I was woken at 5am by loud noises close by our room. Crashing and chewing noises. Try as I could in vain to strain out of our window (and stand on our balcony) I could not see what it was in the dark, only that it was large. I was desperate to run outside and see what it was, but common sense (and an angry wife) prevailed and I went back to bed. The next day, 100 metres or so from our room were elephant tracks and torn up trees..probably good I stayed inside.
The next day we were off on a day safari of nearby Tarangire National Park. The park, the 6th largest in Tanzania, is busting to the seams with elephant. Dry season ie now, is the best time to see lots of them. They amble from the heart of the park, the almost dried up Tarangire River (the 'heart of Tarangire') to marshlands and back again, wreaking havoc with trees and leaving their dung everywhere.
Tarangire is also home to thousands of birds with over 500 species living there. We saw snake eagles, fish eagles, eagle owls, vultures, storks, sacred ibis, herons, lilac breasted rollers, magpie shrikes, horn bills and on and on. But mostly lots of elephant and the occasional impala, zebra or ostrich.
(impala)
Franatee liked seeing a lot of dik-dik (tiny antelope) running around:
I think I liked seeing a fish eagle transit from screeching into flight close by. We also saw the fish eagle doing a crazy squawking thing and then flipping its head back (flip top head style). Lazarus, our guide told us that was only the third time he'd seen that since becoming a guide three years ago. We saw some sad old (but huge) male elephants, too old to keep a place in a herd wandering by themselves. Lots of old elephant die of starvation as they lose their teeth.
(an old male with only one tusk)
(giraffe by the Tarangire river)
Near the river, we found what we thought was a dead baby elephant only to have it sit up after 10 minutes of being sprawled motionless on the ground. Guess it's family were just protecting it while it slept. 'The elephant, she is a good mother' our guide told us. We dubbed the baby the ‘Lazarus’ elephant in honour of the name of our guide who had declared that it was only sleeping.
(you can see the baby elephant sleeping in the background)
I had a pic with some elephant bones and continued to get nice and close to many of the elephant I am obsessed with.
Not even the constant biting of tsetse flies (the non ‘sleeping sickness’ variety I was told) could dampen our spirits. That night I had a bath under the stars cradling a beer in my paw and pondering the circle of life. And bubble bath suds.
The next day, Saturday, after watching the aptly named violet starlings cavorting near the breakfast area, we relaxed in our room, before popping out in the afternoon for another guided walk. We walked close by a group of elephant before coming near to a stream where an angry elephant was charging at a troupe of baboons who were trying to get a drink. Man, a trumpeting and irate elephant is pretty cool to see on foot close up. We backed away and slowly walked home.
(you can see the angry elephant and the baboons)
That night we did a night drive with spot lights through the surrounds. It reminded me a lot of similar trips out when I was volunteering on a South African Conservancy in 2008. We didn’t see too much, only a hare or two, a bat eyed fox and a genet cat. No leopard, lamentably. But Moses our guide was pretty amazing. He managed to also spot a chameleon (can you believe it!) pretty sharp eyes.
To be concluded..
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