welltraveledbrit

Great trip report...I'm really enjoying it all. After all that hiking I hope you had a wonderful time in Zanzibar? Tell us more!

Patty

Thanks for continuing your report. So many experiences that we rarely read about. Will you be posting photos to go along with the report (hint, hint ) or have I missed them somehow? Looking forward to the next installment!

alwaysafrica

Thanks to all of you for being patient once again (my husband and I are currently getting ready for a trip to Panama, for which we leave in just over two weeks, and so time is scarce, but I'm trying to write as much as I can!)

I know that a couple of you have mentioned photos... we have our own beautiful DVD of digital photos (we were SO happy with our photos!), set to our favourite African songs... but of course, I can't get that to any of you I never put our photos up on any of the websites, but perhaps I will do so once I finally finish my trip report - I'll keep you posted!

As for now, I'll continue about our time at Tarangire:

We spent the next few days at Tarangire National park and were amazed! As some of you are aware, there is often (although not always) the opinion from fellow travelers that January is not a great time to visit Tarangire. We disagree wholeheartedly! We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Tarangire and, having compared our experience with others who had been there at a more popular time (i.e. October), we think that our experience holds its own!

Although vastly different from the plains of the Serengeti, with its rolling hills and enormous baobob trees, Tarangire is a truly beautiful place (and is even more beautiful and appreciated because of how different it is from the other national parks in the Northern Circuit)! In January, the grounds are green and lush and all of the trees are filled with leaves. This is in stark contrast to the photos I saw of the park in the month of October (when our friends were there). We could vaguely tell that we were looking at the same place, but it was so radically different that we almost couldn't believe our eyes - yellow patchy, grass, bare trees, it's amazing that a place can change so drastically in a climate that's always warm!

When we arrived at the gate first thing in the morning, we were skeptical. At the admission gate, we were confronted with lots of other tourists. Perhaps visitors to some of the more populated camps and lodges wouldn't feel the same way - it sounds like a lot of travelers are used to seeing lots of other tourists while in East Africa. But as I've mentioned previously, we'd really lucked out by having privacy almost everywhere we went! In reality, it was probably only 2 dozen tourists at the gate, and once we left the gate, it barely felt crowded at all. Like the Crater, tourist vehicles need to stay on the trails, but there are so many different trails, that one never needs to be too far from the animals (unlike some of the distances in the Crater!).

It was incredibly sunny and hot - so hot that it actually was uncomfortable to have the roof off (our vehicle didn't have a pop-up roof, but instead a removable one. While it wasn't overly easy to maneuver (i.e. the vehicle had to be stopped and two people would remove the roof), it never seemed to be a problem and it worked great for us).

Our wildlife viewing at Tarangire was certainly plentiful. We had been told that the viewing wouldn't be the best in January but, let me tell you, given what we saw, I can't even imagine what it must be like in dry season Elephants abound! Throughout the earlier parts of our safari, we really hadn't seen a lot of elephants. None in the Serengeti and then several in the Crater and surrounding areas, but consistently, our Guide would say to us: "We don't have to worry about seeing elephants. When we arrive in Tarangire National Park, you will see more elephants than you can imagine!" - and he was right! We especially appreciated the size and beauty of the African elephant. We had previously seen the Asian elephant (in our travels through Thailand) and had previously thought that the Asian elephant was big and beautiful. We've now learned that nothing compares to the African elephant. Long tusks, brown skin (as opposed to light grey), large bodies - the elephants of Tanzania are magnificent. And the really great part was that there were clear families of elephants - it was so amazing to watch a family of elephants interact, from the older males, to the females with their young ones - from "adolescents" to babies. We got the cutest photo of the behinds of a mother elephant and her baby wagging their tails as they walked along

We also very much enjoyed watching the baboons - so human-like: we enjoyed them playing, feeding their young, mating, fighting - it's easy just to sit and watch them for hours!

