African Safari - Day 1

Where do we begin. I am absolutely overwhelmed by the things we have seen so far and the whole African experience.

After rushing back from Kili for a much needed shower we met Akmed again for a briefing and a great meal, not to mention a well deserved Kilimanjaro beer - It's kili time! It was up and at it bright and early to meet our guide and our cook from Kili Renato. We set off in our fantastic 4x4 with a pop top roof, perfect for game viewing. Our first destination Tarangire National Park. Upon entering the park, there was a fleury of activity and driver to driver speaking rapidly in Swahilli - a rare siting, so off we went, dust flying, white knuckles gripping, knee's bracing as we flew through the roads of the park, wild animals in the distance and nearby, but not to lose chase for the prize, we would see them all later. You can tell when something has been spotted as there are 4 or more jeeps huddled and stopped in one area. Our guide quickly spotted the elusive leopard lying in a tree, we eagerly strained with our binoculars to see. Look close to see if you can spot it.

We were so excited and our guide told us over and over how lucky we were, however, our luck just kept getting better. We saw so many animals our first day out, it was incredible, our cheeks hurt from smiling so much. We will put some in but if you want to see the lot, we will include the photobucket link, so you can really get a taste of the African Safari. Each park was so different from flora and fauna and landscape to the animals themselves and even the feeling of each place.

We saw this 65 year old elephant who towered over our 4x4 trucks! He ripped through the trees like they were tp. If you look closely the trees are full of thorns! He consumes 300-400 kgs of food a day.

We raced around the park, stopping for 10 - 15 minutes at times just to watch the animals. Our guide was so impressed with our luck, we saw the raw siting of a leopard as above, they are shy animals and so are rarely seen, then we saw another rare sighting of an Orynx, cheetah, plus we saw every animal from elephant to the mongoose. We spent lots of time watching the elephants and giraffes play in the water. It was also incredible to stop and look out and to see a valley with elephants, giraffe's, zebras and so many more animals all living together. Thank goodness for our 10 x optical zoom camera or we would never have even begun to capture the experience to send back to you guys. Almost every picture you look at has something amazing in it, there is always an animal hidden somewhere, like this one below, can you find waldo?

We have so many more pics of elephants to come, but each one was so fascinating to watch.

These are the impala's there is one male for every 50-60 females and then when the male gets tired a herd of bachelors challenges for the throne.

Warthogs

Ostrich

Zebra's with a lil baby

Giraffe's

Baboons

Wildebeests

Cheetah - Another rare siting for us.


So this is a taste of what we saw in our 4 or 5 hours in our first National Park. We left the park and camped just outside the border, ready for the next day and all the animals to come!