3.02.2014 – 3.02.2014  33 °C

First day on Safari started with a two hour drive out to Tangire NP, through many traditional Masaii lands. Much of the countryside reminded me of western NSW- soft rolling hills dotted with farmsteads (or in the case of the Masaii, clumps of little huts).. No sheep here in Tanzania, it’s all about Goats and Cows and all of them protected by cowherds! It is a colourful site to see empty grasslands and off in the distance the red blanket of a Masaii person! Apparently the blankets represent the tribe the Masaii belong to… similar to the kilts of the Scots. Biggest difference is that everyone seems to wear their tribal colours all of the time.

As we drew closer to Tangire we left the rolling hills behind and entered a sparsley “wooded”—more accurate to describe it as “shrub-bed”—area that I’m sure the animals must live in. On arrival, our driver had to pay our entry fee so we had some time to look around. We could immediately see Zebra and some Antelope in the distance… Yippee, welcome to Africa!

Our driver popped open the top of our van (yep here in Africa your passengers can stand up in the vehicles as you drive around) and off we went.. The next two hours was absolutely wondrous.. Nearly every animal I’ve ever dreamed about, we spotted! Zebra, Impala Deer, Giraffe, Baboons, Monkeys,  Warthogs (pumbas!) and ELEPHANTS.. There are hundreds in this park… Every other animal you spot is an elephant.. The amount of times I had to stop today to actually take in that we aren’t just driving around a zoo, this is their home!!!

It must be calving season because there are lots of babies walking around with their Mummy’s and baby elephants are very cute, particularly when they chase after their Mums… After an amazing but actually tiring couple of hours we pulled into our hotel to grab a break, some lunch and recharge for another trip out in the afternoon. After the first couple of hours we’re 1/5 (viewing of the Big 5)..

Straight after lunch we started to see more of the same types of animals- Elephants (of course) and Impala. Before we had even been in the truck ten minutes we run into some buffalo (2/5)… Amazing 2 of the Big 5 in less than 2hrs… What was even more amazing is that less than 30mins later and we heard a Swahili call on the radio telling us that another truck had spotted a leopard.. No way, the chance to spot 3 of the Big 5 all within a day….

Before I get too carried away, I better cut to the chase and tell you we did see a leopard but it was pretty far away snoozing in a tree… Their camouflage is off the scale. For the longest time (and we would have sat at the tree for over half an hour) I was looking at the wrong tree and dead certain I could see something moving (leaves and branches is all)… Eventually our guide pointed us in the right direction (thanks to his buddy in the other car) and all I could see was his bum and long spotted tail!! (Another side note, I swear I have more photos of bums of animals than I do faces…. Must be something about me!) After taking my obligatory ten or so photos I started to get slightly bored and started to take photos of the surrounds— in my defence, you try watching a sleeping leopard where you can only see his rear end! I was starting to get slightly frustrated and couldn’t work out why the driver hadn’t moved on… He didn’t move on because all of a sudden our driver told us to get ready the leopard was going to move… And he did! The leopard came straight down the tree and into the underbrush!! Flying leap shot TAKEN! (well, out of focus but still an action shot!)

The leopard was the last of the excitement for the day, and besides which I didn’t want to find everything in one day, what would we hunt for on the remaining ten odd days???

(I’ve split up today’s YouTube for two reasons… A: would be WAY too big for any free wifi and B: I don’t want to show all the animals in 1 day… what will I show later?)

Animal Tally: