Blogs from Tarangire National Park, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 4

I just had the best day. When went into town this weekend to stay at the hostel, shower, etc. And a group of us girls decided to go on a day safari. We got picked up and driven to Tarangire National Park. When I went to Africa I didn't really think about where the stereotypical animals, such as elepahants, giraffes, and zebras would be. There definitely weren't any in the village or in town, but on the way to the National Park we did see a few giraffes. However, most of the animals live within the National Parks where they are safe. We got kind of a late start, and therefore didn't see any of the big 5 cats. They come out most often in the early morning when the sun isn't too hot yet. However, ... read more

We are on another amazing adventure and will do our best to capture some of it. We haven’t been very “bloggy” on our last couple trips but think there are some stunning photos that we should share. We decided ages ago to head to africa this summer. We jokingly invited Shiona (shelagh's sister) and her new husband Andy to join us for their honeymoon. We never expected they'd say yes. So this is the "Shiona and Andy's honeymoon crashed our holiday" trip. We spent our first day in Tanazania sitting beside the pool in our hotel. Mount Kilimanjaro appeared briefly from behind the clouds and the photographers got a couple shots. It turns out that would be the only time that we would see Kili as it is a very “shy” mountain. Shelagh, Shiona and Andy ... read more

Geo: -4.46143, 36.0681Wow what a contrast, lush green around Mt Kilimangaro has turned into a dry dusty barren landscape begging for rain. Even the Massi doods seem disheartened. Earlier we meet some SAfricans who were returning from the area we are now in. They indicated the Taragiri NP had a high concentration of animals around what is left of the Tarangire River (end of the dry season). So again off we went with no real idea of what to expect.. enough time had lapsed from our last bush camping experiences so that Lisa's memory of being in the tent had faded. We paid the entry fees and headed in for an afternoon safari drive, sure enough there are heaps of animals here, Elephants, Giraffe & Ostraiges. Come 6pm when we are no longer permitted to drive ... read more

The day's delay means that I will be joined by M and his girlfriend K who has just flown in from Germany. There is one other customer, a New Yorker called P who lives barely a block from where I was in my Chelsea days, and when I ask about the Kiwi woman I'm told she has decided not to come. The suspicious part of my nature is fairly sure this was all a ruse on the part of the safari operator to eliminate the possibility of having to send me out on safari on my own. No matter, as the four of us bond quickly, all late-20s or older. It's good that there will only be four of us - the Landcruiser seats five but previous experience has shown that that's barely comfortable for plain ... read more

11/2/08 Returned home from one of the coolest weekends of my life today. We left for safari on Friday afternoon in four sweet land cruisers converted into safari trucks. It was about an hour drive to Arusha, where we made our first stop. Arusha is incredible! It is more developed and much bigger than Moshi, probably about 1.2 million. We stopped to go to a shop-rite, probably the most American super market in the area. There we stocked up on Pringles and wine… you know just the bare essentials. We then drove another 2 hours towards our campsite. Before getting to the campsite we stopped at a Masai village. The Masai are one of the biggest and oldest tribes in Tanzania and just about exactly what you think of when thinking of indigenous tribes of Africa. ... read more