The Tarangire Safari game drive was our 2nd destination on our itinerary! We didn’t know what to expect since the Tarangire National Park was a lot smaller than Masai Mara and Serengeti, but when we arrived we found out that there was a huge concentration of elephants there – as you could see the warm reception of the elephant family right when we checked in to Oliver’s Camp on THIS POST!
We were glad that Asilia also used the open air Safari vehicle just like andBeyond. They also have picnics during the game drive!
Our guide Leverd (left) and our Maasai spotter Superti (right) set up the breakfast picnic spread at the park:
We had fruits, toasts, breakfast burrito and coffee:
The Tarangire park was known for the tsetse flies, so glad they had these horsehair fly swats in the vehicle… they definitely helped!
Looked like Darren spotted some wildlife activity!
Noticed all the jewelry that Superti was wearing (earrings, necklace, and bracelets)? He told us that his wife made them!
We saw the most amazing sunset at Tarangire!
Gotta have a group shot!
And another one…
Our impromptu sundowner on the hood of the Safari vehicle! All Safari camps have a rule that the game drives need to end by sunset, and all guests have to be back on the camp by sun down because once it gets dark, it may not be safe in the vehicle when all the predators come out to hunt. We were so taken in by that day’s sunset that we barely made it back to camp by 7:00 pm!
The next day, we joined a walking Safari… while we were signing our waiver form in the main lobby lodge, our guide was loading his shotgun. Look at those bullets! He was explaining to us that during the walk, we had to walk in a single file and no chit chat. The guide will be in the front and the ranger will be the last one in the back (also with a shotgun).
The group walking in a single file as instructed… I was right in front of Darren!
We learned to track animal footprints:
A termite mound! Having lived in Hawaii for many years, we are familiar with dry wood termites and ground termites, but we had never seen mound-building termites and their mounds before. It was totally fascinating!
This was our ranger:
More animal footprints…
The guide showed us this tree with branches that we could use as a natural toothbrush. Darren wouldn’t try it, but I did… it had a natural minty flavor to it.
The guide also explained how elephants and giraffes eat the leaves on the acadia trees, but the thorns wouldn’t bother them. Do you see the little protector ants on these hollow thorns? These thorns provide nectar for the ants to eat and also a shelter for them to live in. Interesting, huh?
We were all laughing and cringing at the same time when the guide told us that for the sake of survival and if we are ever lost with no water in an area where elephants roam, we just squeeze the elephant dung for water. Surprisingly, there is very little bacteria to be found in elephant poop, which makes it far less dangerous than dehydration. Well, let’s hope that we’ll never be in that situation!
On our last day at Tarangire and Leverd was driving us back to the airstrip, this happened…
But it took him less than 10 minutes to change the flat tire. He just asked Darren and I to keep an eye out for the big cats!
Kuro Airstrip in Tarangire… off to Serengeti!
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