Africa Part VIII: Tarangire National Park and Olduvai Gorge

So, it looks like my emailed blog post worked did not work.  I can't couldn't see the photos but I can could see a little blue square indicating that there is a photo there that is blocked by The Man.  Apparently that is what was visible to everyone else as well.  Hopefully everything looks the way it looked to me when I emailed it.  I can get to my blog at school, but I want to get caught up because there are more current things I'd like to blog about!

After leaving Amboseli, we drove to the border to enter Tanzania.  Most of our group had already applied for and received our visas before we left the U.S., so we waited in lines to get stamped and then got back on the bus.  One person had not been able to get her visa before leaving, but everything went smoothly and I think she waited the least amount of time in the end.  We said goodbye to our Kenyan guide, Joe, before entering Tanzania.

My first impression of Tanzania was that it was much drier and dustier than the places we had visited in Kenya.  The Maasai homes were built using different materials and different construction.  The ones in Kenya had a flat roof while the ones in Tanzania were more cylindrical with a thicker, pointed roof.

Here's Kenya first and Tanzania second.

In Tarangire National Park, we saw a lot of baboons, zebras, elephants, and giraffes.

Sometimes the giraffes tried to hide from us.

We usually found them still.  Look!  Twiga!

The elephants, of course, were my favorite.  We caught an early morning scratch and stretch one day.

Some were content munching on the plants.

Some looked a little like they might want to charge at us if we got any closer.

Tarangire National Park was much more forest-like than the other parks.  There was a river, which we drove through at one point.  We took an off-road route to our lodge because it was a shortcut unavailable during the wet season.  Thank goodness for guides.  I don't think we saw a single sign on the way.

When we arrived in the Tarangire National Park, we got our first sightings of the very interesting Baobab Tree.  These trees are huge and so interesting in a creepy-looking way.  As you can imagine, there are all sorts of stories about spirits living in the trees, etc.

 

 

Tarangire was beautiful.

On the way to the Serengeti, we stopped by the Olduvai Gorge, the "Cradle of Mankind", and looked around.

(My archaeologist father would probably not want me to leave it at that, but this was back in July and I want to get on with the posts of now.  So, I'll let you look here and find out more information on the Olduvai Gorge yourself.  Sorry, Dad.)

We drove by the Ngorongoro Crater as well.  This time, we had just a brief stop before heading to the Serengeti.  After visiting the Serengeti, we returned to the Crater for a couple of days.  I'll include those pictures when I post about that part of the trip.

(I am not liking the new formatting for blogspot.  It won't let me put my photos where I want them.  I have only a short time before I need to go home where blogspot is blocked so this is how it stays.)

--Sarah--