Tarangire Ndovu Ledge, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Good morning. 07:00 breakfast. Yogurt, fresh mango, banana and grapes accompanied by toast and coffee. 7:30 we sat with Alex and went over the names of the animals we have seen and talked about our safari today.

08:00 we headed out into the bush to see what we could find. We say ostriches again today, I left them off yesterday’s list. We search for any cats but we didn’t find any. We did see many of the same animals as yesterday and a few new bird species.

We returned back to the camp about noon, and went to our tent to clean up before lunch. Showering is a day time activity since the water is all solar heated. However, today is warm like the first day.

Lunch was traditional chicken pilau with salsa “Kachumbari”. The kachumbari isn’t much different than Mexican salsa in California. We also had red banana pudding. Red banana’s are the same as the yellow bananas we get at home except the skin is red and they seem a little sweeter than the yellow variety.

After lunch we took a nap. It is the heat! At 17:30 we headed to the lounge to get a cold drink and tea. We played cards and went to dinner. Just enjoying being here in the bush. Being able to sit outside on the deck of our tent cabin, having a cigar and watching the birds

New sightings for today:

D’Amoud’s Barbet

Eurasian Bee-eater

Fish Eagle

Grey-crowned Crane

Northern White-crowned shrike

Cattle Egret

Black-headed Heron

Striped Swallow

Common Ostrich

Crested Francolin

Red-necked Spurfowl

Yellow-necked Spurfowl

Eurasian Roller

Lilac-crowned Rollerstar

Black-faced sandgrouse

Longtailed Fiscat

Magpie Shrike

Red-billed Oxpecker

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Ashy Starling

Superb Starling

Southern Red Bishop

Masked Weaver

Red-headed Weaver

Vitelline Masked Weaver

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

Cardinal Woodpecker

Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax

Common Snapping Turtle

Dinner was Green lentil soup with homemade pastry twists, Tanzanian beef, chicken and seasonal vegetables for me, paneer and season vegetable skewers for Mary. Paneer is a soft white cheese. These were served with Tanzania vermicelli rice, roasted potatoes, steamed carrot and spinach medley and garlic yogurt dip. Dessert, we went for sweet mango custard for me and seasonal fruit pieces with chocolate dip for Mary.