Retired Nomads: Tarangire National Park, Tanzania Day 2

We awoke to the sounds of an elephant trumpeting outside our treehouse. We had an early morning “bush walk”. We were served coffee or hot chocolate and shortbread or muffins and then we were off to drive to the place where we would get out and walk with a Maasai Warrior and a guide. There was a French family of 3 with us. The teen was typical as she said in her best “Valley Girl” tone “uh, like why do you need that gun?” Uh, Like we are walking close to wild animals?????” ha ha.

Maasai Warrior

the French family and me

We were told to walk single file and stay together. The Maasai Warrior was in the back of the group and the guide led. We came across Zebras that were watching us to make sure they were safe. One in particular really kept coming back to check us out. There were also Wildebeest herds as well. We were shown various bushes and trees and were shown wild Jasmine and a Sausage Tree.

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

Yellow-necked Spurfowl

Yellow-collared Lovebirds

Whistling Acacia Tree

Sausage Tree

Maasai collecting Jasmine

Grant's Gazelle

Candelabra Tree

We completed a large circle and then drove to another spot to finish our bush walking. We came across a herd of elephants and we parked just past them. We got out and the herd crossed right in front of us. The guide was getting nervous since the matriarch seemed to be turning towards us and challenging us. (there were quite a few babies in the herd) The guide started urging us to get back and close to the car. Then he yelled at the Maasai Warrior to open the car door and for us to get in. We had all moved back, but not quite against the car and he grabbed Greg by the shirt and pulled him farther back. Finally, the matriarch turned and followed her herd. How awesome that they walked right in front of us! We followed them for a while and finished our walk about. It lasted a couple of hours.

Waterbucks

Then, it was time to go back to the lodge and have breakfast before starting our all day game drive. Waterbucks came to the watering hole while we ate. One of the staff showed us the group of bats living in the Baobab tree base inside the lodge. We had seen them flying around at night and could hear them at night. Here they are sleeping:

trail to treehouse

flowers on the grounds

breakfast area

Waterbucks came to the watering hole

Wilson was there to meet us for our all day game drive with a picnic lunch.

We saw our first Cape Buffalo today. Tarangire is known for its’ many elephants. It was very special to watch elephants in a dry river bed using their trunks to dig down far enough to get water to drink. One female elephant was watching a young one and had it’s trunk on its’ back to keep it from wandering off. We also came across a couple of young giraffe’s that were in the road in front of our vehicle. We watched another herd of elephants crossing the stream. We also saw a big male lion resting under a tree.

bathroom stop while we checked into the park

Eurasian Hoopoe

young Grant's Gazelle

Zebras like to roll in the dirt

male Ostrich

female Ostrich

not sure what they are doing here....

Cape Buffalo

Wattled Starling

Hadada Ibis

African Openbill

Today we had lunch at the picnic site. There were a lot of pretty birds there. Our boxed lunches had a lot of food in them and anything we didn’t eat we saved to give to Maasai children that were tending to their herds. (in other locations the left overs were given to the park rangers or anyone else Wilson knew that was in need of the food)

picnic site

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

African Fish-eagle eating a Jacana

Superb Starling

Fish-eagles

digging for water

babysitting duty

I'm ready for the tsetse flies with my "horse tail"

male lion

Secretary Bird

herd of cattle tended by 2 young Maasai boys

with our leftovers

Wilson lined his tunic with foil and put in the wetter stuff

the cattle were interested in our vehicle

this was a "bad" cow

Tawny Eagle

Dinner was in a different area of the grounds and again was out under the stars. It was a buffet this time with lots of meats freshly grilled and many sides. Then we were surprised with a Maasai performance. They sang and danced and you may know them as the tall slender people that compete to see who can jump the highest. Very special!

I got up to go to the bathroom before getting dessert and on the way back I was grabbed by one of the staff and they said lions were coming to the watering hole. You could see them in the distance. So, he sat me down on the couch to watch. I watched one slowly make its’ way down and she stopped and started many times. She finally came down to drink and went back to the others and then they all came down to drink. They went to get Greg who was still at dinner and he missed most of it, but got to see one or two. No photos as I didn’t take my camera to the bathroom. (note to self….always carry the camera) We then went back to finish dinner.

After dinner at the lodge we went on a night game drive. We saw Bush Hares, Spring Hares, Dik Diks, Bat-eared Foxes and even a few of the animals we see in the daytime. What a full day we had!