Safari Day 1
We left the lodge from Day 0 early in the morning, and drove to Tarangire National Park. The drive took most of the morning, and we were all still pretty tired from the flight and jet lag. Jenna and I only had to deal with a two hour time difference, but our friends from New Mexico were dealing with a 10 hour time difference, and recovering from 18 hours of flying the previous day.
Most of the drive to Tarangire was on tarmac. We didn't know, at the time, that this would be a luxury, and one of the only times we drove on a paved road for the entire trip. We passed a fairly arid landscape dots of settlement and Masai villages on either side of the road.
When we arrived at Tarangire, we had a short wait while Adam took care of the paperwork. Once that was done, we headed into the park. We saw some herd animals on the way to the lodge, a single giraffe, a few impala, and a zebra. However, we had to get to the lodge to get checked in.
As we made the turn down the long dirt road that lead to our lodge, we came accross our first real site of wildlife in this park. When I say that, I don't mean the first wildlife we saw, but the first moment when we all realized that this was not a big zoo.
We stayed at the Tarangire Safari Lodge in their Luxury Tents, and there was a herd of elephant on the grounds. They weren't being kept on the grounds, they just happened to like that spot.
We stopped to watch the elephants for awhile, and then drove on to the lodge. The park and the lodge both get their name from the Tarangire river which is a year-round fresh water source in this area. Our lodge was placed on a ridge overlooking the river valley, and it had some really stunning views.
We checked into the lodge, found our tents, and ate lunch. While we were eating an enourmous herd of wildebeest and zebra moved to the river to drink.
In the early afternoon we left the lodge for our first game drive, or as our guide would say, "wildlife viewing opportunity".
We saw some amazing birds like the Superb Starling, male Ostrich, and the African Grey Hornbill. We also saw many fine examples of two of the iconic trees of Africa, the Baobab Tree and the Acacia Tree.
There were many highlights that day, but one of the biggest for me was our first sighting of an Olive Baboon. I've always loved primates since my first anthropology class in college, but I had never seen them in the wild.
As the sun began to set, we turned around and headed back to the lodge. We had only been out for a few hours, but the entire group was filled with anticipation for what was to come in the following days.
There are more pictures from this first day on my Flickr account, and for more on the safari see Africa Safari.
