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A tale of two safaris - Tanzania 2016 (followed by Rwanda)


Zubbie15

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Thanks @@Atravelynn. I didn't ask about population numbers in the park, but I did a bit of digging on the web, and while there isn't a lot of information, the consensus seems to be it's quite low. This paper from 2002 suggests 24.

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@@Zubbie15 Enjoying both the bird images and the landscapes. I'm tempted to try a green season trip later next year if I can.

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The elephants of Silale Swamp



Upon reaching our destination, the Silale swamp area, we could see another example of the difference between the wet and dry seasons in Tarangire. At the end of the dry, the area was bustling with activity, in particular with elephants all over the place. On this day, there was one reasonably large breeding herd, but not a lot of elephants in the area. I'm still a sucker for elephants, and we spent a good amount of time with them. They'd recently been taking dust baths in red dirt, as they were quite red. After they moved off, we headed to the picnic area to eat.



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Edited by Zubbie15
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Botswanadreams

Very nice Elis from Tarangire. We loved it very much. Thanks for bringing this memory's back.

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I just love all your photos of birds. We are all suckers for photos of ellies.

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Botswanadreams

@optig

last year in June we spend 4 nights in Tarangire - 2 in the North at public campsite and 2 at Hondo Hondo Special Campsite close by the Silale Swamp. We had hundreds of Elephants with a lot of babies everywhere. They breed a lot in Tarangire and to see that with enough time to watch them playing, swimming and feeding is something you can't forget. If you like you can take a look at http://www.botswanadreams.de/reiseberichte/tanzania-2015/tanzania-2015-teil-5/ Scroll a bit down to Tarangire and the pics will tell you what I'm talking about.

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Thanks @@Botswanadreams and @@optig.



Afternoon - Back to twitching, with some elephants thrown in



After finishing lunch, we continued along away from the swamp, again ending up focusing primarily on birds with the occasional with appearance by elephants. It gradually started to clear up, and as the sun came out and it started getting hotter, herds of elephants appeared from the hills heading toward the river. However, the birdlife was definitely the highlight. As we were getting back toward camp, we heard over the radio that there was a lion nearby, so we detoured that way, but there was only a solitary female visible, and she wasn't doing much. We had planned to do a night game drive, offered through Tarangire Safari Lodge, but due to recent rains the area they were using was too muddy, so that was cancelled unfortunately.




Blue-cheeked bee-eater


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Black-headed heron


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Elephant


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Elephant coming down from the hills


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Gotta have a pic of an LBR


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Grey-crowned crane


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Big bull


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Bare-faced go-away-bird


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European roller - we hoped to see him actually "roll" but the insect was too big so he wasn't able to


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African grey hornbill


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Solitary lioness


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Edited by Zubbie15
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I can't wait until I stay at Oliver's Camp in Tarangire. It consistently gets outstanding reviews.

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@@Zubbie15 I love the black headed heron, it looks like one of those beautiful Victorian illustrations of exotic birds. What a beautiful shot?

Edited by ld1
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More More!!!! :) Love the bird shots. Africa has such beautiful birds who often get "missed" in all the hunts for the mammals. I personally am enamored with Green Africa. Travelled there through all different kinds of seasons and honestly, I think the green time is just her most beautiful. Loving this TR!!

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Thanks @@ld1 and @@lmonmm for the kind words. I have to admit that once we left Tarangire, the number of bird photos definitely decreased, due to less photogenic birdlife and better mammals.

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Very much like this green Tarangire look. Very pretty, especially the super-colourful baobabs. Really like another park completely. Some really nice sightings despite long grass and migrations.

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Last morning in Tarangire



I have to admit that when I'm in Africa I hate to stay in camp any longer than necessary, so typically we'd be out for the full day with our box lunches. Today, we decided to head out as early as possible to maximize our time in Tarangire, and then have a late hot lunch at the lodge before continuing on. So we were up bright and early, packed, and ready to go at 6AM. The only problem - sunrise isn't until ~6:40 that time of year, and it was pitch black at 6. Not wanting to drive past an animal that wasn't visible, we waited an extra 20 minutes, getting one more shot of caffeine to get us going. This sunrise would be our nicest of the trip, since it had cooled down enough to get quite foggy.



Giraffe in the pre-dawn fog


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Foggy Tarangire


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Foggy Tarangire River


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Sunrise with baobabs


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Helmeted guineafowl with chicks


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We had traveled along the Tarangire River away from camp, and at one point took a fork in the road. Well, it turned out we chose wrong, as if we'd gone the other way we would have seen a cheetah. We eventually looped back in that direction and saw another vehicle, who told us that we'd just missed the cheetah. We decided to have our picnic breakfasts in this area in case she reappeared. She was hiding somewhere around the baobab in the photo below, as far as we could tell.



Tarangire in the morning light


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Ultimately, we had no luck, and decided to continue on our way. It was fairly quiet going, but we did get to see the following Tawny Eagle do a "dance" for us.



Tawny Eagle doing morning stretches


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We had our lunch at the lodge, then started to head out of the park, passing by most of the common wildlife species along the way.



Elephant


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Ostrich


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Tarangire was in a way rather quiet, both in terms of wildlife and visitors, but I still really enjoy the park for what it offers. Next stop, Lake Manyara.

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@@Zubbie15 Beautiful misty landscape photos (definitely not foggy by English standards!) and I really liked the photo of the bull elephant in #32 - the sense of movement is superb.

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I think the "Giraffe in pre-dawn fog" and "Sunrise with baobabs" are just incredibly beautiful. It's those kinds of scenes....where peaceful beauty is all around you that draws me back time and again to Africa....to revel in that "quiet" beauty and decompress from/escape real life.