There were only 2 things that happened that somewhat disturbed me - one occurred at one of the picnic areas at lunchhour. We were sitting near our vehicle eating our boxed lunch and there was a family sitting at one of the picnic tables with all of their food laid out on the table. Suddenly, a big male baboon came scrambling out of the nearby bush and hopped onto their table! The family all screamed and started to move away, but the baboon grabbed some of the meat and sandwiches and made off back into the bush. It was a bizarre scene (although probably a familiar one at the picnic area that made me feel not like I was in Africa, but instead at our zoo or something; sad. Certainly, the family hadn't been particularly negligent, but it just demonstrated how accustomed these baboons are becoming to desiring and eating human food, which has and will continue to change their systems dramatically.

The only thing that occurred is that we had one of those "moments" where we believed an elephant might charge our vehicle! It was a big female elephant and it was walking away from our vehicle (we were slowed, if not stopped, to allow it to pass) and all of a sudden, it turned on us. Staring right at us (as all animals in the wild do!), it's ears went back and it's trunk went up and was flailing about in a strange formation. Next thing we knew... our guide and driver were arguing! Although it was in Swahili, we gathered that our driver wanted to reverse the car and get away from the elephant. Our guide, George (who has vastly more knowledge about the animals and whom we trusted wholeheartedly) was yelling to drive the car forward because the elephant would surely move out of the way (there was still a decent distance between us and the elephant). Eventually, after a few tense moments, our guide won out and we proceeded... like he had predicted, the elephant seemed to calm right down and continued away from us. It all happened very fast but felt like a lifetime until we got it resolved!!!

Of course, Tarangire was much more than elephants and baboons: we saw plenty of impala (best sightings of Impala we had in Tanzania), in fact, at one point we saw three pair of impala side by side - and each pair was fighting! Cool sight to see! We saw dik dik, an ostrich with about 30 young ones, warthogs - unfortunately, we didn't spot any leopards (which is the one animal we never got to see on our trip), but we certainly did see plenty of animals!

And then it all quickly came to an end. After we had eaten lunch, we began driving again and I somehow got the feeling that we were headed back toward the gate. I got a lump in my throat as I realized that this was our last day of safari (the following day, we'd be heading to Mount Meru for our 4-day climb, and after that, onto Zanzibar...) and that I wasn't prepared - it may sound silly to some, but I was so upset that I hadn't been warned and able to say a proper "goodbye" to the animals (has anyone else ever had this feeling?). I didn't know when we'd be able to come on safari again, and had felt such a strong connection with the animals ... I couldn't believe that I wasn't going to have a chance to say goodbye. I shared my disappointment with my hubby, who was trying his best to humour me and make me feel better about the situation... and then, out of nowhere, out came three enormous male elephants! They were a sight to behold. They came extremely close to the vehicle, and then starting wandering off... my eyes followed their path and saw that they were about to meet up with literally another 25 male elephants! We followed along the trail and secured a wonderful viewing position. Watching these males interact was amazing (George told us that this was clearly a social meeting of some of the oldest male elephants in the park!). We just sat there for 15 minutes or so and I said my proper goodbyes - to those elephants in particular, but also to all of the wonderful, fascinating animals in the Tanzania animal kingdom. Although I was still sad to leave, I felt at peace.

We spent that night back at Naitolia Camp, enjoying both a beautiful sunset and a marvelous sunrise, and then packed our stuff to head for Mount Meru - a spectacular four-day mountain climb was about to begin!

Malpa

Dear alwaysafrica and climbhighandsleeplow,

It was fantastic reading about your trip, alwaysafrica. It brought back many wonderful memories. I went to Tanzania a number of years ago with my children and we went on safari with EASTCO and also had a wonderful time.

I returned recently for a shorter visit and during that time I stayed at Naitolia. I was surprised to hear about the tipping practices as that was not my experience. It may have been the management at that time.

Naitolia is still owned and operated by EASTCO and when I was there recently I was told they refurbish the camp after each rainy season.

pippyvic

hi you probably dont even use this anymore but if you do. we are thinking of using east african safari and touring company and cant find any resent feed back can you help us we have never been overseas before and a feeling very aprehensive because there is no info on them.

ValCanada

I'm interested in hearing about your experience on Meru - is that out of the question at this stage?? I'm in Tanzania this September and I'm starting with a Meru trek.

Val.