A Walk in Tarangire National Park, Part 3

After our late lunch we had a couple of hours to kill before our scheduled walk with a Ranger in the park. I took a short but much-needed nap which helped revive me. Four hours of sleep just isn’t enough!

Our group met at the main tent before 4p.m. eager to begin our bush walk. We stand around for half an hour but the camp manager is nowhere in sight. Suddenly George drives up and talks to some of the staff. George has nothing to do with arranging this walk but he says he will go to the ranger station and find out what is going on. George returns within minutes and asks if we have our signed forms. Signed forms, what signed forms? We tell him we have signed nothing but we all remember that the camp manager talked about us needing to sign release forms.

George loads us up and drives us to the Ranger station. There is another man who goes along who must be affiliated with the camp. When we get to the Ranger station, George and the other fellow talk to the ranger on duty. The camp guy stays at the station while the ranger gets in the truck with us. George drives us to the airstrip which is just a few minutes away from the Rangers headquarters. George and the Ranger go to the small building and retrieve the liability forms which we dutifully fill out. Some of us question if we should even go on the walk, (and I am one of them), since we are starting an hour late and the sun will set in an hour and a half. George informs us that we will walk with the ranger, Allen, from here because the grass is too tall around the camp. Umm, the grass is pretty darn tall here.

Once we turn over our “it’s not our fault if you are attacked, injured, or killed” forms, Alan instructs us to walk in single file behind him, (like wart hogs do), and stay close. No one steps forward to be behind the man with the gun so I gladly fall in behind our stoic escort. Our lineup is Allen, me, Jennifer, Connie, Carl, Paul and Jesse. The little ranger strides out across the bush and soon we are traipsing through even taller grass. There are a family of wart hogs 200 yards in front of us that beat a hasty retreat when they see humans on foot.  Allen leads us down into a gully where the broad-leafed grass is waist-high so I hold my arms above my head to keep my hands from being scratched by the tough blades. As we emerge from the gully I see manure that is obviously from a Cape buffalo, it looks like cow poop. I nudge the pile with my toe and to my chagrin I find that the poo is still soft. I only see one pile of manure which indicates this is a lone cape, whom are considered the most dangerous to encounter because they don’t have the security of a herd. I’m not liking this at all.

We arrive at a road and I feel a surge of hope that now we will just walk down the road. No such luck as Allen crosses the road and returns to the bush. I reach out and touch our guardian, pointing to an elephant to our left which is only a couple of hundred yards away. My confidence falters when I realize that our protector hasn’t seen the behemoth. Allen stops to assess the situation, then moves forward, pointing out more elephants below us, feeding in a little swale. We are downwind of the elephant group and Allen confidently walks on by the dozen or so elephants. As we maneuver around the elephants they become more visible to us and we find that two of the big girls have very small babies. Elephants are very protective of their vulnerable babies and will form a circle around the youngsters to keep them safe. Amazingly the elephants have no reaction to we humans even though we have to be in their line of sight because we can see them clearly. I truly think they have no idea our group is near them.

We stumble on through more hip-high grass and I look back to see that Jennifer is also raising her arms above her head but she rests her hands on her head. It occurs to me that if anyone sees us it would appear as if we are under arrest. In fact at the end of our trek, Paul and Jesse laughingly tell us that we appeared to be in Allen’s custody as our arms reached for the sky. The only thing out-of-place is that the guy with the gun is walking ahead of us instead of behind us. Having passed by the elephants safely we continue to weave around in an uneven path through the bush. I see Allen peek at the phone in his pocket now and then and I am guessing he is checking the time. He must have orders to keep us out for a certain amount of time on our bush walk.

The sun is getting lower in the sky and I ask Allen how much farther we have to walk before we meet up with George. He confidently answers ten or fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes later I am really getting concerned as we have reached that part of the day where it is getting dusky. I again ask our impassive escort how much longer before we arrive at our end point. Without blinking an eye Allen replies ten or fifteen minutes. Shortly after this exchange we find ourselves just below a road where several vehicles are parked. I ask Allen if we can walk down the road now. “No”. I ask Allen if he can call George to come to this place and pick us up. “No”. Why not? “Because I don’t have his number”. I have to remind myself of the phrase “That’s Africa Baby” and soldier on.

