On Safari

By 9am we were on Safari with Tandari expeditions traveling in landcruiser trucks with Erick as our guide, a local man. Our first stop was Arusha where we all changed money & visited the supermarket for the last minute necessities,then we were off to Tarangire National Park stopping on the way at the Meserani Snake Park and a Maasai museum that a Maasai showed us through and explained how they live. It was so interesting 

Tony holding a small snake

Holding a turtle 15kg and grow up to 30kg

 Then a walk around the corner to the Maasai Boma Cattle Market. It was obvious that they don't see tourists in there as we were certainly something new to them. What an experience that was to see dozens of groups all there with their cattle not in yards but just kept together in small groups with their owners and they never ended up getting boxed with the next herd. 

Arriving at the cattle market.

Women in the background preparing bundles of cut grass ready for selling

Sue chatting up some Maasai men to try and get them to talk about themselves and accept us being amongst them 

Maasai doing their business 

After that dusty experience never to be forgotten we drove off to the National Park where we were provided with our individual boxed lunches which we enjoyed before driving into 2600 sq km of park. We were entertained by tiny little monkeys who were quick to steal your lunch if your box wasn't closed.

These cute little Vervet monkeys had the prettiest lilac coloured balls.

The rest of the day was spent game driving which was amazing.

The Baobab trees are scattered throughout the park. A lot of them have the bark stripped off by the elephants during drought times as they hold a lot of moisture.

 Our accommodation was in the National Park  staying at the Tarangire Safari Lodge. We all had our own outdoor tent with ensuite. We could hear the Lions during the night and plenty of other sounds. We kept our tent flaps up all night with just the screens closed so as we could view any wildlife that sometimes wanders past the door but unfortunately nothing came by. 

The group having our evening meal.

We had to be escorted back to our rooms after dinner and security were around all night.