Baobabs, baboons, and jumbo johnsons

---

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 driving, and definitely too crowded for game viewing. We meet our driver/guide Dixon and the cook/camp-wallah Nuru. My final task is to hand over payment for the safari, a brick of Tanzanian shillings whose thickness is unavoidable given a total cost of $840 and the largest local note being TSh10,000 (=~$7.5). Then we hit the road.

M and P have both just completed Kilimanjaro climbs but in quite different circumstances. M climbed with a friend as part of a budget package - P was in a fundraising expedition that had its own toilet tent as well as over 50 porters. However they both say it was a major challenge with a subsequent great sense of accomplishment. I wonder if my own reasons for skipping it, namely that it's just another mountain, need to be reassessed.

P has also had something of a lifestyle epiphany, triggered by - amongst other things - reading Gandhi's biography. He has given up meat, alcohol, and other unnamed vices, and will be setting off on a year of travel at the end of the summer.

We reach Tarangire National Park around lunchtime. Tarangire is known for the density of its wildlife, particularly elephants, during the dry season, but its other interesting feature is a landscape studded with distinctive baobab trees. Baobabs are wide-trunked and can reach thousands of years in age. The fruit of the baobab is rich in both Vitamin C and calcium.

There is a surprising amount of paperwork for Dixon to complete before we are allowed in, a situation to be repeated at all the subsequent parks - it wasn't like this in Kenya. Most of the vehicles here are Landcruisers or Landrovers, not the minibuses common in Kenya, and there is a strictly enforced policy of only driving on existing trails. I see more vehicles here, in one of Tanzania's less-visited parks, then I saw in all of Masai Mara.

With Masai Mara just two months in the past, my memory of that is too fresh for total surprise and amazement at what we see in Tarangire, but it's still a great start to the safari. The spotting list includes elephants, zebras, lions, wildebeest, baboons, warthogs, ostriches, giraffes, waterbuck, impala, dik dik, kites, and mongooses. New to me are tree hyrax, ground hornbill, superb starling, and lilac-breasted roller.

The picnic lunch meets with everyone's approval. Surprisingly Dixon has no binoculars, and it's fortunate that one of the group has a pair. However he does tell us that elephants can communicate with each other from up to 10km away by infrasound rumbling.

Though this is a camping safari, with tents being pitched/broken down at each location then carried with us, the campsite is excellent, with hot showers and a bar. Dinner is tasty and filling, which augurs well for the meals ahead, but my cold is beginning to make its presence felt and I retire to my tent before 9PM.

Dull but possibly useful info
i. I did my safari with Tanzania Private Select Safaris (see Arusha entry for details). It cost $140 per day (i.e. $840 for 6 days), which included everything (even 1.5 litres of bottled water per day) bar tips and booze (though booze was only available at Sun Bright Camp). The accommodation was always camping, with a guarantee of your own tent for single travellers. Showers and toilets were available in each location but Sun Bright Camp (first 2 nights) had limited hot water, Soki Camp (third and fourth nights) had plenty, and Simba A camp had none. Electricity was available at Sun Bright Camp, there was none at Soki, and Simba A had so few outlets that you shouldn't count on having access to one.
ii. There were 4 of us in the Landcruiser - 5 would have been a bit cramped.
iii. We tipped $100 as a group to the driver and $60 to the cook. This was in line with the suggestion of the safari company, who said tips for safaris should be independent of the number of people in the group.
iv. The food was very good but most lunches were packed. Unless you like a cold chicken leg/wing, I'd advise going veggie.
v. I would definitely recommend this company.
vi. It is COLD at Simba A camp. You should have winter gear plus hats, gloves, etc.
vii. It's dusty for much of the time. A bandana will be useful, plus you might want to wear shades.
viii. If you are going to miss one of these parks, I'd definitely ditch Lake Manyara (certainly at this time of year) And if you can only do one East African safari, of the ones I've seen I'd have to vote for Masai Mara as the best experience. The big advantage of Masai Mara is being able to drive anywhere that your driver and vehicle can get you to. It's maybe not so great from an environmental and animal welfare part of view though. As such, you MUST have binoculars when in Tanzania.

---

Photos

Can't ... quite ... get ... to ... that
Giraffe trying for a DCM

Comments

[laandal]

Great pics...
Great photos as always. Your photo 'Elephant Dobber' made me laugh - it reminded me of a safari I went on as a child when my younger brother thought the elephant was having a baby and the trunk was coming out first!

[deleted_49612]

My boyfriend is frowning at your second photo, and asking why anyone would take a photo of that to post on the internet. But, pay no attention to him John. It is just penis envy. :D