Day 3 To wild Tarangire National Park

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Saturday 5th February


We had early breakfast, for us that is, at 8 am. Paul lives a musician's life with staying up late at night and getting up late in the morning, and we tend to follow suit as a family. It creates problems with school and work, but all is relative anyway. This whole trip was good training for us as we got up early every morning, and I must say Paul has kept it up here at home as well this last week.
The hotel (its real name is Spices & Herbs Ethiopian Hotel and Restaurant) has a wonderful African Grey Parrot, sitting in a cage in the dining room. It talks a lot and is very friendly; one can stroke its head without getting bitten. My parents-in-law have an African Grey called Twifo who is much less reliable. It loves my mother-in-law but pretty much hates everyone else and will give you a sharp nip if you dare put your fingers in its cage. Twifo however talks a lot and will have us in stitches with its antics. It has always been thought that Twifo is a boy, and recently my parents-in-law had to give Twifo away to a friend of theirs, as keeping him was too much due to ill health. Twifo promptly laid some eggs when moved to the new lodgings, so proved himself to be female!
This morning Scott was not feeling well. I could tell he wasn't his usual self, as he was so very quiet and sluggish somehow. He still managed to eat some breakfast but I had to help him pack up his things as he just wasn't really there. We said good bye to this great little hotel and piled into two cars this time.
We had to go via a Shop Rite in Arusha as Harriet needed a few things, like hair conditioner. In the 70s you wouldn't have dreamed of buying anything like that, and you certainly would not have found any supermarkets. Now I would say you could get pretty much anything in the shops. A lot seemed to come from South Africa; we recognized many brands from out summer trip last year. We bought flip-flops for us and amongst other stuff a soap called 'Fa' which made Paul nostalgic as that was a brand of soap he used while living in Switzerland many years ago.
Then we climbed back into the cars and drove through Arusha towards Tarangire National Park. Harriet had booked us in at the Tarangire Safari Lodge , which she says is one of their favourite places anywhere. As it happens, Tina's good friend Annette is together with her husband Jonathon the managers (owners?) of the camp and I was looking forward to meeting her. I had a package with me from Tina to deliver but I never got to see Annette as she was in Pangani with her family, where they have another 'Robinson Crusoe' type of guesthouse. Her children were of course on half-term holiday from ISM as well. We did have SMS contact, and I'll look forward to meeting them when we get back to Tanzania at some later date. I congratulate them on having created such a wonderful camp!
In the 70s Tarangire was a relatively new park and we didn't know it very well. I remember it as quite a dry park, with animals mostly during the dry season when they would gather by the river. We used to camp in our own tent, my father was very keen on that and had devised a luxury camp routine, carrying camping chairs and beds and honing down the setting up and taking down of the camp to a mere hour or so. Needless to say all luxury was for his own benefit; we children slept on the tent floor and had only small stools to sit own. My father is a bit of a snorer and when we complained about it in the morning, he would flatly refuse to believe us and said that what we'd heard were lions roaring in the deep of the night.
The approach to Tarangire was spectacular. The rains had really only just finished a couple of weeks before we arrived and the country was green! The road is tarmac all the way, apart from the last 7 km or so. The entrance gate to the park is quite fancy to what I remembered, and while Harriet went to pay our park fees we walked to the little gift shop and a wonderful view point, built up into a big baobab tree; like a tree house. The view was wonderful, the greenness of the dotted acacias against the blue sky a great combination. All baobabs were in full leaf; aren't they the most fantastic of trees! We couldn't see any game and Harriet told us that there wasn't very much as they were all out on the plains. We expected to see a lot of elephant though, and some resident herds of impala, zebra and wildebeest. Giraffe also of course. One thing I never realized when I was younger, is that the National Parks are connected by so called wild life corridors, which stretch between them. These corridors are used at various times of the year by the animals. One huge threat to the wild life is that these corridors will be closed by farming and building encroaching, and then the animals will be virtually trapped in their parks. There is now a big movement to keep these corridors open and undisturbed. One can only hope that Tanzania realizes what a huge resource the wild life is; without it tourism will cease. Tourism comes with its own bad baggage, but cleverly handled it gives huge revenue to the country. Again we can only hope that they will not go down the Kenya route, with their mass safaris, but stay exclusive.
The car park was hot and dusty. There was an adorable squirrel sitting in the shade of a Land cruiser which captured Anja's attention. Scott was feeling pretty rotten by now, hot and sticky. He visibly brightened up when we were told that there was a swimming pool which we would go to after lunch. I had my reservations about letting him swim, but how can you refuse when it is hot and they love water?
Annette had reserved the best tents for us, with a view worth dying for overlooking the dryish river. There is a sheer drop and a huge panorama unfolding in front of the camp. Paul installed himself on our tent's veranda; feet up and beer and binoculars in hand. There were quite a few elephant strolling towards the river, and some giraffe spotted amongst the acacias.
We had lunch and then most of us gathered by the pool. My sister is some years older than me and she infuriatingly was wearing a bikini and looking good in it. I had my one piece, hiding my pale winter body and promising myself to buy and wear a bikini as well by the summer when we'll meet again in Finland. Aaah, confidence, where art thou?
