130818 Nairobi – Tarangire National Park

The Plan

Today we travel to the Namanga border and enter Tanzania, home to interesting wildlife, inspiring landscapes and a rich, diverse culture. FB L D

Some Information

The acacia-strewn savannah of Tarangire National Park is the habitat of most African species, easily spotted along the banks of the Tarangire River.  From the lodge overlooking the water, you can watch them come to drink at dusk.  At the end of the summer, thousands of migrating gnu and zebra cover the plains.  The only drawback here is that the region is infested with tsetse fly.

How the day turned out

Wow, a third day in a row for travel. Today, we have is a land transfer.  After another ‘Scenic’ breakfast, we board our designated 4WD.  We have been divided up into five groups named elephant, lion, leopard, giraffe and rhino, with up to 6 people in each group.

We are to cross the border between Kenya and Tanzania this morning, which is about 3 hours away.  Borders in Africa are so busy with overladen trucks carting goods to and fro and buses chock full of passengers topped with a mountain of cargo.  There are many, many 4WDs transporting expatriates who are touring the game reserves.  It is sort of strange having to go through two immigration points in a short time as we are used to having a plane trip for many hours between points, normally.  This trip is 100 meters. Another 90 minutes and we are in the town of Arusha for a buffet lunch.

Then a further 2-3 hours of rough road conditions that people had to experience before the new road which is not long constructed.  There are a few in our group that have bad backs and find it a chore to bear the rocking and rolling in the 4WD.  We finally reach the gate entry to Tarangire National Park where a comfort stop is had and the roof of our vehicle is raised to enable us to stand and view the wildlife.  It is another 10 kms but because of the abundance of wildlife, we tend to stop at many spots along the way to photograph and experience the animals.

There are many elephants, zebra, wildebeests, a few giraffes, and plenty of impala.  We notice a few mongooses looking for snakes to attack and devour.

Animals don’t look for privacy when they want to perform procreation tasks.  A male ostrich has 3 females near him doing their ‘I want to mate’ dance but just the one wins today and we witness the process to the end.  That was our ‘special moment’ of the day.

The Tarangire Sopa Lodge is an architectural dream.  To erect a building of this caliber in the African bush-land is some feat indeed.  Each room is large and has a view of the distant African landscape. Missing is a well stock mini-bar and a TV.

Our well presented meal is followed by live entertainment, a small group of Maasai Mara tribe’s people.  These are the guys who do vertical ‘takeoffs’ as they sing.

Tomorrow, we travel to Ngorongoro Crater.