Tarangire Part I

It is still dark when we leave the lodge this morning, just as it has been every single morning since we arrived here. Today is our last day in Tanzania, so it won't be long before we are able to have a lie-in once we get home.

There is no sign of the lion from last night around the hotel grounds this morning, but we do see a lot of giraffe close to the lodge today, as well as a couple of waterbuck.

The weather is still pretty murky by the time we reach the Tarangire National Park gates, hence the quality (graininess) of the first handful of photos.

These girls belong to a harem. Male impala sometimes have as many as 50 or so females in his harem, here there are nowhere near that many. Where there is an impala harem, there is usually a bachelor herd nearby waiting for the polygamous husband to retire (or maybe just tire, with so many females to service) so that they can move in.

Tarangire is famous for its incredible bird life, especially at this time of year, with nearly 500 species recorded in the park. We see quite a few this morning, including a few species that are new to us (known as a lifer - a new addition to the life list)

Ashy Starling

White Winged Widow Bird (a lifer)

Brown Parrot

Yellow Necked Spurfowl

D'Arnaud's Barbet

Speckled Fronted Weaver

Broad Tailed Paradise Whydah (another lifer)

Lesser Masked Weaver (above) construct elaborate and fanciful hanging nests (below)

Magpie Shrike

A rather wet and bedraggled Wattled Starling

We're having to put the roof up, down, up, down this morning as the showers come and go at various intervals. I think you could call the weather changeable.

White Browed Coucal

Black Faced Sandgrouse

White Headed Buffalo Weaver

Brown Snake Eagle

Brown Snake Eagle

Yellow Necked Spurfowl

Yellow Necked Spurfowl

While the mongooses we saw earlier were quite some distance away, these are really close by the road, where an abandoned termite mound has been converted into social housing for a family on mongooses.

As we stay to observe them for a while, small, furry heads pop out of various orifices in the mound, including some cute babies.

And angry little not-so-cute adults.

You can distinguish the Common Waterbuck from the other species found here, the Defassa Waterbuck, by the white markings on its rump, commonly referred to as the toilet seat.

Tarangire National Park is famous for its huge herds of elephants, so we are quite surprised to not have seen any yet this morning, just damage caused by these large animals as they passed through.

Not long afterwards, when we are on on our way to the Matete Picnic Site for breakfast, we see a lone elephant, as if on cue.

Then a large bachelor herd appears.

Time for morning ablutions, in the form of a little dust bath.

The mood suddenly turns nasty, with an unfriendly mob marching angrily towards us. Malisa proves that he is just as capable (and safe) a driver backwards, as he has to quickly reverse the car out of the way of the bullies. Never argue with an angry elephant.

It's not all anger management issues this morning, however, there's a bit of bonding session going on here with two teenage brothers butting against each other.

When they have finished showering each other with affection, they walk right past out car, so close I could reach out and touch them. I have to really restrain myself not to.

I feel so incredibly privileged to be here so close to these majestic giants, watching them go about their daily lives and be party to their family interactions, I almost cry with happiness.

All around us are elephants, in every direction we look. I have to pinch myself to make sure this is really happening. To think I was only complaining a couple of minutes ago that we hadn't seen any elephants yet.

More family snuggles. This is like reality TV but with animals. Much more interesting.

For some reason this next picture reminds me of Colonel Hathi in the Jungle Book cartoon.

I have heard of 'pink elephants', but never 'red'. These eles have obviously been rolling in the mud. Or maybe it's the latest must-have face mask.

She has a young baby with her, probably around four months old. We can only just see the top of his back over the long grass.

In places the grass is shorter so we can see him better.

On the other side of the car is an even younger baby, this one is less than 2 weeks old. All together now: “awwwww”

Look at the difference in size!

We leave the elephants behind (pun intended) and (yet again) try to make our way towards the picnic site. This could take a while, depending on what we see on the way.

We finally make it for breakfast, to a completely empty picnic site. This place has changed beyond all recognition since we were first here ten years ago: back then there was one squalid long-drop toilet. Now there is a very modern facilities block with clean flushable toilets, lockable doors, water, soap and toilet paper.

Check out my next blog entry for more animal encounters with Calabash Adventures, the best safari
operators by far.