly backed up to a Sausage Tree that was about a hundred meters behind our truck. As we got closer, we could all hear the hooting coming from the tree – there were 2 Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls deep in the gloom. We managed to get some decent views, but the contrast between the dark shade of the tree and the bright sky was more than my photographic skills could handle, so these are pretty much only record shots.

 

 

Continuing along, we came across a Sausage Tree that was in bloom, which had attracted a crowd of Baboons and Impala.

 

 

There were several male Impala in the area, which led to some minor scuffles but nothing too major.

 

 

They were, of course, trying to impress the ladies, although from their faces it wasn’t working.

 

 

There was a young baboon who had decided to climb up the tree to get at the flowers, but he was having some issues descending again. We quite enjoyed watching him make his way slowly down the trunk.

 

 

I had some hope, given the density of herbivores, that there might be some predator in the area, but we weren’t to be lucky. Because we only had a few hours, we decided to continue along to see what else we could find. I took advantage to try to get a few more Baobab pictures.

 

 

Shortly after, we came around a corner and saw a herd of new animals – Eland.

 

 

 

Having most recently seen Impala, the size of these antelopes was impressive. Unfortunately, they were quite skittish (apparently Eland meat is quite tasty, so I think there’s a lot of hunting pressure on them near populated areas – we saw some much more relaxed animals in the Northern Serengeti), so they started leaving almost immediately. After they disappeared, we continued on, ending up at the Baobab known as the “Poacher’s Lookout”.

 

 

After getting out to get close to the Baobab, we continued on, stopping at a few locations to appreciate the best known residents of the Tarangire eco-system.

 

 

 

 

 

As we started to loop back toward the gate, we decided to detour toward the area known as the Little Serengeti. Along the way, we came across a solitary female lion, again adopting what I’ll call the “Tarangire hot lion” pose.

 

 

She looked much too relaxed, so we decided to continue along. A few minutes after leaving, if I remember correctly, we stopped to talk to another vehicle, who were looking for that lion. They, in return, shared with us the location of another couple of lions that were in the direction of the park gate, where we were slowly headed. We located the two female lions in an opportunistic position, on high ground where they could watch the activity at the river.

 

 

 

We decided to spend the rest of our time in the park with these lionesses, in case they decided to do something interesting.

 

 

They were certainly watching the activity around the river below them, and at one point when a group of Warthogs went past seemed to be contemplating giving chase.

 

 

However, they eventually decided that the effort wasn’t worth it, so apart from repositioning themselves occasionally, they did not do much of great interest.

 

 

We ended up spending almost 90 minutes with these cats, which was enjoyable even if not overly exciting. Finally, it was time to leave so we could head off to our next destination, with just a stop to take one last photograph of an Ostrich from a different angle.

 

 

Even though I didn’t know of the “Show us your butts” thread here at the time, I think this would be appropriate!

Overall, I really enjoyed Tarangire, and as some of the comments here have said it delivered quite well for us. One of the big impressions I had at the time, and which was reinforced going back through my pictures recently, is just how dry everything was. I think it will be interesting to see the contrast when we go back in February, as it theoretically should be much greener. Even if the density of game will be lower, it’s still a gem of a park.

[Treepol]

The photo of the baby baboon descending the tree is priceless.

 

Great shot of the eland herd, I have never seen so many in one herd and the size difference is interesting. Did your guide comment on the ages represented in this herd? The large animals were bulls I suppose and the other females of older calves?

[FlyTraveler]

Great trip report! All photos are beautiful, but I especially love the last photo on post #1 - the Gnus crossing the river. The Eland herd and the Impalas with Baboons photos are also outstanding. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, looking forward to seeing more...

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Treepol, I think the baby descending was even more enjoyable in person, as he took a long time to get down, which isn't easily conveyed by a single photo. I don't think we discussed the Eland herd too much, to be honest when we came around the corner and saw them they were already heading out of sight, so I don't think we appreciated the differences in the herd until we went over our pictures. I agree though, our other viewings of Elands were generally solitary animals or small groups.

 

@@FlyTraveler, there will be more crossing pictures coming, but that's toward the end of the trip. They're coming, eventually.

[Zubbie15]

@@Treepol, just to follow-up on the size of the Eland herd. I recently bought the Foley et al book "A field guide to the Larger Mammals of Tanzania", based on the recommendation of @@Safaridude here. Looking at the entry for Eland, I note that they say that large herds can be found in the north of Tarangire in the dry season, so I guess it's not uncommon to see larger groups there at that time of the year.

[Atravelynn]

Tremendous flamingo activity in Arusha! Were there any comments on your good luck or timing for flamingos? Was all of your viewing in Arusha from the vehicle on a full day in the park? You did really well with colobus, and everything. Hoopoe is my favorite!

 

"I really enjoyed watching the various primates, especially the Colobus, and that is probably a major reason we’re going to include Rwanda next year in our travels." Will you be visiting Nyungwe?

 

Tarangire next.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Atravelynn