Elephants

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Day 22

Day at Tarangire National Park. Oh, I forgot to say where we stayed...it was at Roika Tarangire Tented Lodge close to the entrance of Tarangire. This place was different than the rest, as we had our own tent with two queen sized beds, and oddly, a blue whale bathtub. I'm not sure what the relation of blue whales is to an inland park in Africa, and why they didn't have a hippo bathtub or crocodile bathtub puzzles me.

Since the lodge was close to the park, and each tent was from the restaurant, we had Maasai guards escort us at night to/from the restaurant and they seemed especially concerned about the elephants.

I tried to ask him how I'm supposed to act when I encounter an elephant, as I doubt rolling into a ball, covering my neck and protecting my insides will work the same with an elephant. I also don't think that looking big would work either.

As we were walking along the path, you could see assorted animal footprints (elephants, impalas, cats).

Game drive in Tarangire National Park, and this park is known for...you guessed it! Elephants! There were elephants everywhere, and we must've seen at least 5 herds, and some herds consisting of 20 elephants. Other than the elephants, our highlight was seeing a cheetah, still far away but much closer than the one in the Serengeti.

My personal highlight was my first actual meal in 5 days: pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables. After my meal, I did some shopping - there were some Maasai women outside the restaurant making beaded crafts, and purchased 20 handmade ornaments. I regret not taking a picture of the Maasai women!

This was our last day, and we had a flight to catch, so we left at 2pm to head to Kilimanjaro International Airport. BTW, Kili airport is very small.

That was the end to our tour. Some final thoughts: I found it very jarring the disparity between us and the locals. We were staying at fine lodges with buffet meals, and everything that could we want, while outside of the lodge were people that were living below the poverty line with no water, no heat, no electricity, and very little food.

Julius, our guide, did a great job of finding animals when no other groups could. He also opened up to us the living standards in Tanzania, and their health care and education system.

It was also striking that all of the road construction is financed by other countries (there were signs posted on each road to give the country and the engineering firm). The country that financed the road construction would also have an engineering firm that would come from that country. Why not hire a local company?

Overall, I loved Africa and can't wait to visit again! It challenges you. The dirt is dark brown and will never come out from your clothes, the bugs are massive, the animals are fascinating, and the people are warm and friendly.

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