I know it's about two weeks late, but here is the last of the parks I visited on safari.
Tarangire was the biggest of the parks that we visited, and the animals there tend to be a bit more afraid of humans than in the first couple parks. The way Eric explained it was that, "the animals
are... ashamed." which of course brought on a good laugh. He went on to explain that, unlike the crater and the lake, Tarangire had a history of hunting until relatively recent times. Later, as we drove through the park Eric pointed out baobab trees with large holes in them and said that hunters used to carve out the trees and wait for the elephants to come up and eat. Hunting has of course been outlawed in the park for a long time, but the animals seem to have a long memory.
At first we saw very few animals, warthogs and impala's and exactly 4 zebras who once they spotted us promptly walked away in a line. Since these were all animals we had seen many times in the past couple days Eric drove on looking for more interesting game. Not long there after we were rewarded when he spotted a cheetah in the shade of a baobab tree about 50 yards off the road.
At first we could only see it's head above the grass, Tarangire has much more of the classic looking tall grass Savannah look to it, but as we waited and watched through binoculars it moved around behind the tree. We drove down the road a little more and saw the cheetah eating something it must have killed that morning. "Cheetah's mostly kill in the morning, just after dawn." Erick said. The cheetah was limping a little as it moved around, we guessed that it must have hurt itself a little making it's kill that morning.
Later, as we drove along for a while through the baobab studded grassland, Eric said, almost to himself, "There are a very many elephants down there," and pointed down to a dry river bed. We of course all looked, but didn't see anything that looked like even one elephant. Eric drove for several minutes in the described direction and we didn't see anything that resembled one elephant let alone a "very many elephants." We started to think that for the first time Eric had slipped up, when almost before we knew it we were in the middle of an elephant herd.
There was a group of elephants moving down to the dry river bed ahead of us, and two of the younger one's were play fighting maybe only 200ft. in front of us. They would stand facing each other from a couple body lengths away for a minute or so then charge. The sound of their tusks banging together was awesome.
The elephants were together in small groups of 10 to 15 as they headed to the riverbed. there were all types of elephants, young ones play fighting in the open space between groups, old males leading the way, and baby elephants following close to their mothers. We saw one baby who Eric said was only about three weeks old, it was tiny by elephant standards, and very cute. The mothers didn't seem to like us there very much and moved toward us in a way that got Eric driving faster. As we left the herd we crossed path's with a large bull elephant walking toward the river, he got within a couple feet of the back corner of our land rover and gave Elise a good scare. I tried to take a picture of him but with the bouncing car and the speed of it all I don't think the picture was in focus.
The other very cool animal sighting that day came not too long later when we saw four cheetah's all at once. They were all sitting on a dead tree that gave them a view of the surrounding grassland. At first we just saw two of them, but then a third and a fourth jumped up, to see so many at once is very rare.
after that we saw the herd of elephants again from across the riverbed, lots of impalas in the shade of trees, and whole family's of warthogs that were not at all afraid of us. There were also lots of birds who's names I have no idea of, and on our way out we saw the same cheetah under the baobab tree. We didn't get to see any lions that day, but the cheetah's more than made up for it.
I hope someday I can do another safari, a longer one even. All of the parks we visited were so different from each other which was a real surprise to me, since they are all in within only a couple hour's drive from each other. I wonder what the parks in the south of Tanzania are like, and of course there is the Serengeti to our west. Maybe someday.
Tarangire was the biggest of the parks that we visited, and the animals there tend to be a bit more afraid of humans than in the first couple parks. The way Eric explained it was that, "the animals
are... ashamed." which of course brought on a good laugh. He went on to explain that, unlike the crater and the lake, Tarangire had a history of hunting until relatively recent times. Later, as we drove through the park Eric pointed out baobab trees with large holes in them and said that hunters used to carve out the trees and wait for the elephants to come up and eat. Hunting has of course been outlawed in the park for a long time, but the animals seem to have a long memory.At first we saw very few animals, warthogs and impala's and exactly 4 zebras who once they spotted us promptly walked away in a line. Since these were all animals we had seen many times in the past couple days Eric drove on looking for more interesting game. Not long there after we were rewarded when he spotted a cheetah in the shade of a baobab tree about 50 yards off the road.
At first we could only see it's head above the grass, Tarangire has much more of the classic looking tall grass Savannah look to it, but as we waited and watched through binoculars it moved around behind the tree. We drove down the road a little more and saw the cheetah eating something it must have killed that morning. "Cheetah's mostly kill in the morning, just after dawn." Erick said. The cheetah was limping a little as it moved around, we guessed that it must have hurt itself a little making it's kill that morning.
Later, as we drove along for a while through the baobab studded grassland, Eric said, almost to himself, "There are a very many elephants down there," and pointed down to a dry river bed. We of course all looked, but didn't see anything that looked like even one elephant. Eric drove for several minutes in the described direction and we didn't see anything that resembled one elephant let alone a "very many elephants." We started to think that for the first time Eric had slipped up, when almost before we knew it we were in the middle of an elephant herd.
There was a group of elephants moving down to the dry river bed ahead of us, and two of the younger one's were play fighting maybe only 200ft. in front of us. They would stand facing each other from a couple body lengths away for a minute or so then charge. The sound of their tusks banging together was awesome.
The elephants were together in small groups of 10 to 15 as they headed to the riverbed. there were all types of elephants, young ones play fighting in the open space between groups, old males leading the way, and baby elephants following close to their mothers. We saw one baby who Eric said was only about three weeks old, it was tiny by elephant standards, and very cute. The mothers didn't seem to like us there very much and moved toward us in a way that got Eric driving faster. As we left the herd we crossed path's with a large bull elephant walking toward the river, he got within a couple feet of the back corner of our land rover and gave Elise a good scare. I tried to take a picture of him but with the bouncing car and the speed of it all I don't think the picture was in focus.
The other very cool animal sighting that day came not too long later when we saw four cheetah's all at once. They were all sitting on a dead tree that gave them a view of the surrounding grassland. At first we just saw two of them, but then a third and a fourth jumped up, to see so many at once is very rare.
after that we saw the herd of elephants again from across the riverbed, lots of impalas in the shade of trees, and whole family's of warthogs that were not at all afraid of us. There were also lots of birds who's names I have no idea of, and on our way out we saw the same cheetah under the baobab tree. We didn't get to see any lions that day, but the cheetah's more than made up for it.
I hope someday I can do another safari, a longer one even. All of the parks we visited were so different from each other which was a real surprise to me, since they are all in within only a couple hour's drive from each other. I wonder what the parks in the south of Tanzania are like, and of course there is the Serengeti to our west. Maybe someday.
1 comment:
Hey Allen,
Sounds like you are enjoying yourself and what an adventure it is!!! Stay safe and we look forward to reading more about your journey.
Take care,
Uncle Jim and Paula
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