Tarangire National Park and Lake Nakuru

Tarangire National Park and Lake Nakuru

Wanna know an important thing I learned while in the Serengeti?

Do not choose to wear a daypack that is exactly, and I mean exactly, the same color as the tsetse fly traps used throughout the country.

This was a particularly bad choice given our next destination.  Tarangire National Park which is one of the less visited parks in Tanzania.  Known for huge baobab trees, large elephant herds, leopards and.....wait for it......tsetse flies.

It was another long, hot, dusty all day ride basically hitting the reverse button back through the Serengeti, past the Olduvai Gorge and the Ngororngoro Crater descending the western escarpment and veering southeast across the Rift Valley.

Here are a few shots of every day life from the travel day:

I saw lots of signs like this, but really don't you want a little fresh, slaughtered cow after you check into your hotel?

Pottery Barn Africa style

I don't know, it just doesn't convey cutting edge technology

Finally, we reach our destination for the next couple days:

Couple thousand year old baobab trees

It's a dikdik by far the cutest damn mammal we saw.  It's the size of a medium dog.  I want one really badly.  I mean just look at those skinny legs.  I'm dying.  People do apparently keep them as pets and they are fiercely loyal.  They will head butt anyone who approaches their owner.

These on the other hand are waterbuck.  They kinda have a bummer of a birthmark in that it looks like a giant target on their butt.  No one keeps these as pets but they do shoot them on a regular basis.

Yeah, I know, elephants in Africa so cliche.

Speaking of elephants, as we were driving down a dusty road we ran over a big pile of elephant dung.  Our driver Emmanuel explained that people often brew the dung into a tea for upset stomach.  I asked him if he had ever had any and he was all, "ewww, no that's disgusting".  Then, after a long pause, he said "but I have smoked quite a bit of it".  Well, sure that's totally different.

.  The very latest in African fashion

Like I said earlier, it's tsetse fly territory out here and any exposed flesh is fair game but especially your tender, yummy ankles.  Tsetses are large, aggressive and they bite unlike house flys that suck.  They will draw blood every time and they would make even Mother Theresa take the Lord's name in vain and unleash a string of invectives that would make a sailor blush.  You can smack them really hard and they will basically just bounce like rubber flies.  For some reason, no one wanted to walk near me.

Ho, hum what to eat for dinner tonight.  Leftover antelope leg, baby gazelle, tourist tartar.

You know all those fabulous wildlife shots you see from your friends on safari?  What they don't show is what is happening around you.  You are not alone.  The drivers all radio each other when someone spots something good, like a leopard, and you get this.

Leopard Jam

The good news is that the animals simply do not care.  They are so used to seeing people they will occasionally jump on the hood of the car or walk along side it and use it as a hunting blind to sneak up on their prey.

Some birdies from Tarangire National Park:

European Roller

Red and Yellow Barbet

Water Thick-knee

After two days at Tarangire, we hightailed it back to the border with Kenya.

I wish I had a photo of the chaos that is right around the corner from the oasis of the Departure Office at the border.  Beggars, people selling nuts and fruit, masaai women hawking beaded bracelets, trucks carrying every kind of cargo, kids running around.

Our driver Emmanuel and our Guide Terry Stevenson author of the Birds of East Africa

Lake Nakuru National Park

Back across the border into Kenya, a short overnight in Nairobi and back at it the next morning early as we headed to Lake Nakuru an alkaline lake in the Rift Valley.  

The Great Rift Valley

Grounds of the Lake Nakuru Lodge

It's a nice lodge really, but they do lock you in with big gates in the front:

And electric fences in the back.  It's a bit like Jurassic Park only with a baboon problem instead of velociraptors.

That's the electric fence behind our room.  It's there to keep out these:

There are lots of them here.  So many in fact that they employee one of these:

See that masaai dude?  He's there with that stick to beat the baboons back when they try to snatch your arrowroot and ugali off your plate.

Here are some of the wildlife highlights from Lake Nakuru:

Not just any old giraffe, it's a Rothschilds.  Only a few hundred left in the wild.  One way to tell them from regular, everyday giraffes is they look like they are wearing white stockings.  You're welcome.

White rhinos.  These are not endemic, they were a gift from Nelson Mandela and who could say no to that.

Gray-crowned Crane

Hammerkop

Sacred Ibis

Hadada Ibis

Black Crake