Tanzania – Tarangire National Park

Welcome from Trouspinet the vagabond teddy bear! This time my destination is Tanzania, and I am accompanied by my friend Snoopy for a two week safari. As far as I know, there are no bears in this part of the world, but I am hoping to see lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and lots more – plus some amazing scenery and interesting people. We travelled in January to escape the depressing winter weather in London, but made the mistake of booking a flight passing through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, where a couple of days of cold snowy weather had caused the cancellation of most of the flights. I followed developments anxiously online, but miraculously my flight from London into Amsterdam and my continuation to Tanzania were both among the small number of flights that operated.

From the freezing cold in Amsterdam, we arrived in Arusha, Tanzania’s third biggest city, late in the evening. Immigration and baggage claim were both very efficient and soon after landing we were enjoying some warm fresh air and a cold beer by the side of my hotel’s swimming pool. We slept well and next day after breakfast met Estomih, who was to be our driver and guide for the next twelve days. He showed us to a large and comfortable specialised safari jeep with an opening roof, and we set off to our first destination, Tarangire National Park, a two hour drive away.

Tarangire Park is known for its dense forests, baobab trees and elephants. It is also home to lions and leopards, but they are usually hard to see because of the vegetation. However, luck smiled on us and a short way after the park entrance we bumped into a group of three lionesses drinking water and half-heartedly stalking some nearby zebra.

A short way further into the park we came across a leopard, hiding high in a tree.

Surprisingly, finding Tarangire’s famous elephants proved rather harder. We drove around searching but the huge animals were nowhere to be seen, so instead we made a break for lunch at one of the park’s picnic areas. This proved to be a treat, and was to be a highlight of each day of our trip. Estomih brought a huge picnic hamper out of the jeep, found a picnic table, and set out a spread of rice, meat and vegetable stews, fish and fruit. As a final flourish he even produced a bottle of Tanzanian wine.

We spent a leisurely hour sampling this feast and relaxing, occasionally driving away naughty monkeys who would jump onto tourists’ tables and steal any unguarded food.

After lunch we set off to explore again, and soon stumbled on a large herd of elephants slowly making their way through the jungle.

We also bumped into a few single adult males, who usually live separately from the herds of females and babies.

As the afternoon wore on, it grew hot, and the wildlife became harder to see. Estomih drove us towards the remote part of the park where our camp was located; on the way we saw two more very sleepy lions.

Our accommodation was located inside the park, meaning that it can be visited by wild animals, especially at night. The manager introduced us to his camp, and explained the rules to us – the most important one being to use the walkie-talkie in our room to ask for an escort to take us to and from the restaurant at night. He said that there had been cases where camp staff or tourists had been attacked by animals, but that inside our tent we were quite safe. After dinner – which was good, given the remoteness of the site – we settled down in our tent for the evening. It was large, with a big bed and separate toilet and shower inside. We were soon drifting to sleep, listening to the sounds of the jungle around us. Our safari trip around Tanzania had started well.