Safari Day 1 - Tarangire National Park

We continued our adventure this morning when Chris, our driver-guide, picked us up from our hotel at 7:30am.  After a short stop to pick up our boxed lunches, we drove to Tarangire National Park via Arusha.  On the way we passed several Maasai Bomba compounds and were able to see villagers guiding their goats and cows.  It was very interesting to experience a different local culture even more. 

We got to Tarangire around 12:30, quickly ate our lunches, and then popped open the top of our Land Cruiser, and stood in awe as Chris drove us around part of the nearly 3,000 sq km park.  Very early on, we ran into several giraffes and zebras on their way to their watering hole. 

All told we were lucky to see fifteen different species of animals: velvet monkeys, impala, giraffes, endless wildebeest and zebras, digbeets, warthogs (pumbas), mongoose, baboons, superb stalings, eland antelopes, ostriches, guinea fowl, and water buck.  The highlight, though, was seeing a large family of elephants VERY up close as they were getting water a few feet down in an apparently dry river.  The elephants were on both sides of our Land Cruiser and Simon felt and acted like a giddy kid!

(Our photographer extraordinaire at work) 

(The happiest of 28-year-old children) 

(Waiting for the next great photo)

As an added bonus, on our way out of the park we drove by 10 giraffes and Erika made a friend. 

We left the park at 5:00pm to drive to our safari lodge for the night, but on the way we got this beautiful view passing by Lake Manyara. 

We’re excited to continue our safari adventure tomorrow! Who knows what we will see?