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Published: September 24th 2008
10/09/08 - 12/09/08
After a very bumpy 5 hour bus trip we arrived in Arusha, Tanzania. We were met by one of the tour company's guides and were taken to our overnight Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, where we were glad to to have a shower, feed and get to bed.
We awoke to a beautiful morning and headed down for breakfast. This was the first day of our real safari and we were all excited.
We arrived at Tarangire National Park at lunch time and had lunch at the main gate. After lunch we headed into the park. It wasn't long before we spotted our first African wildlife. We continued on to the lodge to checkin. We stayed in permanent tents with single beds and ensuites. Sandra's style of camping.
The lodge overlooked a river running through the african savanah. We could see a great number of different animals coming to, and going from the river. Sitting down for a break before our afternoon safrai started, the girls got their school books out to catch up on a little homework. This lasted about five minutes as a small herd of elephants grazed there way up to and through the
resort. It was unbelievable. Baboons came and went like they owned the place.
We climbed aboard our safari vehicle which had a pop up top, this allowed us to stand and and have a 360 degree view, and headed off into the wild. We were so amazed by the number of different species that we saw in a short period of time. Our guide "Davis" asked the girls if they wanted to see a McDonalds, and the girls of course said yes. "There they are," he said. "Where," said the girls. "Have a look at the back end of that antelope, the markings look like the McDonalds symbol," said our guide. The girls were amazed to see the M for McDonalds stamped on the rear end of the antelopes. These were Impala.
We had a close encounter with a group of elepants, when Sopie's voice caught the attention of the large female, which was the leader of the herd. She was walking very close to the vehicle and took offence at Sophie's voice, promptly turned to face us, moved directly toward us with a don't mess with me gesture, stood there for a moment as our hearts were in our
mouths, then with a shake of her head turned and moved off toward the rest of the heard. That was our first but not the last eyeball to eyeball experience with an elephant.
The next day saw us up bright and early with a 8am start. This morning we explored another section of Tarangire National Park where we were very fortunate to see Cheetahs and Lions. Returning to the Lodge for lunch we saw a Lioness stalking some Zebra's and Impala at a river bed, we thought we were going to see a kill but the animals got spooked and all took off.
After Lunch we collected our many bags and we made our way out of the park, to Lake Manyara National Park.
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andrea
non-member comment
SOK adventure safari
Hi there! I just read your report on SOK Adventure. I'd like to confirm that the company is good. Me and my partner are planning to do a safari in northern tanzania with them, but as you already might know, there are soooooooo many and it's hard to trust the internet! We live in Sydney, I'm southamerican and my partner is australian, and I saw you were australian as well? Well, thanks for your help and nice blog :) Cheers Andrea