We drive about 120 km southwest from Arusha Town to Tarangire National Park. The landscape on the way is breathtaking. We are still reeling at how big the skies are here. Because it´s been raining, the plains are grassy, the hills are green and the cattle are well fed. We pass a Masaai cattle auction along the way. Every Thursday, people walk for miles to buy livestock from this auction, among other things. Blankets are spread out on the ground to showcase shoes, hats, bananas, etc. The Masaai who live in town don´t wear the traditional colorful wraps but plenty of them who live in the villages still do, it´s a trip seeing them juxtaposed among modern society in their wraps and their spears and walking sticks.
We arrived at the Tarangire River Camp at around 1:30pm, mowed through a hot lunch and immediately headed out for an afternoon game drive, still annoyed that we´d wasted half the day trying to use an internet cafe back in Arusha town. Just inside the park, we came upon a herd of male elephants. WOW. Truly majestic animals. And they came so close to the Landcruiser you could reach out and touch one if you wanted to. Philemon, an expert driver/guide for 12 years, was always on the ready to start the car back up and slam it into reverse in the event of a charging elephant but there was no need. As close as they got, no one got in anyone´s way.
Philemon had the eyes of an eagle. He could negotiate the truck over muddy potholes, glimpse something out of the corner of his eye, screech to a halt, search through his binoculars and find something far far off in the distance. It´s how we spotted our first kill: two impala dangling from the branch of a tree and a leopard lazing in an adjacent branch keeping an eye on his dinner. Wow! Unfortunately our 300mm lense was still not long enough to get a clear shot so breaking park rules, Philemon looked to see that the coast was clear, took the Landcruiser off the trail, railing in the direction of the tree yelling, "hang on guys!! Be ready be ready with your camera! Be ready! Hurry!" Val snaps into wildlife photographer mode and snaps a few photos of the cat and its two limp friends as we circle the tree.
"Got it?!" Philemon checks before we beeline it back to the trail, adrenaline paumping, giggling and hanging on for dear life to keep our teeth from getting slammed right out of our faces.
Charged from another succesful game drive, we got home in time for a quick shower before dinner and were advised to be escorted to the dining area by a Masaai guide armed with a spear. Aside from a leopard that comes to the camp from time to time, they said it´s usually not a problem but always go with a guide anyway. The Masaai speak surprisingly good English, I guess you would never expect a guy wrapped in blankets and carrying a spear to speak any English, but hey, they do. They are always so cheery. They act like EVERYTHING in the world is just so great and they´re stoked. On our way back to our tent from dinner, we came across a small scorpion on the ground. Our Masaai shined his flashlight on it and pointed to it with his spear and laughed, "oh! You know what this is? It´s dangerous! ha ha ha!"
For photos of our safari, please go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31967627@N00/sets/72157594423386516/
