July 6, 2014 - Tarangire National Park - Safari
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| Arusha Town Lutheran Church |
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| Tea and snacks after church with Pastor Justo |
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| There were often random police road blocks along the road....it's how they make there money.... they say there is something wrong, and you have to pay to be able to continue on. |
We had to hurry back to the Lutheran Center. Unbeknownst to us, we needed to consolidate our suitcases, and only take what we would need for the next three days. The rest of our suitcases and clothing would be taken and stored at Euni Simonson's house. We were not able to keep them in our rooms at the Lutheran Center, just in case someone else needed our rooms while we were away. It was a crazy and chaotic, but everything worked out fine in the end. Finally everything was loaded and we headed off on the two hour drive. We would be spending the next three days with our drivers/guides from Serengeti Select Safaris (http://www.serengetisafaris.com/).
Our first stop was the Meserani Snake Park (http://www.meseranisnakepark.com/). We had time before lunch to walk around the snake park and see some of the 3 dozen snakes and other reptiles. Lunch was a wonderful buffet of sausage, pork chops, potatoes, coleslaw, and green salad. Did I mention that we have been eating very well in Africa?! Mama Jean treated us all to Snickers candy bars for dessert - a tradition she and Marvin share when they visit the snake park.
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| The Snake Park bar is famous around the world....we left a signed shirt from our group! |
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| Wonderful buffet lunch at the Snake Park |
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| Kyler chose not to have the buffet and had a grilled cheese sandwich, while Connor had a hamburger! |
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| Cheers! Enjoying Tanzanian beer with our lunch! |
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| Treats from Mama Jean - Toni showing off our new reading material - the boys enjoy their Snickers |
After lunch, we were on our own for a bit before heading back on the road. Many of us walked through the Maasai Cultural Museum. It was a great illustration of how the Maasai people live.
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| Maasai Cultural Museum |
Our family had the opportunity to ride camels! It cost less than $2 per person to ride a camel. It was fun but scary at first. The camels would shake their back leg and the entire carriage you sat on would rock. It felt like you were going to fall off - I hung on for dear life! But now I can say I rode a camel!
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| Sights along the way.....market and airport |
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| Entrance into the Tarangire |
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| Elephants everywhere!!! |
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| Wildebeests and impalas....notice the little monkey in the corner |
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| Wild animal selfies! |
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| Lions! |
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| monkeys, warthogs, wildebeest, dikdik |
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| Tent #22 |
We spent one night at the amazing Tarangire Safari Lodge (http://www.tarangiresafarilodge.com/) The lodge is located inside the Tarangire National Park and sits up on a hillside overlooking the acacia and baobab trees, and the Tarangire River. The wildlife roams below. The Tarangire Safari Lodge is owned by the Simonson Family.
I was looking so forward to the lodge and had high expectations. All of which were met immediately. I had several visions and they all came true.....I wanted to sit on the terrace and look down on the plains and see wild animals while enjoying a glass of wine...check! The other vision was to have an elephant walk past our tent while I lay there with the curtain open....more on that later.
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| Refreshing glass of wine and the most amazing view! |
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| The view from the terrace....giraffe, zebra, and elephants |
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| Connor walking to his tent.... |
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| The boys' room #19 |
We were given a brief orientation about the property and told not to walk alone after dark. There are workers that would walk us back to our tents once it got dark. The tents were astounding! Brett and I had tent #22, which was one of the best tents. It was at the very end of the path, and there was no tent or obstruction to block our view on one side. When you looked out the front of our tent, right there was the Tarangire River - stunning view. The boys were a few tents down from us in #19. We were not allowed to keep any food or snacks in our tent (the curious and hungry monkeys were clever and would do their best to help themselves), we arranged our belongings and headed back to the terrace to enjoy the sunset and view. The lounge offered some cocktail specials and complimentary light appetizers on the terrace for all to enjoy. I can't explain how awesome this night was....we were in Africa, enjoying an amazing view, wild animals roaming below, sipping a glass of wine, eating buttery popcorn, and my entire family was there with me! Dinner was served buffet style, and we gathered around 8pm. There was a wonderful selection of food and desserts, something for everyone!
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| Room #22 - The best, see the river out the front curtain.... |
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| The bathroom...who new this could be in a TENT?!!! |
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| This was so funny....the only place with power...filled with power strips, phones, camera batteries, computers.... |
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| Sunset |
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| Relaxing before dinner......Aaahhh |
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| The meal was wonderful! |
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| Goodnight boys! |
After dinner, it was dark and time to get settled in our tents. We got the boys tucked in and headed to our tent. Brett and I had decided earlier that we were going to sleep with our curtains open, but our tent zipped up of course. Before going to sleep, I took advantage of the hot water and nice shower....and it was so nice! We drifted off to sleep around 10:30pm.
Stayed tuned to see how our night went, and what woke us up EARLY in the morning........
