Safari - Tarangire

Today we woke up in Arusha, at the Ahadi Lodge, and had breakfast there before our guide Alex picked us up. We drove in our safari vehicle - a Land Rover with a pop-up roof - and went to Tarangire National Park. This park is not as well known as Serengeti, but we saw all kinds of animals there, and the scenery was pretty fantastic, too.

We saw wildebeests and zebras right away - they are plentiful in the park - but we soon saw giraffes, water bucks, and elephants. We saw a LOT of elephants. I thought they might be kind of rare, but they were everywhere. At times they were only a few feet from our vehicle, and it was great to see them so close. When on safari, people are generally concerned with seeing "The Big Five" - elephants, rhinos, cheetas, lions, and leopards. Of these, the leopards are the most difficult to see because they hang out in treetops and are very well camouflaged. Our first day, we saw three of the big five - elephants, cheetas, and lions! I've seen all these animals in zoos, but there is something so exciting about seeing them in their natural environment. We also saw all kinds of interesting birds, including some big eagles. Clif took almost 200 photos today. We'll try to weed them down to the very best ones before we make you look at all of them :-)

Our lodge tonight is a permanent tented lodge. We have our own tent on stilts as our room. There is running water (or course, we can't drink it, but we do get a hot shower) and enough electricity to have some bedside lamps. We do have internet here, but we have to pay extra for it. We were greeted on arrival with a wet towel to wipe our face and hands (it's very dusty on safari) and a glass of cold tea. We are now sitting under a big thatched canopy, next to the dining area. Dinner is served at 7:30, so we'll see what they are serving then. Until then, I'm just sitting here and watching some zebras and wildebeests wander by as the sun sets ...