The unexpectedly impressive Tarangire National Park

A species of hornbill in the
hotel's garden

Chicken tandoori...Tanzanian style

Pretty yummy too!

With my original itinerary of just three days for safari, Serengeti would’ve been too far to warrant a meaningful visit which limited the choices with Ngorongoro Crater being a definite one and then two other unfamiliar parks – Tarangire and Lake Manyara.

Online research indicated that Tarangire was a fine park but the reviews for Lake Manyara weren’t too positive. The main attractions at Lake Manyara were its tree climbing lions, plentiful birds and its large flocks of flamingos. The tree climbing lions seemed like a good marketing ploy to me and I had seen thousands of flamingoes at Lake Bogoria in Kenya a couple years ago so given an option I would omit Lake Manyara but I wouldn't have that option if I end up on a group tour that included it in its itinerary.

Several Toyota Land Cruisers at the park entrance 

Welcomed to the park by Zebras

By saving two days on Mt Kilimanjaro the possibility of making it to Serengeti suddenly opened up but several things still needed to fall into place for that to happen - first of which was getting from Moshi, where I was sleeping overnight, to Arusha.

To give myself the best chance of getting on a tour that same day with my preferred itinerary I got up early and arranged for a taxi to take me to the city center from where I planned to take a public transport to Arusha. The receptionist must have woken the taxi driver from his deep slumber because he took a while to show up. While I waited for him I used the hotel computer to hurriedly jot down contact details for a few tour companies in Arusha. Now, in hindsight, I feel it was one hell of a call.

Mother zebra with foal

On the way to Arusha, I started making calls to the tour companies checking if I could join a pre-existing tour that very day.

Wildebeest...preview of what was to come in Serengeti

Initially it wasn't going as planned because some phone numbers didn't work while others did not respond. The ones that did respond didn't have any tours that matched my desired itinerary. Then, moving down the list I dialed the number of a company called Lasi Tours but this time the connection was terrible so couldn't hear what the other person was saying.

Baobab tree vegetation of Tarangire - The hole in the trunk
was purported to be used by poachers to hide

Waterbuck

Vervet monkey

It turned out that he heard perfectly well what I said because he texted back “don't worry; you can still make a 5-day tour starting today…please call me when you get to Arusha”. I was glad I had something to look forward to when I get there although I wasn't very optimistic. It would be 9:30am by the time I got there and the chances of a tour leaving after than were remote. I also felt that he was probably just trying to reel in a customer by getting him interested and then selling some other tour.

View of park from the Tarangire hill. The small body of water is the Tarangire River

A different angle of looking at wildlife

Masai Giraffe

When I finally made it to their office, the representative stood waiting for me right beside the road. He mentioned that he had a tour for five days with Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire (the absolute perfect itinerary) that left just 20 minutes ago but I could still make it. I couldn't believe my luck but had to keep my enthusiasm in check because I still had to get over the money issue.

Difference in the pattern of the East African
(top, Tanzania)and West African
Giraffe (below, Cameroon)

The problem was that I feared I just didn't have enough cash with me. I guess my budgeting was incorrect which doesn't look too good on my skills as a Finance Manager especially since I do budgets half of the year (or at least that's how it seems sometimes :)).

He quoted me a price I could not afford so I got my cash envelope and laid it out in from of him and told him that’s all I had. Although it was a decent amount I knew he was not too pleased because he had already given me a last minute discount. I then pulled out my wallet which had a sum total of $35 and laid out $15 of that on the table and told him I needed the $20 to take me back to the airport on the last day!

Distant view of the cheetahs

A herd of elephants under the makalani palm trees

Knowing and understanding that I was genuinely down to bare bones he picked up the $15 and agreed to put me on the tour. Its funny how the human mind work sometimes - the $15 that I laid out in front of him clinched the deal but it was such a small percent of the money I had earlier laid out.

Either that or maybe be was just trying to squeeze some more out of me. Either way, it was a win-win because I got on the perfect safari at a ridiculously low rate and most of what I paid was pure profit for him since I was just an add-on to an already scheduled tour.

African fishing eagle

He called the driver of the vehicle that had left on tour and asked him to stop for a restroom break while I was put into another car and taken to join them.

So basically…against all odd I had made it happen. Struggling on the mountain to save two days and then waking very early the next morning when it was easier to rest the sore legs…and then getting the contacts at the last minute…and calling the tour companies on my ride from Moshi to Arusha - it all felt so worthwhile!

Lilac-Breasted Roller

Justin and Holly, a young couple from UK where the only other tourists on that vehicle making it even better since it was a vey small group and felt sort of exclusive. I thanked them for not minding waiting for me and they in turn were glad to have some company for the next few days. The first park on our itinerary was Tarangire which was a couple hours from Arusha and we were only going to do a half day safari.

At the entrance gate we waited for our guide, Dennis, to process the paperwork and there I was introduced to a horde of Toyota Land Cruiser safari vehicles. At that point I knew I needed to get used to it because I would be seeing several more from that point onwards, especially in Serengeti.

Warthogs...sensing someones looking at them

First we encountered a dazzle of zebra that defiantly stood on the road giving us good photo ops. The elephants soon followed and over the course of the rest of the afternoon we saw several elephants, probably more than all the elephants that I have seen in Africa…put together!

Perhaps somebody is

Dennis informed that actually the elephant population was not at its equilibrium level because a few years ago poachers severely decimated their population while “the park officials and government were sleeping”. It still was a very impressive number though.

In addition to the Zebras and elephants, we saw waterbucks, ostriches, giraffes, wildebeests, impalas, buffaloes, vervet monkeys, warthogs, jackals and two species of big cats!

Sun setting on a great evening in Tarangire

First, we spotted a couple cheetahs resting under the shade of a distant tree and then three lions. Earlier when I had asked Dennis if Tarangire had any lions, he responded in the affirmative but said seeing them is rare as they are always hiding. He did not mention anything about the cheetahs and the leopards are naturally shy so I wasn't expecting any big cats. Also, the way he spoke it seemed to me as though he didn't think we had a good chance of seeing them.

Perhaps he did not want to give false hopes but the lions were anything but hiding - lazing right beside our vehicle. The vegetation in the park was also very unique because it was dotted with several baobab trees. It sort of reminded me of my drive through the Tsavo National Park further up in Kenya.

In a few hours that afternoon we had seen a lot of wildlife and the big cats where a pleasant bonus and we hadn’t even visited the southern part of the park. Tarangire had pleasantly surprised me and we exited the park with me being very impressed and excited for the next few days. I would also get a chance to rest my weary body.