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Hmm, I guess it's true @@pomkiwi, it all depends on your point of reference.

 

Thanks @@lmonmm, I agree that some of the best times I've had on safari have been when we've been the only vehicle around, and we've just stopped and taken in the serene surroundings.

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Off to Lake Manyara



Once we left Tarangire, we headed off toward Lake Manyara NP. We stopped at our hotel, dropped of our bags and had a quick, early dinner. Then, we headed back to the park headquarters, as we'd arranged for a night drive through the park. We waited a long time for the tour operator to arrive. They are apparently chronically late according to our guide, and ended up leaving an hour late. I really enjoyed the night game drive, it was amazing to be out in the park and just listen to the sounds of the forest. We ended up seeing 11 different species of mammals, including many that were new for me, but photography was really difficult. I only had a couple I liked.



Bushbaby


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Hippo


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At the end of the drive, it started to rain, and it continued to rain throughout the night. Because of the late night, and the continued rain, we slept in a bit, and got back to Lake Manyara around 9:30 the next morning. The morning was rainy and foggy, and we didn't see a lot of animals during the morning.



River in Lake Manyara NP


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Giant Kingfisher


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Wet Baboon


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Low clouds in Lake Manyara NP


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White-browed Coucal


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Flamingos


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Foggy escarpment


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Old tree


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Lake Manyara


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michael-ibk

Beautiful landscape shots! What mammals did you see on your night drive?

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Thanks @@michael-ibk. The species list was:

 

Spotted hyena

White-tailed mongoose

Wildebeest

Zebra

Crested Porcupine

small-eared greater galago

Northern lesser galago

Hippo

Large-spotted genet

Blue monkey

Olive baboon

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Giraffe in pre-dawn fog is gorgeous. Love those guinea fowl chicks. The European Roller was mid-lunch. Too bad he was too full to roll. Night drives at Tarangire Safari Lodge sound interesting. Must be on their own property, when the mud is not too thick. But at Lake Manyara you stated you did the drive IN the park. Thanks for mentioning these night drive ops. Nice night time hippo. And thanks for that cheetah info in Tarangire. I too thought the #s were low. The flamingos were out in force for you!

Edited by Atravelynn
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Lake Manyara, afternoon



We ate our lunch at the picnic site by the hot springs in the park, and during that time the weather cleared up a bit, so we got to see a few animals. Unfortunately, both Mussa and my wife were feeling not too great this afternoon, so we didn't linger too long at most of the sightings. It did start to rain again as we were getting toward the park gate, however, and the animals began to take shelter.



Clearing Lake Manyara


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Elephant out for a drink


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Wet baboon


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Silvery-cheeked hornbill in the rain


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Baboons taking shelter


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Blue monkey with baby


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Overall, we struggled with the rain in Lake Manyara, and combined with the dense vegetation we didn't see too much. But I really enjoyed the night game drive, and the forest definitely had a different feeling from the other parks we'd visit on our trip.



We left the park and headed toward the NCA, making a stop in Karatu for some supplies. As seems to always be the case, the formalities at the gate took a long time, and we amused ourselves watching the baboons trying to steal food from the vehicles near us. It was amusing - until one tried to get into our car. Luckily our windows weren't rolled down too much, so it couldn't get in, but the open truck beside us was having a lot of problems.


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Your sheltering baboons is a captivating perspective.

 

"the formalities at the gate took a long time"

That seems to be the norm. I always wonder what is going on in there. Baboons trying to get into the cars also seems to be the norm there.

 

You got some lovely images of Lake Manyara and the animals. Thanks for listing the 11. Porcupine! The galago photo turned out great and that is not easy.

 

Looking forward to the rest once you finally get through that gate.

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This is my first post, but am loving your trip report because I took a very similar trip also this past February (omitting Tarangire mostly due to time constraints but otherwise itinerary was quite similar). Like you, I wanted to compare a dry season to "green season" trip.

 

Your bird photos are stunning--they are something I envy, seldom getting a good shot. I also love the sunrise with Baobabs.

 

Looking forward to reading more.

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Thanks @@Atravelynn for continuing along with me and the nice comments. The galago photo was pure luck, I didn't even realize I had it until I was going through my photos the next day. The guides were very good about not keeping the spotlight directly on the animals, but it made photography a challenge.

 

Thanks for making my thread your first post @@traveler318 and for the compliments regarding the bird photos. I have to say that Tarangire really contributed to the photos, in February there was bird life everywhere. Maybe someday you can share a trip report as well? I know I'm suffering from withdrawal and love going back to Africa through other people.

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Ngorongoro Crater



Our next day was spent on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, for which I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. On the one hand, given it's small size and popularity things can definitely get out of hand (more on that coming up). On the other hand, the density of animals and their habituation to vehicles means that you can really get some nice views of relaxed animals, which has its advantages - I've seen itineraries for photo workshops that spend 2 or 3 days at the Crater even.



In any case, we were at the descent road shortly after the sky began to lighten, and made our way down in a convoy with other vehicles as the darkness began to lift. It was a fairly cloudy day to start off, with the sun peaking through little gaps. Once on the floor, all the cars spread out along the various roads, with our route taking us past a good size mixed herd of wildebeest and zebra. It didn't take long for the radio to come alive, with reports of lions on the road nearby, so we headed over there. We had some minor hope that they might try to hunt, as from their bellies they didn't seem to have eaten too recently, but they eventually found a sheltered spot and lay down, and we decided to continue along.



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