As we parade below the line of vehicles someone calls out in Swahili and has a conversation with Allen. The ranger nonchalantly informs us that the tourists are watching a lion over by the tree across the river. We all scan “the” tree but we don’t see a lion, we instead spot a big male leopard resting in the crotch of the tree. Wow, that is amazing but I’m darned glad that there is a large gully between us and that big cat. When we tell Allen that it is a leopard not a lion, he informs us that there is a lion by the “other” tree. All of us use our binoculars to scan the area around the “other” tree and the dead grass around its base. Near an old dead stump, Jesse and I see a lion’s tail flip into the air and then disappear back into the thick cover. I don’t think anyone else in our group saw the twitching tail but Jesse and I saw it several times. Hey, Jesse and I have a cat trick. Cheetah, leopard and lion in the same day! Just as we prepare to resume our walk, the leopard climbs out of the tree and saunters in the direction of the lion. This could be quite interesting as lions and leopards despise each other. We can’t stay to find out what might happen as the sun is sinking lower by the minute.

We now have George and the truck within our sight; he is parked by a bridge that traverses the river. We still have some ground to cover, 10 or 15 minutes yet, but at least we will make it to the safety of the Toyota before dark. I don’t mind admitting that from the time I saw the fresh Cape buffalo patty, I was not comfortable with this walk. I think our youngest member of the group, Jesse, loved it. I know others in our group were disappointed that there was no information relayed to us by Allen about the animals or plants we encountered during this foray. We just meandered through the bush behind him. I really don’t think Allen wanted to take us on this hike as his expression never changed the whole time we were with him. Paul and I have been on bush walks before which I absolutely loved but we were never in this kind of terrain. It was scary.

When we were all loaded in the van, I noticed that Jennifer had grass stains on her pants and I asked her what happened. Jennifer told us that at the beginning of the walk she had stepped on some flattened grass and ended up thigh deep in a hole with one of her legs. Only Connie and Carl saw it happen but stalwart Jennifer never said a word to the rest of us. Jennifer had broken her little toe a few days before we left for Tanzania and her toe was still very sore, this fall made it worse. So, the woman had to walk through rough terrain with a gimpy toe and sore leg for an hour! Jennifer actually apologized for slowing us down after she related the story of her fall. Are you kidding me? We all felt terrible about her having to walk while in pain but as usual Jennifer shrugged it off, saying what choice did I have. Hats off to our tough, matter-of-fact friend, she is something else.

Upon arriving at camp, we have dinner and the only part I remember was the sumptuous pumpkin soup. Shortly after eating we left for the only night drive we will have on this safari. The camp provided the vehicle and driver plus Ally who did the spot lighting. Our friend Allen was riding shotgun with his rifle, I assume he was along to make sure no rules were broken by us, like driving off-road. Ally was a very nice, personable fellow and you could tell he loved this wild place.

One of our first encounters was a huge herd of zebra walking across the road into an open field, where Ally said they would spend the night. We also saw a white-tailed mongoose, impalas, and two bat-eared fox early in the drive. The quiet night was suddenly filled with the roaring of lions. Ally had our driver turn the lights and engine off and told us we should experience that awesome sound in complete darkness. The powerful roars reverberating through the night seem to penetrate to your bones. A very humbling experience.

We continue down the road as Ally sweeps his light back and forth. I am sure it is Jesse that sees the first male lion. Get used to me saying, Jesse saw it first. The big guy is laying by a clump of grass that is the same color as he is so the lion is very hard to see. When the magnificent cat raises his head we all are able to spot him but as soon as he lowers that massive head he is almost invisible. We move on when Connie thinks she sees something next to a large clump of dried grass. Yes, there is something there but we debate whether it is a living creature or a log. After some time, I believe it is Jesse who manages to figure out that indeed it is a prone male lion. Once Jesse describes how the lion is lying down, with his head to our left, it becomes apparent that indeed this is a second male lion. Well done Connie!

