July 13th to 26th - Tanzania Northern circuit (+Zanzibar)

[Toubab]

Final report, with pics referenced available at: http://www.toubab.org/?flagallery=photos-afrique (choose Tarangire under "All categories").

 

 

DAY 6: Tarangire (20th)

 

We leave at a more leisurely 08.05 today, and after an uneventful drive, we reach Tarangire Park's gate at 09.55. We spend 30 minutes to get tickets and have fun with the vervets (pics 1 and 2 under the Tarangire series in the above-mentioned gallery).

 

At 10.30 starts the counting of a long series of elephants (11 at that point). At 10.45, we are lucky to discover three wild dogs (pic 3.... yep, that's the most view we had), who have managed to make quite a bit of room around them.

 

Five minutes later, we see our first transpierced baobab (pic 4), with eight more elephants (pic 5). At 11.05, we meet another elpehant very near the road (pics 6 and 7).

 

Two more elephants at 11.25 in the river bed, 12 under trees at 11.30, 21 near the river at 11.40, 8 on their way from the forest to the river at 11.45, 21 near the road at 11.50, 7 at noon, 26 at 12.05... the counter goes crazy and we would stop counting them!!

 

At 12.15, for a change, we find 11 giraffes (pic 9), then 3 ostriches at 12.40 (with the inevitable 20 elephants, including two cute ones; pic 12).

 

We stop at the Sopa Lodge for lunch from 12.45 to 14.05, where we see 6 daring hyraxes (pics 13 and 14, with a compact camera; hard to imagine they belong to the elephant family) and a couple of very daring vervet robbers among the tables (a young girl had a bread roll snatched from her hands).

 

At 14.15, we find a buffalo, then three male ostriches fifteen minutes later.

 

At 14.35, we find an ostrich couple, then a dik dik 3-member family (pic 17).

 

We get a big group of 30 elephants at 14.50, then two ostriches and two more dik diks at 15.10, before five giraffes and 10 elephants at 15.15.

 

At 15.20, we get two fights between impalas (pic 18), then 6 giraffes and 12 elephants five minutes later.

 

At 15.45, we find a dik dik eagle and 16 elephants.

 

We are now at the south end of the Park, and start our eastern drive towards the lodge. We are the last of a group of three cars who had stopped to admire some elephants and birds on burnt ground (pic 19), and the two first cars have left. Suddendly, we find a leopard jumping under the tyres from the left and reach the other side, towards the burnt ground (pic 20, second to last)! As a matter of fact, it was a Mom who had gone hunting and left her cub in the savannah, and was now anxious to get back, hence her not waiting for our car to pass. At 16.10, we are thus able to see her join her cub (pic 21, last one) and spend a good time admiring them. She would always go alone first for 15-20 meters, check the surroundings, and they call the young one.

 

At 16.30, we are once again almost toppled over by an elephant family (5 member, including two kids). We find 4 ostriches at 16.40, just before reaching the south-eastern warden post, where we make a stop till 17.05. We reach the lodge at 17.45.

 

Then, as my co-travelers are getting tired, we decide to enjoy the lovely Tree Tops lodge the following morning, and avoid an early start for a last safari. As a compensation, we sign up for the night safari organized by the lodge, in one of their (window-less) vehicles, with both a driver and a genunine guide with a very strong light.

 

We leave at 20.15, and quickly begin to find new, purely nocturnal animals. We see two bat-eared foxes first, then a scrub hare, then one dik dik. As we drive further North, we find some impalas, then two adorable jumping hares and 6 elephants. As we reach the northern tip of this 100-minute drive, we see three more scrub hares, two jumping hares and some more impalas.

 

We then find a group of 10 elephants, including a very vocal young one (we could almost translate it: "Mom, these guys, they keep sending their big light in my eyes... MOOOOOMMMMM!!!"). Before we reach the lodge again, we find one steenbok, along with a big group of impalas.

 

 

Here ends this series of daily reports. I will add one last, wrap-up post when I have finished thinking about the (numerous) ups & (very few) downs of this trip.

[twaffle]

I think next time you visit you'll have to spend more time in one place and not rush so much but you had some excellent sightings. Love the photos of the leopard and her cub, that was very special.

[Toubab]

I definitely agree with you, twaffle, but this was a "once in a lifetime" trip for my cotravellers, for whom there will probably be no "next time", so we wanted to cover quite a bit of ground to vary the options and sightings. As suggested by many guidebooks, "I went for the Serengeti but I'll come back for the Tarangire", which I found the most appealing environment in particular, so this one will get more time on the next occasion.

 

And looking at the recent serval pics in Ngorongoro on another thread here, seems the crater has a lot more to offer than the already very generous rhinos and cheetahs it gave us!

 

Thanks for Mom & cub, they were indeed a superb conclusion on our last safari day!