Safari Day 1- Tarangire National Park

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Monday Morning- YMCA canteen
My new friends and I had breakfast at the Y this morning and excitedly talked about how nice our trip would be. We hoped that since it took so much time and energy to plan that it would pay off in a great Safari trip. The problem that most people encounter with safaris is that the animals don't make the same plans to see YOU! So you may or may not see as many depending on weather, dry season and migration. But anyhow, we were amped and ready to see the BIG FIVE. (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Buffalo)

We started out our day late, with much preparation at the Safari Co. office. We had to pay our balance and wait while they packed equipment, shopped for food and picked up the driver and the cook. By the time we got on the road it was after 10am. So late for a Safari start. But anyway, we were making the best of it.
Around midday, we stopped at a Souvenoir shop and had lunch just past Arusha. After lunch and about another hours drive we arrived at Tarangire National Park.

Funny thing- The first thing we noticed while waiting for the driver to pay our entrance fee, was that they were spraying the LandCruiser down with some sort of liquid. So we were thinking, "is this to kill bugs are to ward of animals from attacking us?" They guy spraying just told us it was 'truck spray' whatever that meant.
The 'Park' should be thought of as a protected forest because the flora and fauna are the reason people come, not for picnicing or swimming in the lake like some national parks.
Entering 'the park', we drove for almost an hour, but only saw deer and antelope or impala if we were closer to see the difference. So we were feeling kinda let down. It was already near 2:30pm and no big animals. So just as we were stretching and struggling to get a closer look at those antelope, right in front of us we through the open-top of the landcruiser we spotted a family of giraffe on the right and several group of deer on the left. May not seem so exciting to read, but believe me after spending so much time watching the antelope 'play' we were excited to see some wilder and bigger animals.
Tarangire National Park is known for it's large herds of Zebra, giraffe, and elephants. So so far we had seen 2 of the 3 and hoped to head to the water to maybe catch the elephants drinking.
We started down to the valley where the water was and just over the cliff going down we spotted a group of elephants slowly migrating in the direction we were going. So the girls and I in the back got amped and sat back in our seats to keep from falling while the truck tossed and shook over the bumpy road. Looking down

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Photos

Tarangire National Park
The entrance