On Safari in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
I have recently returned from a safari around some of the greatest National Parks and Reserves in the beautiful country of Tanzania. To give you an idea of the kind of animals and scenes I saw in one of my favourite parks there, Tarangire, I have put together a short diary of my day there.
We started our game drive nice and early and proceeded to Tarangire National Park. Spirits were high in our vehicle and we were hopeful to see some great wildlife during our time on safari. Almost instantaneously of arriving within the parks boundaries, we had spotted Zebra and even a herd of elephants taking shelter from the sun under a large Acacia tree. The elephants seemed to be using the tree to scratch themselves, and it was quite interesting to watch.
After a stop to observe the animals and take photographs, we drove on to see a few species of bird of prey, Griffon vultures – which were in a group of around 8 in a dead looking tree (it brought back scenes from the Disney film The Jungle Book!) and a Verreaux’s eagle, which was perched in a tree and later we saw it soaring above the land.
After a quick stop for lunch, we headed down towards a large watering hole, and what we saw next was unbelievable – a pride of lions spread out all around the watering hole, camouflaged into their surroundings and sheltering under trees – all of them had bloody paws, and the evidence of a couple of zebra kills was there in front of us in all its glory details.
There were also a herd of elephants at the watering hole which were having a mud bath and taking turns to throw their baby elephant into the large pool of mud, this was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen, and makes you realise how close elephants are.
Moving on from the watering hole, it was getting late, so was time for us to make moves out of the park. On our way back, we noticed a large crowd of cars pulled up alongside an Acacia tree, we stopped to get a closer look at what was demanding all this attention, and then we saw it – a leopard! The great spotted feline was asleep in the tree, just metres from where we were stopped. After a few minutes it stood up, turned around… and then went back to sleep facing the opposite direction!
On our long drive back to the main gate of the park, we saw plenty more animals, including giraffe, waterbuck and even a pair of Masai ostrich!…
The Ngorongoro Crater is a large volcanic caldera which plays host to an advanced ecosystem perfect for the inhabiting and preservation of a wide variety of animals, from the aptly named king of the jungle, the lion, to the ever so rarer horned beast, the rhino.