10) Tarangire National Park - Travel the World

Tarangire National Park

The SUV we would go around with was a bit old but the nice thing about it was that the roof could open and inside the national parks we were allowed to open it, although we were not allowed to stand up while the car is moving due to the “African massage” haha (super shaky bad roads which literally shuffle all the insights of your body). We traveled with a couple from Spain, where the lady (Patricia) didn’t speak English at all but her husband, Havi, did. The tour began by picking up the Spanish first and then us and we started on our way to Tarangire National Park. To be honest, I’ve done almost 0 research on purpose, so I could also have something to look forward to and have the surprise factor for myself too, but the first thing that also Shelley told me about and you just notice right away, especially coming from a country with so much barren land like Namibia.. is the lushness of Tanzania. Everything is super green and lush and the zebras we saw right after entering Tarangire National Park, were somehow different on this background. Also, the zebras we saw in Tanzania in general, were the type that we were hoping to see in Namibia’s desert areas – Hartman’s Zebra – with no stripes on the belly. While the ones we saw most often in Namibia were the other type – Burchell’s zebra – with stripes all over their body. Before we entered the park, though, we stopped at the entrance and while we waited for the guides to sort the entry for us, I just HAD to run back to where we came from into this area because I saw.. a GIANT BAOBAB tree! I got sooo excited! There was also a huge pile of animal skulls the largest of which was an elephant skull, it was GINORMOUS! Just the skull of the elephant is almost the same height as I am. This was super impressive to see from up close. Also, many kids were there coming together with their schools to explore their own country and wildlife, this was beautiful to see. And they were very curious and kept staring at me and our group haha 😀 I snapped a few photos of them and I just love how they posed at the entrance of the park with the arch saying “Tarangire National Park” and a huuuge baobab tree next to it. And yet, the thing that left me in awe the most, were the MASSIVE, MAAAASSIVE Baobab trees, I was soo excited for them, didn’t know I’d see Baobabs on this trip so when I did, even though they didn’t look like the ones in Madagascar with a smooth round trunk, these were still soooo thick and massive, and gorgeous. Although I was looking forward to seeing the “umbrella” trees I had painted on my nails – the acacia trees, I couldn’t stop taking photos of the Baobabs. As it turned out, Tarangire was the only place we’d see the baobabs as there aren’t any in Serengeti so I am super glad that I did see them and that we went there. Tarangire was full of wildlife, as we were riding we not only saw herds of zebras and giraffes, but also “accidentally” spotted the smallest antelope in the world which I totally love but have only seen in the Netherlands’ zoos – the Dik-dik <3 It’s barely larger than a dog, super skinny and with a long snout that it swings left and right as it’s trying to smell something in the air 😀 Super adorable and i was AGAIN, super excited! They told us that if there’s one dik-dik, there will always be another one. And sure enough, the other one was there too.

On the way to and after the water hole we spotted mongoose, warthogs, vervet monkeys, ibises, and hornbills (at the lunch break location). We arrived at a water hole where we saw so many elephants right next to the baobabs, drinking and bathing, along with their calves, super cute picture to see and I have some super beautiful photos of them. We also witnessed 2 elephant bulls fighting each other, then warthogs arrived and more zebras and wildebeest. The Tanzanian wildebeest was different from the Namibian – white and grey in colour as opposed to dark in Namibia. Very interesting to see another subspecies of this member of “The ugly 5” 😀 At some point, we noticed that.. someone was surveying the animals with a sharp eye – a lioness. She was a lone “wolf” for some reason and she didn’t really go hunting after the animals, but they all disappeared when they spotted her and she went to drink water instead. Turned out as we figured out later, that in Tanzania it’s pretty common to see lions, unlike Namibia. So it was great to actually see so many lions and we did see prides in Serengeti on multiple occasions. The water hole was packed full of tourist SUVs, each fighting for a better spot to see the animals, each wanting to see and stay the longest and it caused immense congestion in the middle of the savannah which was interesting to see. The not-so-funny part of that day in Tarangire, was the lunch spot – literally in the middle of nowhere, the SUV stopped and parked under a faint shadow of an acacia tree and they put the food on top of the car – 3 pots – meat, rice and spaghetti or so and plates and cutlery and some coca-cola in cans. So each of us got some food in their plates and then.. had to find someplace to sit.. well, there wasn’t an abundance of benches, exactly 0 of them, so I went to sit on a root of a tree and while I was trying to get there, many sharp spikes from the tree got stuck onto my thin sandals which made me “learn my lesson” and not wear sandals from then on, and then when i sat, more spikes poked my butt 😀 That was still part of the experience so I wasn’t unhappy just not mega comfortable if I could say so. At some point, 3 kids started coming towards us, judging by their clothing, they were from the Maasai tribe but weren’t daring to come closer. I suppose the tour guides are not very friendly towards them. But the kids were hungry so when we were finished with the food, I asked the guide if he could give them some food and I noticed on his face that he was reluctant and didn’t like the idea but i guess, because I asked, he did give them the leftover rice (not the meat ofc..). Maybe he wanted to take the leftovers to his own family, i don’t know, but i’m glad he gave some food to the kids. Havi, the Spanish guy, did a barter with one of the kids and gave the kid his hat in exchange for his shepherd’s wooden stick (which he later lost 😀 oh, well). Anyway, another thing that amazed me, was the sheer number of prey birds that were sticking out on the top of the Baobab and the Umbrella trees – maaaany many vultures, buzzards, falcons etc. I totally loved it. We then went on to our lodge for the night. It was an amazing location, i feel sad that I cannot remember the name, a beautiful lodge with a stunning pool area and monkeys around us. The style was a bit like The Flintstones, was so funny and cicadas were singing in the evening and I saw not ONE but TWO kingfishers! I was so excited <3 And that was the last sign of civilization for us..