We leave the lazy lion behind and drive by a small herd of elephants that have a tiny baby in their midst. Ally keeps the spotlight off to the side because he says that elephants have been known to charge when you spotlight them directly. Yikes. As we drive away they look like grey ghosts in the black night. We also see ostrich bedded down so all that is visible are there skinny necks topped with their small heads sticking up out of the grass. It is quite a silly sight and it makes us laugh.

We are headed back to camp when out of the gloom a male lion appears, walking down the road towards us. All of us go a little crazy at the sight of the approaching lion. The lion blinks a little at the bright headlights but he has no fear of the vehicle. Mr. Magnificent walks within inches of our front bumper, veers sharply and walks alongside the vehicle. Once he is past the truck he promptly goes back to walking in the road. The handsome male stops a few yards behind us so our driver backs up to get us closer in order to see what the cat is up to. The lion has stopped to sniff at something by the side of the road. The big male wrinkles his nose and opens his mouth in a gesture that is known as the Flehmen reaction, then as mysteriously as he had appeared he disappears into the darkness of the night. This was so cool.

We were told that we should tip Allen for taking us on the trek and accompanying us on our night drive. I shake his hand and leave the crisp five-dollar bill in his hand at the same time. Hey, the guy can smile!

We had a very long day but boy was it a wow day! I’m afraid we have been very spoiled in the first two days of this safari and now will expect every day to be this exceptional.

LEAVING TARANGIRE

We were serenaded by lions in the night again and this time they sounded very close. I have no idea how far or in what direction from the camp the two male lions we saw last night were, but I assume the roars were from the duo we encountered on our night drive.

We have our luggage and ourselves loaded into the Toyota by seven. We have given our card containing the tip money to the staff and said our goodbyes and we drive away from Ang’ata camp at a quarter after seven. We see the usual fare of grazers, (doesn’t that sound jaded already?), that we have encountered the past couple of days. George comes to a stop when he finds a pair of Hamerkops busy building their huge nests. The prehistoric looking birds carry small sticks, clumps of dried grass, and an occasional beak full of dirt to create this oversized nest. George says they build two entrances, one that they will use and a false entrance that will hopefully fool predators, like snakes, to use the fake opening. How in the world do birds figure this stuff out? And while I’m on the how part, I’m always in awe of the incredible nests most birds build. No one teaches them how to do this task, how can they just know? I find it mind-boggling.

When we reach the Park gate, George tells us that we might as well get out and walk around as checking out and paying for our stay in the park can take some time. This turns out to be the understatement of our trip. We all pay a visit to the nice rest rooms, wander around the outdoor exhibits of maps and animal skulls, look into the gift shop and return to the truck. George comes over and informs us that he is having trouble with the credit card being accepted so he has to contact the company and it will be a bit longer.

Connie, Jennifer, and I climb the stairs that lead us up to a deck built in a baobab tree. The views are spectacular up here. As I am descending the steps I see two Von der Decken’s Hornbills reaching into a small crevice in one of the baobabs limbs. They will probe the crevice and then fly to the railing. At one point as the hornbills are perching, I see a lovebird poke its head out of the hole. Later I ask George if the hornbills were trying to catch and eat the beautiful little bird. His answer was absolutely they were.

We gather at the truck again to find out not only has the company card been rejected but George’s card has also been rejected. It is Park policy not to take cash or this wouldn’t be a problem. We can’t leave until our bill is paid and although it pains George to ask, he wonders if one of us will use our card. Paul and I agree to using ours somewhat reluctantly but what choice is there. Our card goes through without any problem and we are set free! George wants to pay us back with cash on the spot but Paul tells him to keep the cash until we are ready to leave Africa. Neither of us want to be responsible for carrying all that money around.

We now leave Tarangire and our next stop will be the Ngorongoro Crater. Nancy