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Tarangire National Park Saturday, December 23, 2000Up at 6:00 am… The first morning look around revealed some giraffe off in the distance from our camp. Breakfast was at 7:00 and our game drive began at 7:30 a.m. I’m starting my list of observed animals!! Marshall Eagles, Ash Starling, Yellow-Necked Spur fowls, White-headed Buffalo Weavers, Red-billed Hornbill and Egyptian Geese. We saw Giraffe, a lion sleeping in the river sand and a herd of female and baby impalas with one long buck. They are cute animals… beautiful and graceful. They flutter their tails and then tuck them in until they need them again – it’s like they put them away. Their ears are always flicking. We actually saw cat prints before we found the cat. We saw a herd of Olive Baboons in the distance in the road but found the pride of lions right near the side of the road… seven that we could see. The grasses are tall so they can be very well hidden. Four of the cats were cubs of various sizes. On down the road a little was an impala hanging in a small Acacia tree. The leopard must have been disturbed. There are five vehicles here and there were seven at the lions. We don’t see the vehicles as we are cruising but they do gather like flies when a “find” is made. Things are very lush in this park. It all seems green and growing. There are not a whole lot of smaller animals here because the grass is too tall to allow them to see danger. They move on elsewhere where it is safer for them. Giraffe and elephant do well in this area right now. Elephants need as much at 600 pounds of food each day! This park is not all that big so we repeat some of our areas as we drive around. We followed the progress of three ostrich – 1 male and 2 females. We returned to the site where the impala hung to see if the leopard would return. We spotted him hiding in the grass at the base of the tree. He had been there the whole time!! He would pop his head up to survey the area. It looks like he’s decided to snooze awhile so he moved to the shadow in the back of the tree. I just couldn’t believe how well he could hide in what appeared to be shorter grass. We could catch the movement of the tip of his tail flicking periodically. We waited patiently and then decided to go, we went up the road and decided to get down into the riverbed where we found eight lions with two young ones. It appears to be an entirely different group… we feel so lucky already at what we’ve been able to see. We returned to the leopard and stayed a good while again. Poor thing will have to wait till night to eat. Some drivers are not so thoughtful as ours in trying not to disturb the animals. He is right there at the base of the tree where the impala is hanging. Next we found a herd of elephants with two tiny babies. This group “knew” exactly where they wanted to go and they were trucking along! We would drive ahead and catch them the next time they crossed the road. With a winding road we were able to catch them about four times. We saw other herds during the morning – two groups were off in the distance and one group of ten crossing the road. At one place we stopped we could see giraffe all over the landscape in the foreground and elephant and impala in the background. It was a beautiful location. Down the road from there we found monkeys (Vervet Monkeys)… one was a mom with baby on board! Ephata is just great about stopping and letting us linger when we want to and take pictures. I could just watch these creatures for hours. We might not have stayed with these three monkeys so long if we had know we’d see a whole group (3 with babies) at the picnic area we stopped in. We were away from the other vehicle more than with them today it seemed. We spotted our first Kirk’s Dik-Diks and Rock Hyrax today. You have to be looking because they are so small. Our game drive this morning has been five hours (7:30-1:30) and we marvel at what we’ve seen. We know there are other vehicles in here because we saw them at the lions and the leopards but pretty much never saw any again all morning. I’m sitting in the shade now with the bird book recording all we saw today. I guess I will only add new ones as I see them rather than re-listing others. I am keeping a list of birds and the different parks sighted in another location. White browed Caucal Lilac Crested Roller Maribou Stork African Fish Eagle Gray Heron African Hoopoe Blacksmith Plover Gray Headed Gull Black-faced Sand Grouse Knob-billed Duck Red-necked Francolin Crested Francolin Spur Winged Plover Ring Necked Dove Ground Hornbill Superb Starling Red-billed Oxpecker Tawny Eagles Bare-Faced Go Away Bird Ostrich Hooded Vultures The afternoon game drive was at 3:30 p.m. after catching an hour nap. There are some beautiful Baobob trees in this park. The local way to tell the tree’s age is to give 50 years credit for each meter of circumference. Some