Sunday, October 23, 2016 (Travel to Maramboi Tented Camp, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania)

We were up, showered and packed...and after breakfast at the lodge, we all gathered at the Land Cruisers. Time to load all the luggage (now we know why we each had a limit of one small, soft-sided piece of luggage with a max weight of 15 kg) into the vehicles, climb aboard and head off to continue our adventure! We were on the road shortly after 8:30 a.m....here are a few pictures as we drove through Arusha...



On the outskirts of Arusha, we reached our first stop...the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre. It is a place where the past and present of the Tanzania's 120-plus tribes can be viewed in a single compound. The centre boasts a variety of carvings, gemstones, artifacts, clothing and books.

The place is quite huge and would have taken a few hours (at least) to go through in detail, but with only about 40 minutes, we managed to have a quick look.
There are a number of curio shops...
...and a jewelry store. He's adamant that he show me his array of tanzanite...


 And a very impressive art gallery...








Our next stop today was at "Shanga"...a for-profit enterprise which employs people with disabilities to create unique handmade jewelry, glassware and home ware using recycled materials. Their products are sold in Tanzania and all over the world, with profits being reinvested back into development of new products and further employment of disabled people.

In 2007 Saskia Rechsteiner made a handful of fabric necklaces for a Christmas Fair in Arusha, Tanzania. Combining local fabric with some beads and her sons' marbles, she created a unique necklace and sold out within hours. Needing a name for the necklaces, she asked what the Swahili word for a bead was and was told it was a "shanga". The days after the fair were busy - orders for the necklaces came in from safari companies, gift shops and even people who wanted to export them to Japan and Australia.

Saskia saw an opportunity to generate extra income for a deaf lady who worked on the coffee estate where she lived and together they started producing the necklaces to sell. Saskia quickly fell in love with the idea of helping more people from the deaf community and within weeks she had employed another 6 deaf ladies - all making the Shanga necklace in her back yard.

Soon the demand was too high and the team needed extra space. They moved into the River House on the coffee estate and the Shanga Workshop was born! Shortly after, Saskia opened up a Shanga Shop and built the River House Restaurant to offer lunches. Saskia expanded the range of products made in the workshop, sourcing recycled and sustainable materials where possible and invited people to come and meet the inspiring people who made them.

Over the years this resulted in employing more than 45 people with a wide range of disabilities to make creative products from glass blowing recycled bottles, paper making, maasai beading, recycling old pots and pans into decorations, glass bead making, traditional weaving, metal work and much more. Shanga has welcomed many happy visitors and become an institution in Arusha. Some of the highlights were definitely seeing Amal Clooney wearing our Amal necklace on the international news, and a visit from Bill Clinton and the Clinton foundation. We hope to see our products in many more stores around the world!

Throughout Shanga’s colourful journey, the heart and message of Shanga has remained the same. Of utmost importance is providing a safe, consistent and loving environment for Tanzanians with disabilities who have so often faced terrible hardship in their lives. Of no less importance is making amazing products from discarded materials that are sold in Tanzania and around the world, regardless of their story. They are simply great products made by great people!
After our tour and opportunity to purchase some of their goods in their gift shop, we were back on he road toward Tarangire.
 We saw a number of "dust-devils"...

 A man's wealth is determined by the number of cattle he owns...



 A Massai Village...



We stopped at the entrance to Tarangire National Park for lunch. On the way here Steve's DSLR camera fell onto the floor breaking the protective lens on his telescopic lens. Luckily the telescopic lens was okay...
Two yellow Collard Love Birds with a Superb Starling in the middle. Can't identify the dark bird...
Red-Billed Hornbill...
Not sure if this is also Red-Billed Hornbill
Blue-Capped Cordon Bleu  Birds...
Black Faced Vervet Monkeys
 Carrying her baby...so cute!
 This fellow has rather colourful "parts"....

The Monkeys try to steal your food so you have to be careful. Here they are checking out the table area for scraps...

Time to stretch our legs before getting back into the Land Cruisers...

The Baobab Tree..."Upside Down Tree" Legend says that the baobab once angered God. It was torn from the earth and planted back upside down, leaving the roots exposed instead... (more on these magnificent trees later...)
Me and Uncle Gord...
View from the platform...Termite mounds dot the landscape...



Elephant skulls...
 Now...that's a huge Termite mound!
Candelabra Tree is a poisonous tree. The white sap will blister the skin or cause blindness if it touches the eyes...
Warthog...
 Impala...
 An incredible Baobab tree...

