Our second day of Safari was full day game drive in the Tarangire National Park.
After breakfast we left our accommodation at 6:45am.
It didn't take long to get back into animal spotting. Generally David did the photography whilst I got the binoculars - swapping occasionally because despite our 30x (24-720mm in 35mm speak) zoom on the camera, sometimes the binoculars were still superior.
A Wildebeest with a family of Impala
A male impala watching over his harem - we saw him chase of a couple of younger males
A Waterbuck
Pumba! ( A warthog for non Lion King fans)
A Male Ostrich
It didn't take us long to come across our first exciting find of the day -a group of hyenas finishing off breakfast! This had apparently been a wildebeest. It was also likely that the hyena eating was either going back for more, or lower down in the pack order as the others were looking quite full. There were also a couple of jackals and lots of vultures hanging around waiting their turn. We were very close - maybe only 10-20 meters away. Close enough to hear the bones crunch!
We could have stayed watching for ages, but there was more to see.
Moving on we came across a group of 4 Giraffes (2 adults and 2 juveniles) right in front of our car.
Proof that I was there :)
The 2 juveniles
We thought that we were doing pretty well with the Giraffes, but a call came over the radio that there was a family of elephants, so off we went.
I quite like the idea of seeing baby elephants everyday :)
After a while our guide suggested moving on....
It was starting to get warm, and after the general excitement we were all feeling a bit sleepy as we drove along. Suddenly, one of the girls who had been frowning at a log suddenly yelled "Cheetah!"
And there she was, a beautiful female cheetah with her cub :) :)
We were the first ones there, and had the privilege of watching them play before word got round and all the other vehicles turn up.
David has decided that cheetah cubs are pretty cute!
(Side Note: The animals are very used to and not bothered by the vehicles)
Using the vehicles as cover, mum started to take notice of a group of impala and wildebeest in the distance. We got very excited! Were we going to witness a hunt?
We sat watching for ages (we were with the cheetah's for over an hour). But unfortunately mum's cover was blown when she was spotted by a keen eyed wildebeest that sounded the alarm.
Maybe next time.
By this point everyone else in the park had turned up! We decided to move on.
It was coming up to lunchtime, but there was still so much to see.
We came across some Grants Gazelle and a couple more cheetah's.
Some kind of lizard thing in a river.
Just then a message came over the radio, and before it could be translated, our driver was off. We drove up to a tree, and for a moment we couldn't spot anything, and then we saw the pride of lions asleep in the tree. This is apparently uncommon to see them like this, so our guide was very excited. We spent a while watching them, as the difficult lighting meant that everyone's camera needed adjusting to get a decent photo. There was also a lioness in the grass watching us.
Do you think it's comfortable?
Lunchtime was in a beautiful spot overlooking a marshy river where there were elephants and buffalo. Halfway through lunch a couple of male lions were spotted lying in the grass watching us, about a couple of hundred meters away. As the generally don't come near large groups of humans we carried on, but one girl picked up her lunchbox and retreated a safer distance closer to the vehicles. After a while the lions moved further away.
After lunch we went to have a closer look.
Further along we came across a magnificent bull elephant, who posed for the classic elephant shot.
Not much further along, we found a herd of females with their calves.
More wildlife and general landscape photos - it was about 2:30-3pm at this point and we were getting tired.
Hartebeest
Zebra and Eland
General Landscape shots
ZEBRA CROSSING!!!! We yelled this every time we spotted one. We did have to explain the joke to the Americans.
More baby elephants :) :) No matter how many we have seen, you just can't get over the cuteness, especially when they are playing with something in their trunk.
Not long after this we came across the other vehicle in our group that had stopped. Thinking that they had spotted something, we pulled up alongside. I was quite surprised when one of the guys poked his head up and said "We need Jo, and does anyone have a pair of tweezers??". It turned out that somehow he had got a tick attached to his leg. Not sure how, as apart from lunchtime we hadn't left the vehicles. But after one of the girls dug out a some tweezers, I went over to the other vehicle and did my first human tick removal service!
By this time we were done with the game drive, and headed back to our accommodation at about 4pm. Haron warned us that it would be an early start the following morning, so we spent the remainder of the evening relaxing, and chatting around the pool.
Next Time - We head to the Serengetti
