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Published: November 8th 2012
Hello I spent the day at Tarangire National park yesterday. wow! It feels a bit surreal with so many animals I have seen in movies, books, doco and Zoo's just walking around n the wild. The landscapes was so beautiful, it is great the wet season has just started as the trees have flowers and new green shoots to add contrast to the landscape. The Baobab trees are over 300 yrs old, the large ones, and incredible. They are hollow inside! The tall flat topped trees are Acacia's, different type then in Aust.
Of course the wildlife took the show, so many to see for the first time I didn't know where to look and was hard to all take in. We saw, mongoose, Elephants, Impala, Wildebeest, Water Buffalo, Kipi, 1 lion resting in the shade of a distant tree, Zebras, Baboons, Monkeys, small native dog, I forget it's name, amazing birds including a secretary bird who eats snakes and stands 2m tall and has amazing head dress of feathers, warthogs and baby warthogs with small baby tusks! Giraffes, they were amazing, the different patterns and they were so graceful to watch move.
A long 13 hrs day of
travel to the park and 5 hrs in the park! Traveling to the park is fantastic people and village, city life watching that blows your senses. Changes in the landscapes, people, farming to city to the Massi nomads, it is hard to take it all in. One thing that stands out is the young men dressed all in black - which is unusual - and white painted faces in detailed patterns of dots and lines to cover their entire face. We saw maybe 6 of them from the car as we whizzed by. Turns out they are the young men just circumcised at age 18 to become Massi warriors. They dress in this way for 6-8 wks after the ceremony. Startling to see them in the contrast to the bright colours worn by all.
Tired from the bouncing around the safari truck for 13 hrs yesterday. I am headed to the pool and a book! 😊 i'll let the pictures talk for themselves.
The weather lifted yesterday and we also saw Kilimanjaro for the first time! Huge dumb of fresh snow over the top it was pretty amazing sight from the hot, dusty, savanna.
Hugs to family
and friends.
Kara
PS Ben will write more about his Mt bike trip day when he stops working at the congress, later tonight.
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