Going on Safari!!

 Ok, so you cannot come to Africa without seeing some wild animals and I’m not including myself before breakfast..!

Eagerly on the lookout!

Jason and I got involved in a 3 day safari, taking us through 2 national parks, Tarangire and Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater – (booking safari’s can be a headache so we were sure to do some research but it’s soooo worth it!!) We would have loved to have done the Serengeti however costs were spiralling..

We took Bryson (from Camp Kili) with us on our safari. Bryson became like Jason’s younger brother (you got some competition Jonny!) who looked up to Jason. Bryson is a very unique individual, he is very intelligent, knowledgeable, spiritual and passionate about his country, which drives him to be ambitious.

 He used these phrases or comments that made sense but would crack J and me up – our trip was definitely blessed having him there.

No animals are getting away from us!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And off course I have to mention our safari driver as well, who was just awesome - a Tanzanian Rastafarian named Jamaica! This man was so cool, he knew so much, was so down to earth and nothing was too much of an effort – ‘hakuna matatta’ (no worries/problem!) Jamaica has climbed Kilimanjaro over 100 times and climbed Mount Meru (TZ’s 2^nd highest mountain) countless times, to the extent he now refuses to take climbers up the easy routes but only the challenging ones! He has conducted safaris’ across Kenya and all of Tanzanian’s major parks loads of times coming ‘up close and personal’ to the animals, so we knew we were in good hands. Even if his 4x4 jeep had seen better days – handbrake problems! Almost seeing Jason drive us into a bush onetime and another almost seeing Bryson and me roll back into a busy road…jokes!! 

Bryson in yellow, Jamaica at the far end.

Safari Day 1

Tarangire National Park is based around the Tarangire River and during August – October (the dry season) has the largest concentration of wildlife where the animals roam freely and find themselves here due to the park’s extended eco-system and is apart of the northern-circuit safari’s.

Did you know that no two Zebra's have the same stripes..!

Pumba was looking for Timone!

I cannot tell you how excited we both were, having done a safari before in Kenya, the thrill you get from spotting and seeing wild animals doing their thing as God intended is EPIC so being in the land for safari - home to the biggest migration of animals on the planet had us syked!

 

At one point while driving around we stopped to view something in the distance, when Jamaica suddenly dropped his binoculars and began reversing, all of us were like ‘what is it..??!’  A family of Cheetah’s were resting underneath a tree so well camouflaged that none of us had spotted them…! 

 They were pretty close for viewing even without binoculars!

We saw loads of animals such as Zebra’s, Wildebeests, African Buffalo’s (which became known to us as just, Soldiers whenever we sighted them due to Mr Marley’s song – ‘Buffalo Soldier..’), Impala’s, Gazelle’s, Dic Dic’s, Giraffes, Zebra Mongoose, Baboons and loads of birds and even the elusive Monitor Lizard. Trust, some of these animals we didn’t even know about!

Later that day we were lucky enough to view a family of African Elephants taking mud baths, rolling around and spraying themselves, even the noises they made had you hooked watching them! 

 

The biggest highlight of the day came for us in the late afternoon when we met the King of the Jungle and food chain – the mighty Lion. Who had taken his lioness away from the pack to basically get jiggy for the day or a couple of days. We were told usually Lions would only do this after they had made a few big kill’s (of buffalo’s, zebra’s etc) to gain enough energy to last them their ‘honeymoon’ (if you know what I mean..!). During their honeymoon, if they got peckish the lioness would then get them something smaller to eat. 

When we came on the scene the lioness was lying on her back resting while the male was also resting however had his head up, watching us. We were told they had gotten ‘busy’ twice before we arrived. However after 10-15mins he went for it again while we watched – Lion porn!!  Lasting, maybe a minute if that…LOL, what kind of King is that? LMAO

Lion porn!

A brilliant first day!