In the early morning, mid-power cut, we creep from our beds. The Toyota is already loaded up with camping gear, tents and sleeping bags safely lashed under a tarpaulin on the roof rack. It is still dark as we leave Usa River en route to Tarangire National Park.
Driving through Africa in the early hours is an interesting experience.
There are very few police checks and we are not stopped
once, so we arrive at the park gates just after 7.30am. A huge baobab in full
leaf stands sentinel. Park fees are hefty: 50 dollars per 24 hours per person;
an additional 30 dollars for the vehicle per day; and another 30 dollars per
person for camping. Not what we, as Kenya residents, were used to: here, all
non-citizens are treated expensively alike.
Still, it is worth it. Two minutes in to the park and we
encounter two large elephants next to the road, unimpressed by our presence to
the extent that they completely ignore us. We manage to turn off the severely
corrugated main road, driving on sandy tracks and encountering more birds and
animals than we can remember.
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| A herd of "Swala Pala", which is Swahili for "Impala" |
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| 2 suspicious old Bull Cape Buffaloes |
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| Lunch time siesta view |
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| Lunchtime picnic spot- a view of M.M.B.A. |
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| Giraffe at waterhole |
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| Elephant Femur |
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| Sausage Tree or Kigelia Africana |
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| Baobab in leaf |
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| Lion Tracks |
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| More tracks of Lion, plus mongoose and Guinea Fowl on left of picture |
We drove without seeing another vehicle for most of the
morning, until we stopped at the picnic site overlooking the swamp where one
other car had stopped. Driving along the edge, the list of birds grew: marabou
stork; spoonbills; yellow-billed stork; sacred egret;
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| Vervet Monkeys |
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| Hippo and a reed buck in the distance |
A martial eagle perches, unusually, on the ground, preening
its feathers and drinking from a muddy pool. It is a huge bird. We stop to watch dung beetles busy at work, rolling huge
balls of mud and elephant dung in which to lay their eggs. One beetle appears
to act foolishly: he manoeuvres his ball of dung – the size of a cricket-ball –
to the side of the road and seems to attempt to push it up the soft soil which
has accumulated there. He fails, stopping half way up: but then starts to dig
around the ball, creating a circular cavity into which, after several rounds of
excavation, the ball sinks until it becomes invisible. And safe...
Giraffe stroll between the trees, oxpeckers easily visible
on their backs. One old bull, however, stands in a semi-stupor right next to
the road. We see an oxpecker on its breast, diving into a deep wound in the
folds of the skin, other, older, scars on neck and flank.
Driving up to Tarangire Safari Lodge, we stop for a drink
and the view over the plains. Nothing quite like seeing miles and miles of
bush, unoccupied in the heat of the day, save for a few elephants sauntering
down to the river below.
But we are not staying safely in a lodge, but camping.
Memories come flooding back of so many camping trips in a previous African
life...
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| Night fall |
The public campsite is somewhat of a disappointment for
Jonny: there are several buildings – toilet blocks; a covered eating area, with
tables on a concrete base; and a large kitchen with sinks and workbenches,
already fully occupied by safari company
cooks, preparing supper for the tourist who will arrive to occupy the dozen or
so tents which look to be permanently set up. It is busy, too European, for
him. We agree, in a sense... and yet, here in Africa – and even elsewhere –
there is safety in numbers...
There are two or three other private vehicles, and we find a
spot on the edge, overlooking where impala are peaceably grazing and baboons
play on a fallen tree trunk fifty metres
away. We negotiate for firewood, building a fire as the sun sets. An early
night...
...and I sleep
soundly, missing the sounds of lions chuff-huffing through the bush, two
leopards fighting and a lone hyena calling mournfully in the distance.
I only hear some small creature which appears to be
snuffling around the outside of the tent.
The morning brings a decision: hustle out of the park before
the 24 hours expires, or stay and pay for another day? We opt for the latter, enjoying seeing more
and more elephant – we must have seen over a thousand, often surrounded by
several herds. A herd trumpets and complains near the campsite: perhaps the
large troop of baboons we encounter on the way out were proving to be a
nuisance?
We revel in the birds: red-billed hornbills, more Von Der Decken's hornbills than we can count. A huge flock of black-faced lovebirds hopping among the branches of an acacia before flying up en masse, their green bodies startling against the blue sky...
...and then, time to move on. To Migombani campsite....
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