Zebras...
  We came across a very popular watering hole...
 And the best part...a pride of Lions resting in the shade...
 ...after their kill...a Wildebeest (warning: viewer discretion on the next few pictures!)
Meanwhile, there are groups of zebra and wildebeest wanting to go down to the water for a drink...


 After witnessing wildlife in its truest form, we carried on down the road until we came across two groups of Elephants.
Our guide said that they were likely headed toward the watering hole, so we turned around and went back to watch the interaction with the lions...



Hanging Weaver bird nests are very common...
 The lions were still feasting...
While the Wildebeest look on...from a distance...
...and the pelicans fly above...



And all of the safari companies gather to watch...
Here come the elephants!
Talk about "up close and personal"...






Meanwhile, another herd of elephants stay under the shade of Acacia trees...
After a few minutes, they turned around  and started back. Our guide said that elephants don't have very good eyesight and have likely scented the Lion danger nearby...
 And they were moving pretty fast to get out of there...
 Our guide actually moved our cruiser to ensure the elephants had a clear exit across the road....

 This fellow stood guard until all of the others had gone by...

Yikes...this was close!

  The waterhole is now empty...
 ...except for the birds...Marabou Storks

 But there is still a lot of wildlife nearby wishing the lions would move on...


Guinea Fowl...




 Female Ostrich...
Hello fellow safari goer (Gordon)...what a great day!




Lots of bones laying about...
We came across another couple of elephants...giving himself a dust bath...

Tarangire National Park (in northern Tazania) is the best park for those wanting to see and photograph the baobab tree. The lifespan of the baobab tree is very long, with most of the large trees in Tarangire being over 1000 years old. It is difficult to age them without radio carbon dating as they don't produce annual growth rings.

Elephants like to eat the bark of the boabab during the dry season to obtain moisture from the trunk's reserves. Many trees bear deep gouge marks and have odd shaped trunks due to the ravages of the elephants. However, the damage very rarely kills them.

The baobab does not suffer from ring barking and can grow bark if damaged by elephants. The bark is smooth if the tree is left along by wildlife although most aren't. The white flowers emerge in the late afternoon from large round buds on long drooping stalks from October to December. They are up to one foot long and open at night in the wet season and are pollinated by fruit bats and bushbabies. The flowers fall within 24 hours, turning brown and smelling bad.



All in all a very iconic African tree...there are some who worry about them in the long term because the young ones need to be left along for many years to establish. As elephants are becoming more and more restricted to where they can live, they are not giving the new trees long enough to grow unhindered, and so there appears to be a shortage of smaller baobabs.
Mongoose...
Larry with his binoculars...
Male Ostrich...
On the way out of the park, there are usually numerous kids along the sides of the road...they may not know the English language but they do know how to ask for "money". Our driver had to stop and chase them away as they are afraid that if they tripped they could get run over...


We passed through a small village on our way to our lodge...


Another market...


We're now on the road to Maramboi Tented Camp...

We made it! As usual, we were greeted with wet facecloths and a cool drink.
And relaxed while our rooms were being sorted out...
Esther...
There are a couple of water troughs on the property where we can watch the wildlife...
Once our rooms were assigned, it was time for the porters to escort us and our luggage. She was carrying one of our bags without holding on just before this photo.

And this is our "tent"...
Pretty cool! Only the walls are canvas...
After getting cleaned up, it was time to head to the pool area where "happy hour" starts at 5:00...
Barb, Esther, Joyce and me...
Left to right, going around...Byron, Marjorie, Alan, Alberto, Annette, Larry, Joann, Kay, Jean and Marianne...
Dinner time outside...

The little flies were terrible around the table candles. We had to cover our drinks however I'm sure we all ate a lot them as there was no way of keeping them away from our plates...
This day was one of the highlights of our trip and we hadn't even been to the Serengeti yet!


4 comments:

  1. Very impressive animal sightings! I think my favorite would have been the elephants or perhaps the lions. The birds were very colorful, what a unique variety you saw. How was the food?

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    1. The elephants are pretty awesome, but I think the lions are my fav...just wait until we get to the Serengeti!

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  2. Awesome wildlife ... what a trip. Maybe Steve got sick because of the flies??

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    1. No, don't think it was the flies. He accidentally drank some water from a thermos when he was brushing his teeth. The water was for washing....perhaps that was it...?

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