of these trees are HUGE and ANCIENT! We’ve found a couple with holes through the trunk or open cavities. Unfortunately, these cavities have provided places for poachers to hide in the past. I do get the feeling that there is a better handle on poaching now… thank goodness! The termite mounds are often in-habited by Mongoose or at least they hang out there using them for a viewing vantage point. We headed back over to the Impala hanging in the tree… there were five vehicles there this time – then two of them left. We saw the Leopard leap into the tree behind the impala tree. He spread out over a limb and went to sleep. He must be exhausted and wanted to be in position to rest! The carcass is beginning to look bad. It’s amazing how fast that happens and how many flies begin to cover it. There appear to be several ecosystems in this park… I’m always amazed at how drastically it can change within such a short distance. Plants and grasses are different. One oasis looking area has a growth of palm trees that are nowhere else. The last stretch coming in felt more like desert scrub but all is basically greener than I had anticipated. We came upon a group of three large giraffe with two young ones along … then think we saw the same herd of fourteen elephants from this morning returning to where they came from. The other vehicle saw two warthogs but we missed those. I think the elephants in this park have been outstanding. It’s amazing that they must graze 22 hours a day and only digest about 10% of what they eat. It takes a lot of vegetation to support them! We saw eight waterbuck and giraffe on the road not far from our camp today. This is our last night here. We have loved Tarangire and our campsite here was “El Nino”. Supper tonight was Chicken and Rice. The cucumber salad tasted so good. It’s just all good and there is plenty of it! It’s amazing how tired and hungry we are at the end of the day when all we’ve done is stand in a vehicle. Must be the wind and sun! They tell us that we are at the beginning of the peak season. We are finding that it is quite nice. We have not found it to be crowded anywhere. When we returned they had a lovely dinner prepared for us. There was the salad and dessert bar again which was beautifully done and labeled to help us. We are finding everyone to be most accommodating. We pulled our mosquito net around and slept with the windows open. It was a little damp but pleasant temperature. Slept well. Jane Wojecki |
Elephants Saturday, December 23, 2000 Up early and showered. That was fun and refreshing, our first bush shower. Laurie and Linda couldn’t sleep. They heard lions roaring during the night. Heard some lions during the night from the tent. Early that morning, at sunrise, there were several Guinea Fowls that starting hollering all around the tents. Since the sounds were strange to us, everyone came out of their tents early that morning. The food was excellent. They served plenty of fresh fruit, oatmeal, toast, eggs, sausage and coffee. After breakfast and started out on our game drive at 7:30AM. There are dirt roads around the parks, which you are restricted to and should drive on. Saw a single female lion sunning on a sand bar in a river bed. Drove a little further and came across a pride of lions. It’s hard to spot the animals when they are bedded down. You will see maybe an ear or head stick up. Later we came across a recently killed Grant Gazelle hanging in a tree. We knew it was a leopard kill. There was a lot of tall grass at the base of the tree and the leopard was no where in sight. Ben suggested that we pull away from the tree and hide and wait and see if the leopard would come out of hiding. We watched for awhile and we saw the leopard stick his head up out of the tall grass at the base of the tree. We left there and continued our game drive.
There are really some beautiful and interesting birds of all types to view. Our driver was very knowledgeable and knew all the names of the birds and shared lots of information on all the wildlife. Went back to camp for lunch. Took a nap after lunch and then headed back out for an afternoon game drive at 3:30PM. Came across a group that was stuck in sand at a river crossing. They were in a van without four wheel drive. They had been stuck for 2 hours. Ben and some others helped them get out. Went back to check on the leopard. Saw the leopard jump into a nearby tree. Continued with our game drive. Saw baboons, monkeys, gazelles, giraffes and lots of different birds. Finally saw some water buffaloes, which completed seeing four of the Big 5 animals (lion, leopard, water buffalo, elephant and rhino). You have to be off the roads by 6:30. Made it back to the camp for dinner. Had another great dinner. Sat by the campfire and had some glasses of wine. By 8:30 PM we made it back to the tents for the night The Hazels
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