Tarangire second full day

Up for breakfast at 7, then game drive at 7:30. Today we are going to follow the same schedule as yesterday, game drive until 12:30, then break until 4:00PM when we go out again. Time for a nap in the heat of the day, yeah.

This morning we ventured off a different route than yesterday. Felix tells us today and tomorrow we will focus on birds as we won't see many once we go into the Serengeti, this is where we will look for cats. First bird we see is an ostrich, might as well start with the biggest. Lots of very colorful birds, can't remember the names of the ones we see even 5 minutes earlier. There are something like 400 different birds here. 

Southern Ground Hornbill

Lovebird

Brown Parrot

We saw 2 owls as well, Andre spotted one of them, great find. 

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

We also saw the pair of lions that we saw last night again. Thought we might see some action as some cape buffalo came up over the crest of the hill not knowing the lions were there, didn't take long for them to make an about face when the spotted the lions. Felix says there need to be 5 or 6 lions to take one of these down, so they were safe anyway. 

Add caption

We also saw Eland for the first time, this is the biggest Antelope.

Eland - the largest African Antelope

3 baby baboons just hanging around having fun

Hyrax

More fun in the mud

Elephants have made a hole in the tree they have eaten so much

Elephant footprints

We are booked for a night game drive tonight with the lodge we are staying at. Looking forward to it. Naps and showers are in order first, I just hope there are not too many creepy crawlers on the trip.

Got a quick chance to add a few pictures on facebook, unfortunately the internet is extremely slow, so the blog may be a while before posted. We move lodges every night for the next 3 nights, maybe we'll get lucky at one of them and have good speed.

Up from naps and shower and I am reading on our little deck while Andre is having a shower and a water buck comes up over the bank right in front of me. You could see the shock in its eyes when it saw me, I think it probably saw the shock in my eyes too. He came right up, ran across the walking path, then stopped again to watch me. Of course the camera was inside, no time to get it, so a simple enjoy the moment, we should all take more of these and just leave the cameras alone.

Another fun game drive this afternoon. Came across what we thought were 2 lions in the grass, but when the giraffe got close it was3 lions that made a very lazy attempt at getting the giraffe. Felix tells us it is very hard for lion to get a giraffe, you would need more than 3 to take it down. Not sure what will happen if I saw a lion get a giraffe, there may be tears involved. Actually I did want to see a kill, it sounds good but now what do I want the lion to get? A mouse, that would be OK I guess.

Lunch time

Baboons everywhere!

Cape Buffalo being cleaned by an Oxpecker

Mongoose

Back at the lodge the elephants are taking advantage of some overflow from the water tanks

Another first is the Eland Antelope. There are huge! Even bigger than the cape buffalo. We keep calling them water buffalo, we keep getting corrected, we are on the wrong continent for water buffalo, Felix needs a lot of patience.

We spend some time looking for a python in a tree that a guide told Felix at lunch about. We do eventually find it but it is all curled up way up the tree and very hard to see, but we do see it so another check in my book.

Python in the tree

Back to the lodge just after 6 and run into our new friends Robina and Don. They have had a fantastic exhausting day. They traveled much further south than we have and ended up in the swamp area, and loved it. Lots of different animals that we haven't seen yet, we're slightly jealous as we'd asked about going here but Felix said the tsetse flies are bad so we didn't go. Turns out the flies were bad on the drive there, but once there it was fantastic. Don't think I've written about the tsetse flies yet, they are the size of house flies, but I think made of rubber. We are used to hitting flies at home, this does nothing to them here. You have to hope they land on the floor, then if you stamp on them you have a chance of killing them. We brought along a fly swatter which helps with shooing them away, but does not kill them. We haven't seen many yet, and haven't really been bitten yet, but the bite so far seems like a deer or horse fly.

View from the lodge

View from our tent, will never get tired of this view!

A quick couple of drinks with Robina and Don before supper, then a quick supper from 7:30to 8:00 as we have our night game drive. Brendon is our driver, he is the son of the owners of the lodge. A young man that would be a treat to have as a guide for your whole trip. He just has a way of explaining things that neither our guide, or Robina and Dons has. Part of it may be that we lose a little in the accents, sometimes Felix gives us what sounds like a memorized speech, but when we ask questions he is very good and happy to answer. So tonight we saw few new animals. Bat eared fox, hares, some nocturnal bird, about 8 different gennet. It was fun because it was in a open sided vehicle, and it was nice and cool driving along. The stars were amazing, and no moon, Brendon told us this is the best as some animals will not even come out when the moon is out. Funny seeing the wildebeest and zebras at night, they don't keep the spotlight on these as it seems to bother them. Brendon is the driver, and he has a spotter with him. A great experience, but rather expensive and I don't think we would do it again, but certainly not disappointed we did it.

Gennett on night drive

Bat eared fox on night drive

Reedbuck on night drive

Spotted Dikkop

Hare on night drive

Gennett on night drive

 Arrive back at the lodge at about 10, a little awkward moment about tipping, who do we tip? We decide to tip the spotter, Brendon should be well paid from what we paid for the tour, so that is our decision. The whole tipping thing is the part I hate most about this so far, just a little uncomfortable for us.