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| Tarangire warthogs butting heads |
Tarangire National Park
Outbound to Iringa, May 30, 2024
By: Carol S
Excited to begin our safari in Tarangire National Park.
We enjoyed another fantastic breakfast at the Masailand Safari and Lodge. I will really miss all the fresh fruits and juices we get here every morning.
We set out with our guides Noel and Denis for Arusha Tarangire National Park. They were great guides and lots of fun.
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| Denis & Noel |
We hadn’t gone far when we saw ...
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| a troop of baboons right by the road. |
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| and a large group of Weaver bird nests. |
Tarangire Park is popular for safaris because it is known for its large populations of wildlife. The Park has many elephant herds or families as I prefer to call them. They are drawn there by the Tarangire River. The elephants are almost always in family groups with a matriarch and other female and all sizes of younger ones.
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| If a baby is under one year it can still walk under its mother. |
This is great for shade and protection. The elephants are always on the lookout for water sources and love to wallow in the mud.
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| Look at this happy girl all covered with mud! |
We also saw many wildebeests, zebras, giraffes, wart hogs and gazelles.
The zebras stand head to tail resting their heads on the others back allowing them a safe resting position as they can see in all directions. It has the dual purpose of putting them in a good position to swat each other's flies.
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| Zebras head-to-tail |
Huge herds of animals are attracted to the Tarangire River. The river becomes the only water source for thousands of animals, drawing large herds of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, giraffe, impala, eland and warthog there to drink.
It was so nice to have Dave along with his geology background. He explained the Great Rift Valley and other geology and helped us put the puzzle of geographical features together. The river is fed by seasonal sand rivers originating from the East and Southeast areas of the park. Within the Park the river flows North and empties into Lake Burunge. The river also connects to Silale, Gurusi, and Larmakan swamps within the park. The river and its permanent swamps are a critical water source for thousands of migratory animals and birds. Over 550 different species of birds can be found in the park.
The park has many acacia trees and huge baobab trees. They look like a tree that’s been turned upside down with their roots stretching skyward. They can live for 3000 years. I was excited to see them as I hadn’t seen any since we traveled to Madagascar. Elephants like to eat the bark because it contains moisture. The trunks can reach a circumference of 100 feet.
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| Tarangire NP is famous for its Baobab trees |
The park gets its name from combining two words Tara and Ngire, Tara in Mbugwe language means snaking river and Ngire in Hadzabe means wart hog. There are many wart hogs in the park. It covers 2,850 square kilometers.
As we drove through the park we saw many small herds of giraffes and families of elephants. The first 2 elephants we saw were two large bulls. I must admit after our experience a couple days before with the charging bull elephant the sight of them made my heart stop.
But it turned out these two guys had just had a nice mud bath and were only looking for some good trees to scratch themselves. I could imagine them smiling and having a good time.
We did see lots of impressive birds. I saw my first Gray Crested Crane, the national bird of Kenya. We saw many throughout the safaris. They are amazingly beautiful.
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| Gray Crested Crane |
Guinea Hens, when hunters brought them to market they were worth one guinea and that is how they got their name.
True to the park’s name we did see several groups of wart hogs. They are so ugly they are cute, especially when they stick their tails straight up and run one after the other.
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| A cutie? |
After a long and exciting day we arrived at the beautiful Heart and Soul Lodge for the night. After cleaning up we all gathered in the restaurant for happy hour. A favorite drink with our group was gin and tonics a great refresher. As usual we had a wonderful dinner. We are getting pretty spoiled but we’re soaking it up while we can.
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| Heart and Soul - dining with a view |
Huge organic garden that provided the many ingredients for our meals.
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| Heart and Soul - organic garden |
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