I hope our youngsters didn't disturb the other guests too much, I'm afraid there was quite a lot of splashing and shrieking. I was content to sit in the shade and read my book (The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger), Serengeti Beer in my hand and the occasional stroll to see if there were more elephants by the river.
At 4 pm we gathered together and went for an afternoon drive. We drove towards Tarangire Hill, with the thought of coming back along the river in the evening sun. There really wasn't a lot of game, disappointing perhaps for our children. Paul and I had been last summer to Kruger Park in South Africa for almost 2 weeks and there we did see a huge amount of wild life, so it didn't matter too much to us. I was and still am enormously interested in African wild life, always wanted to make animal research of some kind my career, but it never happened. My plan now is to volunteer for something like Born Free Foundation or similar, once the children are independent. We'll see. On our way to Tarangire Hill we spotted a beautiful Leopard Tortoise on the road, which had to be inspected at closer quarters and then put safely away from the road. I remember buying a huge Leopard Tortoise in Mbeya from some boys selling it at our door. It had a wound/scratch on it shell and as such wasn't worth the outrageous 2000 shillings (in those days it was much more than now) that the boys wanted (they assumed we would kill the animal and keep its shell). The lads tried to explain that the shell had been spoiled when they ran after the tortoise and caught it with their spears! Now, how likely is that? We bought the wretched creature for 20 shillings, and it lived happily with us until we released it in Mikumi on our way back to Finland.
We saw some wonderful elephant and some spectacular giraffe by the river. A few warthogs, some impala, a zebra or two, a couple of waterbuck, some adorable vervet monkeys and that was pretty much it. Enough though to wet the children's appetite for some more. What they didn't like were the tsetse flies! As soon as we stopped they would swarm down on us, and boy can they give you a sharp bite! When I was very small we naturally called them 'Tese-flies'.
When we got back to camp in the evening sun, Scott was quite unwell. He had a fairly high temperature and a sore throat etc so we decided to give him some antibiotics as a precaution. This was really not necessary in hindsight, as he had of course some type of virus brought with him from England. We all eventually got it, incredibly annoying and unnecessary. Scott however had one stroke of luck with these antibiotics as it stopped him from getting the upset stomach that we others got later on. I found it inconvenient and annoying that my bacteria flora was so ill prepared for the change in diet. We were careful with what we ate, washed our hands constantly, but it still got to us. Not badly mind; no vomiting or pain, but enough to want to be close to a 'choo' at most times. Enough!
We had dinner in the wonderful circular dining hall. There was a large group of older tourists with a tour leader who kept us amused during the whole meal. These tourists were hanging on every word uttered by their guide, who basked in the adoration. He read out camp rules in a very loud voice: 'you must go straight to your tent after dinner. If you stray from the path you WILL be killed and eaten'. He then proceeded to give impressions of various wildlife. One of them was a honking cough complete with an undulating body action which turned out to be a hippopotamus. The tourists' eyes were like saucers, and we were hysterical.
The rest of the evening was most pleasantly spent by the bar, which is open to the elements. Bats were flying outside and the wonderful sounds of the African night all around. Harriet and I had a lot to catch up on, and we just sat there, Konyagi tonics in hand yet again, talking and talking. She is a great sister! Jon-Erik and Ossian were playing chess, and Vidar joined me and Harriet for a while. He is 14 and very much a teenager. He loves ISM, he's doing the first year of IGCSEs and there will be the dilemma common to many us who have gone to ISM, of his having to disrupt his schooling if they leave in the summer. He should really finish his IGCSEs, but how can you split the family? On the other hand Vidar is a typical survivor, and I think he would quickly blend back into the Swedish way of life. I can guarantee though that he will be an active ISM Alumni after a few years!
The day's excitement was not quite finished. Anja and Carita walked back to their tents earlier than us. Paul also retired, to enjoy the night in peace on our tent veranda. Scott of course was already in bed, ill as he was. Then I went back as well and while pottering in the tent I noticed torch lights by the restaurant. There was a lot of activity and presently Jon-Erik came and said they'd seen a leopard right by the path jumping down from a small tree just meters from the tents. He went to warn Anja and Carita not to go out on their own, which Anja immediately ignored and couldn't resist taking a look, so she saw the leopard, which she was very proud of! Scott, who slept very badly that night, says he heard it walking around his tent and he was quite scared. He did tell the truth as well, as we saw the paw prints in the morning. I didn't hear anything as I remove my hearing aid at night. What a bother!
And that was the end of our third day.

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Photos

Carita and parrot at the Ethiopian Bar hotel
Watch your fingers Carita!

Tarangire National Park entrance
The big baobab at the entrance.

Tarangire National Park
Look how green it is in February.

Tarangire Safari Lodge
Our friend Annette's tented camp.

View fromTarangire Safari Lodge
Looking down on the sandy river from our tent.

Another view fromTarangire Safari Lodge
Looking down from our tent.

Paul relaxing outside our tent
What could be better? Nothing - this is bliss!

Jon-Erik is also relaxing
The tents are really spacious.

Giraffe in Tarangire
I love giraffes, although this one is quite far away. But look again how green it all is.

Carita with the tortoise
The tortoise we found and put by the side of the road for safety.