Day 9: Elephant Encounter in Tarangire National Park

October 5, 2006 0 By Jakob

Got up extremely early to get an early morning safari out of our last day on the mainland. The first half hour or so we nearly didn’t see an animal, but then things started getting interesting.

While Eric and Jakob we standing looking out of the roof of the jeep, suddenly a small group of elephants, lead by a large male, appeared and charged towards the jeep. Moshi immediately stopped the vehicle and tried to stop the scared elephants by revving the engine on the spot. That didn’t work too well, and he had to put it in rear and accellerate a few meters backwards to avoid the elephants. The pack of elephants continued across the road – still very protective about the baby elephant in their middle – and went further in direction of the swamps, where we had just seen a large group of about 150 elephants in one place. The danger was over, and the event became one of the most remarkable of the tour, and made the early morning start very much worthwhile!

On the way back to the lodge we went by a water hole where we’d previously seen an elephant family (see picture from yesterday’s post). Already while approaching we noticed a jeep parked by the hole and a female lion approaching from the left. At the water hole three magnificent male lions were drinking, washing themselves and relaxing in the shadow. A look around the area with binoculars revealed a very large group of vultures, feasting onthe remains of the Lions’ breakfast – what looked like a zebra (it’s a bit hard to tell from 150m when the remains of the poor animal are covered in vultures, tall grass, and blod).

Those two experiences were the perfect ending of our safari adventures, and we turned the car in direction of Kilimanjaro and the airport for our one hour flight to Zanzibar.