Tarangire National Park 2

Posted on by ree pashley 2 Comments

This is day 2 of our trip to Tarangire National Park. Read about day 1 here.

day 2

I had this dream that while Mr Mechanic was home with the baby, I would get an angelic sort of sleep these two nights at the lodge.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
My seven year old, with all her energy woke me up bright and early at 5 am, jumping on me in bed and happily proclaiming: “I read all the books!”

(I had tried to be clever and brought books for the girls to read/entertain themselves with, especially for early mornings like this… I guess she could have woken me at 4:30 without the books, so this is *sort* of a win?)

Good thing there was endless coffee at breakfast, so I fueled up and we headed back out on our adventure.

Photo by Ree Pashley – view of Tarangire National Park from Sangaiwe Tented Lodge

elephants

Tarangire National Park is the place to visit in Northern Tanzania to view elephants.
The park hosts many other creatures and visitors will see a wonderful variety of Tanzanian wildlife, but the elephants stand out.
Tarangire has a large population of elephants (the largest ‘per capita’ in Tanzania) and they are adamantly working to protect the largest land mammal from poaching.

I was probably annoying, but I don’t know how not to say ‘aahhh…’ every time I see a baby elephant.
The girls shared my enthusiasm and there was lots of coo-ing and disgustingly sweet noises in our vehicle.

We paused for lunch on a quiet, shaded hill overlooking a swampy area. The view allowed us to observe a small herd of elephants enjoying the cooler weather in the swamp. After eating our fill (Sangaiwe Lodge makes a great lunch box!), we returned to the safari car to get a closer look at that swamp.

After parking beside some other vehicles, we took photo after photo of the elephant family, complete with lots of little babies. The other safari cars drove away after a little while, but we stayed around.
Then, elephants started to approach the road ahead of us. We all grew silent with excitement as the elephants came closer. Four adults lined up along the road but didn’t venture across.

It was the largest, with long tusks and heavy feet that took the first steps across. Then he stopped, turned his whole body facing opposite our car and aggressively began flapping his ears, dust turning around him.

The tension was palpable. Immediately our driver reversed the car, and we watched in silence as the elephant family (while keeping an eye on us) walked across, escorting their cute little ones along.
I will never forget the feeling of fear and awesomeness as the elephant regarded us and basically told us to MOVE.

It was for the calves, our driver told us, that the elephant wanted us to move. They are very protective of their babies.
We could sense that they did not fear us at all, the big guy was being courteous to give us a warning. They could have overturned our vehicle if they wanted.
Elephants are the largest land mammal on the planet and the adults have no natural predators; they do not fear humans.

The elephant parade continued on their peaceful way, and I took some deep breaths while the girls released some nervous giggles.

We enjoyed a longer game drive today and we remained in the park until early evening.
Our driver listened intently to the radio communication and discovered where a lion was spotted. We found a herd of wildebeests and their friends, the zebra enjoying a peaceful drink. There, hiding in the shade of a tree was a crouching female lion. She was difficult to spot, her coat a perfect camouflaged in the dry grass.
We were probably ruining her hunting, showing up and putting the zebra on high alert (but we like zebra and didn’t want to see one becoming dinner).

We returned to our lodge, enjoyed another incredible dinner, and went to bed early after a good day in Tarangire National Park.

And we didn’t get stepped on by an elephant!

Read about Day 3.

Tarangire National Park 1

Posted on by ree pashley 5 Comments

During recent school holidays, we took the kids on surprise trips. The boys with Mr Mechanic, the girls with me. We didn’t tell them where we were going and we packed their bags for them, so they really had no clue about their adventures!

I took the girls to Tarangire National Park for a 3 day, 2 night safari.
I wish we could have gone for longer, but I had some serious ‘Mom Guilt’, about leaving the baby at home with Mr Mechanic (an experienced and capable father). Mom Guilt does not accept reason or logic, it just makes you feel bad.
The girls and I had an amazing time and made lasting memories (and the baby was fine) so Mom Guilt can just shut up.

day 1

Our driver met us around 10 am at our home in Karatu.
While most safaris leave early (anywhere from 5 am -7 am), I hate hectic mornings and asked for a late departure.
Also, our home in Karatu is closer to Tarangire than Arusha, so we didn’t have a long drive to reach the park.

After about thirty minutes on the road I told the girls where we were going:
There were squeals.
Cheers.
Jumping up and down in the seats.
Basically, all the noises elated 6-9 year olds make, times three.

We arrived at the park and had an early lunch at the picnic site and mostly avoided the annoying monkeys… but my 6 year old kept offering them her sandwich…then we washed up and headed on our first game drive.

Tarangire National Park is known for giant baobab trees and elephants. The constant water source from the Tarangire River means that during dry season, many animals move here for sufficient water.
On our first day we saw lots of waterbuck, gazelles, zebra, giraffe and of course, elephants. Also, smaller creatures like mongoose, warthogs, guinea fowl and a host of spectacular birds.

favorite animals of the day

I absolutely adore giraffe – they are majestic and elegant. And elephants? How can you not catch your breath and have respect in the presence of an elephant?
Sungura (my 10 yr old) loved the white-ringed waterbuck, with their long horns and distinctive ring around their backside. She pointed them out every time we saw one getting a drink or wandering through the trees.

My 7 yr old’s favorite animal was the giraffe, at first she got so excited every time she saw them she nearly scared them away, but towards the end of the day she was calm enough to take some photos (50 + blurry images !) of the long-necks with my camera.

My littlest appreciates the humble warthog: she went into giggles every time she saw one running through the grass, its tail erect.

There was never a dull moment and my girls were very focused with their binoculars. They asked lots of questions from our guide and were interested in learning about all the animals in the park.

We all enjoyed the drive, but my little one started dozing off around 4 pm and the 7 yr old wanted to get out of the vehicle already and stretch her legs.
We agreed our day was finished and headed to our lodge.

As we headed out, we passed an area with many tse tse flies, which were very annoying and kept biting us.
It is nature, after all and we have to accept the wild, even the insect aspects, along with the beauty.
**Not to worry! Flies in this location do not carry dengue fever.**

Our accommodations were a surprise, even for me. Mr Mechanic said he arranged for us to stay ‘in some tents’. He failed to specify it was a fabulous tented lodge!
We spent two nights at Sangaiwe Tented Lodge, just outside of Sangaiwe Gate, one of the entrances/exits to Tarangire National Park. Meaning that we didn’t have far to go to reach our lodging, or to get back to the park the next morning.

The lodge is beautiful and has an incredible view. We stayed in a family tent with 2 single beds and a queen size bed, a walk-in shower and wide front porch.

I had asked that we stay at a place with a swimming pool, and boy did Mr Mechanic deliver! It was a cute, very clean pool, and shallow – perfect for our girls who are still learning to swim.
After hours driving through Tarangire National Park, it was refreshing to splash in the pool before evening set in.

Dinner was served from 7 pm, which gave us time to shower and dress up, then catch a lovely sunset.
The meal was fabulous and we completely stuffed ourselves.
We were led back to our tent by lantern light (so romantic!) and settled into our comfortable beds laden with too many pillows for the night.
We were very cozy under our big duvets, in our poster-beds, draped with netting. I nearly forgot I was in a tent!

By all accounts, it was a wonderful first day of safari.

Read about Day 2