Days 7 and 8: Tarangire

After dinner last night Geo and Carol and Zak and Maya and I joined Moses and Edward, the driver, for a night drive in a Range Rover specially equipped with elevated stadium seating for those of us in the back. Moses was diligent with the spotlight and we found a chameleon, dik dik, rabbits, zebra, impala, black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, and spring hare which resemble a small kangaroo with a long black-tipped tail. Maya fell asleep on the way back and we retired dusty and drowsy and content.
In the pre-dawn dark of 4:30 this morning I was awakened by the sounds of trees cracking and brush crunching. The weather is so temperate here all of the rooms here have alternating glass and screen windows. I went out on the balcony and, although the moon was a couple days past full and the night was fairly dark, I could just distinguish the bulk of an elephant just below me in the vegetation. I returned to bed and was awakened by Zak just after dawn who pointed out the elephant tearing up clumps of grass about fifteen feet down directly below the balcony. It was so close I could have leapt on its back without much effort. I know we'll see more in the park but it's pretty cool having one just outside your room. I mentioned this encounter later to Lazaro, our waiter, who said that occasionally he awakes to find elephants just outside his door preventing him from leaving and getting breakfast started on time.
We are now in the Tarangire National Park where there are scores of elephants. We are competing to see which side of the vehicle will pass the most elephants. Julie and I have 168, Zak and Geo have 142. Most of ours were along the Silale Swamp while they had a herd of 50 animals heading through the trees. We also saw many giraffe (including a beautiful pair of yearlings with long fluttering eyelashes), dik dik, warthog, waterbuck, a mongoose, and other animals.

Sun 6/19 Fathers Day

We stopped at the Tarangire Treetops Lodge on the way back to Arusha. The main lodge was built up around a couple of massive baobab trees and each of the units are essentially treehouses. It's very nice and very deluxe. There is a small swimming pool below the lounge deck and, beyond that, a rock watering pool for the animals so the guests can sit and sip their cocktails while viewing wildlife from the comfort of their lounge chairs.

The guys are in the back vehicle with Bone who pointed out a spitting cobra in the grass on the right side of the truck. In appreciation for his generous Father's Day gift I asked Zak to pose next to it but he wisely declined.