June 03, 2012
Today was the last day of safari. I woke up thinking I wouldn’t see anything new and wouldn’t have much to write about today. I was pleasantly surprised - I thought today’s park was the best yet! I went to Tarangire National Park. The name is a Wa’azabi word tara means warthog and ngire means river (I thought this name was weird because the wa’azabi tribe has a clicking language, not sure how these words were chosen). These people used to live in this area and hunt warthogs. When the government made the land a national park the tribe largely died out because they were unable to hunt. It’s not often animals win over man! This park is full of those Lion King, perfectly African Baobao trees. Tanzania has 122 tribes; a few of them believe (like the washona) that the Baobao trees are either gods or the gateway to gods. These trees have a smooth gray bark, however the bottom meter or so of each tree is scratched up because during the dry season the elephants chew the bark for water, salt and minerals.
This park is known for its extremely large population of elephants. Some herds were so big I actually couldn’t count them. There were a lot of babies, too, but the adults huddle around them all the time so they’re difficult to watch. One herd had little elephant fights (I figured they must have been sisters) and the adults trumpeted at them. Real Africa. Among this herd was a lioness and her two cubs. The babies were the size of my mom’s cat, Goldy, and ridiculously adorable. They were playing around, totally oblivious to the elephants and giant iguanas around them. Mom was alert though. She kept leading them away when an elephant got close. Oscar and I followed them. I thought the elephants would have been afraid of the lions, but the opposite was true. The baby lions try to chase the elephants but they’re little and can’t take down an elephant. So usually what happens is that they get stepped on. While we were observing the baby lions Oscar called the other guides to tip them off but they all got there too late. It would have been nice if everyone had seen them, but it was also pretty cool that I was the only one.
I also saw two new antelopes today, the waterbuck and the littlest of the family, the dik dik. The dik dik is sometimes called true lovers. They are paired at birth and spend their entire lives as a couple. They have a 1km territory just for the 2 of them. The male secretes some white chemical to mark the territory and they spend forever together. When one dies the other stays in their territory alone until their time is up. How romantic. A fun fact about the dik dik: in their 1 km they have a designated bathroom and only ever poop in one place. Less romantic.
The last major national geographic moment of the day was the giraffes. I saw them the first day, but they are one of those animals that doesn’t get old. The giraffe has 1 baby a year and lives until about 28. That’s a lot of babies. You can tell the males and females apart because the male is bigger and doesn’t have hair on his horns from fighting.
After the safari we parked at the gate to sign out. A guy I’ve seen around the past few days approached me. He saw my Peace Corps shirt the other day and had to say hello because he is an RPCV from the Caribbean. He had a very different PC experience than I have, but he says that even 5 years later he still thinks of it every day and how the experience shaped his life and who he is. RPCVs pop up everywhere!
Today I also did some shopping. I bought some Maasai jewelry from a woman’s co-op by the hotel. She was a very sweet woman, I think I spent too much on it, but that’s what happens when you don’t know the local language. I also bought paintings for my family. I did a good job haggling for those, my guide, who didn’t help, said I got fair prices. I bought one for myself as well of a single elephant standing in front of Kilimanjaro. It’s a little cartoon-y but it was of exactly what I wanted. The mountain because it was just a major week in my life, and the old elephant because I’m still thinking of the poor guy out there all alone.
I got back to Springlands Hotel feeling content with the trip. I feel like I can leave Africa now and be fulfilled. There are still things I’d like to do on the continent (Cape Town, Lake Victoria, experience West Africa) but I can go home tomorrow and say I did Africa. Though I’m happy I still have another 7 months left to explore what’s left of Ethiopia.
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