Tarangire, the magical world of elephant (my first love) and Baobab trees spoiled us with its giant treasures. We drove
through many herds of elephant, near and far. The dry season is coming and over the next month the herds will move
literally ‘en-masse’ into the park to congregate around the only remaining water source for many miles around –
Tarangire River. It’s hard to believe that the numbers of elephant we saw here are only just the beginning.
Our highlights were a group of playful teenagers frolicking and wrestling right by our vehicle, watching a herd of 25
rushing in a grand parade to the water hole 50m in front of camp while the boys dangled their toes in the swimming
pool, a group swimming across the edge of the Silale Swamp, emerging black and shiny to then create a tremendous red
earth dust bath, the babies rolling in the earth while the adults showered great clouds over themselves.
Deep, deep rumblings, grass munching, dust snorting and even a shrill warning trumpet gave us an unforgettable
soundtrack to our elephant days. Our other sightings included a magnificent leopard (in a far-away tree), giraffe, warthog,
mongoose, wildebeest, zebra, impala, buffalo, grant’s gazelle, jackal and a rainbow of birds.
The boys are spellbound by the wild around them and wide-eyed at the lovely Nimali Camp where we stayed our first
night and Treetops our second.
