Tanzania, day 3

February 25, 2012

My third day in Tanzania began with the tapping sound of sunbirds playing on the windowsill. After breakfast the bus arrived and we loaded up all of our gear in the back and kept our journals, cameras, binoculars and sunscreen on hand for the day's adventure. 

We drove into town to exchange money, and here I had a new and interesting experience. When we stopped in town, each vehicle was soon surrounded at each window by very friendly, but very determined salesmen. This being a new experience, I quickly compared it to a zombie attack and contemplated making a mad dash out the window. 

But they had us surrounded, taking at the windows and smiling, holding up necklaces, and bracelets, and calling us "rafiki" (which means "friend"). 

My friend Annie got the full experience by opening her window and trading some bandanas we'd brought with us for bracelets. When she opened her window it had a similar effect as throwing bread at a seagull. At first it's just one, then in the blink of an eye there are many. 

I took a picture..and look at them flock to the windows!

This guy with the funky hat? Remember him. He's a jerk. 

After stopping for gas and money, we drove on to Taranguire National Park, which we were told is 20 times bigger than Arusha Park and is known for its elephants. 

This is amazing because it seemed as though there was no end to Arusha National Park, and now Taranguire is 20 times larger? What?!

I was especially interested to learn more about elephants, as I've already learned a decent amount in books that I've read. 

In the book Zoo story (That's Zoo story, not "We Bought a Zoo" which is now a movie and so more people know of that one) I read about how elephants are very destructive, they are keystone species which means that they have a large impact on their environment, despite being a small population, and many things in the environment are affected by them. (In other words, you would need a lot of mice to make as much of an impact on the environment and other organisms living in that environment as a single elephant can do). 

Because of the destructive nature of elephants, (knocking down trees, for instance) if a population grows too big it has to be culled. This means that the whole herd has to be rounded up and killed, and it is important to leave no survivors. The phrase "an elephant never forgets" is why none may be left alive, as it has been found that the youth that have been spared from cullings and see their whole herd die almost always grow up destructive and dangerous; angry, if you will. This is comparable to humans who have witnessed traumatic events as children, who grow up angry and destructive. 

Of course this comparison crosses a hairy line into the world of "anthropomorphism" which is the projecting of human emotions onto animals. A strong "no-no" in science. But all the same, the comparison is hard to deny, whatever we choose to call it. 

As one can imagine, the problem with culling is that elephants are in danger of extinction, and with both the population and urbanization of Africa growing, what room is left for the elephants?

PETA says that an elephant is better dead than in a cage, but no sane person should take PETA seriously. They're just a bunch of grass eating rabbit huggers. (Though admittedly I hug rabbits too..they're so cute!)

Zoos may be an option for when culling becomes necessary, but understandably there are a lot of mixed feelings about that. 

We want animals to be as they are; free, and zoos can't offer the space to roam that would keep an elephant happy. On the other hand, space in the wild is diminishing, and with so little options zoos are surely better than dead. 

The new place we were staying at is Roika Tarangire Tented Lodge, and this was my FAVORITE place to stay. We had a long drive to get there, and after turning through endless roads that seemed to go nowhere and anywhere, we made it to the pleasant looking lodge. 

They greeted us with wet wash clothes to wipe our sweaty faces, and for lunch they served us a Four-part-meal!! The lodge was beautiful, and each of the rooms is on a raised and covered platform, with the room itself a large tent-like structure. On the inside there were two netted beds, and in the bathroom the tub was carved to look like an ibis. 

The Maasai were there too, and they walked the paths at night with spears, because unlike in Arusha which was in town and protected with tall walls, here there was nothing at all to separate us from the wild Tanzanian landscape. Nothing to stop any number of predators from simply ambling into our midsts. I think that is why I loved this place the most. (Though the food was excellent too = P)

This was what the rooms looked like!

After dropping off our stuff, we drove into Tarangire National Park. On the way there, we saw a tortoise by the road. As soon as we slowed down to take some pictures, some kids leapt up from behind a rock and asked us for a dollar if we wanted a picture of it. Talk about tourist trap! Once we got to the park, we barely made it past the gate before we started seeing wildlife. 

 

Black faced vervet monkeys playing on the trash cans...

And around the corner we saw zebra, impala and giraffe!

But of course, the real excitement was in seeing the elephants! When the first one was spotted in the distance there was some squealing and cries of joy, followed by the hush as we all leaned out the windows or over the open roof of the jeeps trying to get a better look. At one point, we were able to get as close as 25 feet or so to them, close enough to hear them chewing!

Look how close we got!!

Another highlight of this days trip was seeing a black mamba, which had been sunbathing on top of a termite mound. 

We returned to the lodge after the sun was going down, and had another excellent meal at the lodge. Annie and I sat out writing in our journals, listening to crickets, bats, and other creatures while flashes of lighting occasionally illuminated the distant sky.