TANZANIA
& KENYA Cheeseman Safari continued
Tarangire National
Park, Arusha & Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 3-5
On 3 Aug after our one day in the
crater, we headed out to Tarangire National Park. I got sick
with a cold, however, so it was a long drive. Once we arrived
at the Tarangire Safari Lodge tented camp, we both sat out the
afternoon game drive and rested. Aaron sat on our porch, smoked
a cigar and watched the elephants, giraffe, zebra, impala and
waterbuck go down to the river for a drink. Very cool. I washed
a bunch of laundry after my nap as the air was so hot and dry,
everything would dry quickly.
As the sun start to set and we were getting ready to take a shower, Irene & Chris shouted to us from their tent next door not to go outside our tent as a snake was starting to work its was up the step and near the door. I wasn't too worried as I knew there were many harmless snakes and only a few harmful ones. However, not to take any chances I took a sock and stuffed it into the small hole in the door where all the zippers came together. Luckily that noise was enough to scare away the snake from our tent, but unluckily it moved back over to Chris & Irene's tent. Once they went to get help, we saw it rear up and spread its back. Sure enough, a Spitting Cobra. No human ended up hurt, but the cobra was needlessly killed instead of being captured and moved. It seems the no one in the staff was trained to handle snakes which is a real shame since we were in the middle of a national park. I must say that I was very careful when exiting the tent to use the bathroom in the middle of night.
The next day since I was still sick, we sat out the early morning game drive and slept in. Of course that is the morning everyone saw lepoards. We did go on the second longer game drive and rode with Bruce & Nancy. We had lots of fun with them, even saw the Gesund-Kipe! Had p&j sandwiches for lunch, quite a treat. Had to make sure not to wear dark blue or black that day as this is an area with Tsetse flies out. They were not in great numbers compared to what it could be during the rains, but they were enough to bite & anoy us. We found a huge Baobab tree and all walked inside. Right before lunch we saw a huge group of elephants, first bathing and drinking in the river, and later they took large dust baths right in front of our car, very cool! Saw a lepoard with a kill in a tree far away and, determined it was a wildebeast. Also saw a lion in a tree, but very high up and very unusual as they are not good climbers. Saw Madagascar Sqaucko Heron. Also saw three Puff Adders along side the road that day. On way back from drive took some GREAT sunset pics with a giraffe.
On Aug 5 we were headed to Nairobi for the night. Again I slept in & missed the morning game drive to make sure to beat cold, and we had the long drive to back to Arusha. We had lunch at the Nunes' home, they are the owners of the tour company the Cheeseman's work with in Tanzania. We had great Indian food, their family had imigrated to Tanzania from Goa, India. Before lunch we went spear shopping. Aaron said he needed them and doesn't every man deserve at least one spear in his lifetime!
W then climbed into bigger vans and drove the 4 hours to Nairobi. Back on paved roads, quite a treat! 90% of the roads we had been on were unpaved. Not as hellaciously holed like Botwsana but still very bumpy. Once got to Nairobi we were astonished with the amount of development and modernity. A real big sprawled out dirty, noisy city. Once got to our room at the Mayfair, Holiday Inn we were greeted with a familiar anaseptic hotel room smell. Felt like we were we could be in a Holiday in AnyCity, USA and I must say, it was a real treat. We had TV, could watch BBC and catch up on world news. That and a real hot shower with great water pressure made me a happy camper. Not that the previous hotels weren't great, it was just nice to be in a 'corporate' hotel room for a change. Said goodbye to Helene and Howard as they made their way back to Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Mother baboon with her baby riding on her back
A herd of elephants including a cute young one coming from their river bath
Elephant in mid-dust bath, everyone needs a dust bath after a river bath!
National Geographic quality photo I must say
Take me to The Ark & Samburu, Aug 6-8