Tanzania Day 2 Tarangire and Tree Tops

At 5:30 am we were awakened by a Maasai staff member bringing hot coffee, steamed milk and cookies to our tent! Now this is what I call camping!! Actually, he had to come out and lower the trap door so that we could descend the stairs from the tent. NO ROAMING THE GROUNDS AT NIGHT.

After a breakfast spent in the open watching the sun come up as we were entertained by the Superb Starlings (a gorgeous cerulean blue bird with brown bars) trying to steal the breakfast right off the buffet, we headed off with Ephata for a full day of animal watching in the bush.

The road from this camp is arguably the most bumpy ride I've ever had in my life....and that includes some of the crazy roads in Pocahontas County. The very first creature that Ephata pointed out to us was a Puff Adder, one of the most deadly snakes on Earth. According to Ephata, a victim can only survive a bite if he can get to a hospital within 30 minutes and IF that hospital happens to have the proper anti venom. Well, considering that it takes 30 minutes just to get to the main gate of Tarangire, a snake bite is tantamount to a death sentence!

Other deadly poisonous snakes in Tanzania are: vipers, black mambos, and green mambos, cobras (who spit their venom into the eyes of the victim).








We soon saw two young male impalas sparring with one another over their female love interest (who was standing nearby grazing and rather impervious to the trouble she was causing).

Not far from the impalas we saw several majestic giraffes at a distance with their heads taller than the Acacia trees they were eating.

Giraffes walk like camels...right rear leg followed by right front leg/ then left rear leg followed by left front leg. This is the gate that gives them the loping appearance.

One of the animal highlights of the day (for me) was when we spotted a large troop of baboons lounging, grooming, and playing in a sausage tree. A sausage tree is so named because it looks like it has several large sausages dangling from its limbs when, in fact, these are fibrous fruits with bark like exteriors. Very odd looking, but the baboons love this fruit.

We continued to see giraffes, elephants, baboons, and many species of exotic birds and Eagles.

One fact that really surprised me was that these creatures live together in harmony; they are not segregated in the wild! Having only seen these animals in a zoo, I always thought that they were isolated from one another.

In the late afternoon, Ephata took us back to the Tree Tops Tents where we had planned to take an afternoon game walk through the bush. Imagine our concern when we were met by a guard toting a rifle and a Maasai tribesmen carrying a spear to accompany us on the game walk. We were told to be quiet, to stay in a line, to walk behind the guard and in front of the Maasai warrior. YIKES.

At this point I was seriously having second thoughts. As it turned out, we did have to take a detour through some pretty high grass to avoid a herd of elephants. (I was really wondering what could be worse...death by being trampled by an indignant elephant or death by Puff Adder bite!

That night the entire camp had a barbecue dinner by the campfire where we enjoyed some tribal dancing provided by the Maasai workers in the camp. The dancing and singing was fascinating to me and sounded much like their imitations of animals in the wild. Each voice took on a different rhythm and pitch which gave the eerie effect of a cacophony. I'd love to study this more in depth.