March 12, 2025

Tarangire National Park, Tarangire Ndovu Tented Lodge, Tanzania

Good morning. It was a tough night’s sleep. Still a little warm and having taking a nap for several hours yesterday afternoon we weren’t too tired. Sunrise was about 06:30, which happened to coincide with my waking Mary up. We had agreed with Alex that today we would do a game drive from 7:30 until 16:00. The lodge is going to pack us a box lunch.

We headed over to the dinning room at 07:00 for breakfast. Breakfast a a nice plate of fresh fruit, yogurt and a basket of breads. We could have had eggs or an omelette if we had wanted one. They do seem amazed at how little we eat, while we think we are eating too much. It was all good but the quantity is more than enough to fee four or more people.

Get get ourselves into the safari car and Alex heads out. During the next five and a half hours we drive around looking for game. Our first sighting occurred less than a half hour into the drive we we spot spot a family of warthogs. A male and female and one small baby. The warthog, call Pumba due to Disney, is an African wild pig with bristly gray skin, a large head, short neck, warty lumps on the face and curved tucks. Not exactly a beautiful beast but appears to be of a highly efficient design.

Alex got a call on the radio from another driver than a lion had been sighted not too far off. We hunkered down and took off like a shot for the location. Now, there are no “roads’ just dirt tracks. They aren’t maintained more than once a year and that is at the start of the tourist season in November. It rained last night so many of the potholes are filled with water. There for taking off like a shot means traveling these road at a bumpy 10 to 15 kph or 6 to 10 mph.

It only took about 20 minutes or so to reach our destination – a group of four bachelors resting near a small wadi. They had apparently caught a zebra last night and had spent most of the night and early morning enjoying their feast. We found their prey and one of the boys still enjoying breakfast. We stayed and watched them for about forty-five minutes.

It was about 11:00 when we pulled into a rest area on the east bank over looking the river.  This a a couple acre area with picnic tables, paved walkways and restrooms. We took a short break for tea and biscuits. There was also a guy with a van and trailer that appeared to be selling food and cold drinks. This is different than mine and Grace’s experience in Kenya.

After morning tea we headed out again. We were out about forty minutes when we spotted a group of giraffes. They are much darker in color than ones we have seen elsewhere. Continuing on we spotted a herd of elephants and they little babies, more warthogs, several species of birds and more elephants. This last group of elephants literally walked between the various vehicles to cross the road.

At 14:00 we stopped at “Public Campsite Number 1” for lunch. Again there weren’t any of these in Kenya. It had two raised areas with tables and benches for eating. Here they had a refrigerator from which someone was selling cold drinks. There were also restrooms with running water. They had a couple campsites with tents.

This area also had a family of baboons. One was sitting at the opening of one of the tents and appeared to be waiting for something or someone. Alex said they have a ranger here at night to watch over the sleeping campers. We are definitely too old to be camping especially under these circumstances.

We left the campsite and headed back towards our camp. We continued to see different animals and enjoyed the wildlife along the way. It is nice to see so many birds. Of course, the birds are here not only of the grasses but the bugs they can find to eat. However, none of those bugs appear to be bothering us.

It is a wonderful and beautiful place. Here are some of the animals we were able to see just on this first full day.

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl (a nice pair watching us from a tree)

Birds of Prey –

         Bateleur

         Fish Eagle

         Tawny Eagle

         Rupert’s vulture

         White-backed vulture

White-bellied Bustard

Cattle Egret

Red-billed Hornbill

Scared Ibis

Southern Ground Hornbill

Brown hooded kingfisher

Egyptian Goose

Helmeted Guineafowl

Olive Baboon

Vervet Monkey

African Buffalo

Kir’s DikDik

Grant’s Gazelle

Impala (lots of them)

Common waterbuck

Lion

Black-spotted Jackel

Warthogs

Plains Zebra

Savannah Elephant

There were others but those were the ones that I could confirm we saw with Alex. Can’t confirm it can’t claim it. Some we saw only once, others we saw several times or several different groups of them.

Back at camp we rested for a bit, played cards and went to dinner. I think they finally are beginning to understand we appreciate their food but they quantity is just too great. Dinner Menu:

Red bean soup with chapati triangles

Swahili BBQ: Vegetable Pilau, Roasted Green Bananas, Kuku roast, beef mshikaki, vegetable mshikaki, mbusi choma, mchicha, kachumbari, coconut shavings, fresh chili pickle.

Dessert: Klamath with ginger and cinnamon syrup

Kuku (goat) beef (goat) and with the chili sauce was excellent.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria