We leave Amboseli and drive to the border between Kenya and Tanzania. In the immigration office I see a funny sign on the wall: “No man can serve two masters at ago”. I think it was intended to be a Bible verse that was quoted in British English and then written down phonetically.
We say goodbye to our drivers, and switch vehicles. As usual, everything works like clockwork. The new drivers and vehicles are waiting for us, and the luggage is transferred without our having to lift a finger (except for our carry-ons). Finally the road is blacktop, but that is almost worse, since we go a lot faster and thus the bumps are spine-cracking. By the time we disembark near Arusha I’m nearly crippled (which is a little embarrassing, considering that I’m almost the youngest on the trip). Meanwhile, our oldest traveler who is 89 shows off the fact that she can touch her toes. When my travel mates see what bad shape I’m in, they graciously switch places so I’m no longer in the back, which has the worst jolts. Other than that, the new vehicles are impressive. Instead of the minivans we had in Kenya, these are stretch land rovers with a pop top. The vehicles feel sturdy and reliable, and there is a decent amount of room, since it is arranged that we each have a window seat.
We spend some time in Arusha so as to delay our arrival in Tarangire until the tse tse flies die down. We are a little intimidated to hear that they can bite through cloth, and aren’t really repelled by DEET.
We finally arrive at Tarangire. The hotel lounge is open to the outside, with a beautiful vista. We’re eager to see our tents, complete with sink, shower, and toilet. Dinner is good, but not nearly as good as the Amboseli Serena. This camp is not fenced, so we get an escort from dinner back to our tent. The tents have electric light until 11pm, but are very dim even with the light on. We go to sleep early, and I sleep like a log.
Morning comes at 5:13 when I hear a cacophony of birds. I doze for a while, but get up to watch the sunrise. There doesn’t seem to be any hot water yet, so I’m not going to take a shower. In spite of the fact that I’m loving my Africa trip, a cold shower is a little too close to roughing it for me to enjoy it. ;) At 6:15 I get my gentle wake-up call – a visit from a room steward carrying a pot of hot chocolate. Heaven! I sit in front of the tent sipping hot chocolate, listening to the birds, and taking occasional pictures of the sunrise.
Breakfast is our least inspired meal so far, but the view from the lounge and front patio is marvelous, overlooking the Tarangire river, and with animals roaming within sight. During our stay here, we see both dik diks and elephants within a stone’s throw of the tent. At night we hear birds and jackals, but are a little disappointed to not hear anything larger.
The morning game drive starts at 8. We are told that the animals here are active a bit later. Who knows? We’ve heard so much buildup about the tse tse flies, but are blessed with a cloudy day, and literally only see one fly, which ‘H’ kills to show us. People were so afraid they were blasting the whole land cruiser with bug spray – not the kind you use on your body, but the kind you blast a room with and then leave the area. I’m afraid we will be poisoned so I stand up so my head sticks out the hatch and I get some fresh air.
On the drive we see some dwarf mongoose, white backed vulture, ostrich, red billed weavers, yellow necked spurfowl, red billed quelea nests, yellow collared lovebirds, dik dik, white headed buffalo weaver, hamerkop nests, spotted hyena, lilac breasted roller (a beautiful bird even to those of us who are not particularly bird watchers), impala, zebra, vervet monkies, elephants, crested francolin, warthog, magpie shrike, hadada ibis, Maasai giraffe, cape buffalo, waterbuck, white bellied bustard, ground hornbill, tawny eagles, and of course baobab trees (I know they are not game, but for a newcomer they are an indelible part of seeing Africa).
I thought breakfast was our least inspired meal, but lunch surpasses it in mediocrity. But it is edible.
The best animal viewing from the lodge is actually in the early afternoon, when the wildebeest form a parade, crossing the Tarangire river and pacing north to better grazing land. The parade stretches on and on as far as the eye can see, with only small gaps, sometimes interspersed with zebras.
The afternoon game drive is a little disappointing – we see lots of the common animals, but nothing new, and spend an inordinate amount of time in one place just looking at birds. I wouldn’t be so antsy, except I really want to see some cats. We see osprey, violet wood hoopoe, waterbuck, wildebeest, zebra, elephants, white browed coucal (or something like that!), rufous tailed weavers.
If I thought lunch was disappointing, dinner was worse. Maybe it wasn’t really that bad, but it was truly cold. I wasn’t too happy about the safety of food that had been sitting on a buffet so long it was totally cold, so I just picked at mine. I would have been happier with a hot plate of ugali and goat stew.
After dinner I ask where the ladies room is. I didn’t realize that I need to specifically say ‘toilet’ , and so they don’t understand me. I finally attempt to ask in Swahili and comprehension dawns. You see, my plan of learning 10 words works! This is my theory about learning languages when traveling. It is too intimidating to think of actually learning the language, so most people don’t bother to learn anything. But I set myself a goal to learn 10 words (and usually end up learning a bit more once I get interested). It’s amazing how much you can communicate with Hello, Goodby, Please, Thank You, Yes, No, Where is…, and maybe a few other chosen phrases.
We hang around the bar waiting for our escorts to our tents, but no one appears. We finally ask at the reception desk and they seem bewildered. Finally the woman at the desk picks up a flashlight and says “come”. We feel a bit stupid – we’re both taller than she is, and she clearly does not have a weapon, so we feel as if a little girl is bravely leading us through the dark.
I skip a shower again, since the water never seems to get hot (although some people in the other tents say theirs was warm). I’m glad I brought some damp wipes, which will have to do, for now. We leave the tent flaps open for the full experience, and hear some more animals in the night – probably jackals.
The next morning I rise early enough to watch the sunrise, sitting on the front porch of the tent drinking my hot chocolate. Some of my traveling companions never got their wake-up call, or got it at the wrong time, but mine is just right, and the hot chocolate is a treat.
Leaving Tarangire we see a yellow collared love bird, elephants, wildebeest, guineafowl, warthogs, white bellied go away bird, zebras, and an amarula tree, which gives rise to a conversation about the liqueur, which we enjoy later in the trip!
Overall impression of Tarangire:
The food was cold, the showers too,
But boy oh boy, look at the view.
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