Day three of our safari and so far we're blown away. We are having a private tour for our entire 10 days in Tanzania. It's very unfortunate for our tour operator but it is an amazing experience for us. We have a private guide, Firoz, for our entire trip.
We just finished a three day safari in Tarangire National Park. It's the second largest national park in Tanzania and is home to the largest population of elephants in the country -- 6,000. The terrain and weather is much different than we expected. It's been cloudy and very cool (probably 60 degrees). The terrain is stark, beautiful. It actually reminds us a lot of Colorado in the autumn. I've been wearing pants and a fleece the entire time. I never thought I'd be cold in East Africa in August.
As I said, we are blown away by our experiences so far. We have seen so much wildlife. Here's a partial list of what we've seen: elephants, lions, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, cape buffalo, impala, dik dik, deikur, steenbuck, ostrich, lesser kudu, warthog, oryx, eland, bat-eared fox, black-faced monkey, banded mongoose, white mongoose, water buck, hartebeest, dickens gazelle, hyrax, yellow-winged bat, spotted genet, rhebok, baboon, and cheetah.
The people have been wonderful. We really haven't talked to other tourists, we've really enjoyed talking to local people, learning swahili, and getting a feel for what it's like to live in Tanzania.
It's been a very special experience.
We only have five minutes left on the computer, otherwise this would be a much longer post. Stay tuned for more maybe pics too.
One final thing ... we learned that "coffee" in Swahili means, "slap me." Ha! I'm surprised we haven't been slapped considering how often we ask for coffee.
Until next time!
-Joy and Chris
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Sounds like you are having a fabulous time! What luck to have your own personal guide. Did you put your elephant to bed?
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom & Dad