Tarangire National Park and Tented camp

We were warned that Tarangire park had a problem with Tse Tse flies, so Ruth Ann is ready with the swatter!
And Larry brought along his head net so that flies not swatted by Ruth Ann would not bite his tender scalp.
The Baobab tree is also a Tarangire feature which looks more like roots than a tree. Being winter, there are no leaves.

The Superb Starling is a beautiful bird which, we found out later, are the pigeons of Africa. They are literally all over the place when eating lunch at a picnic.

This is a beehive in one of the cracks of a Baobab tree. Elephants rub off all the bark but those deep cracks are big enough to nourish the tree with water and house the occasional hive.
And we had to wait for a single line of wildebeests ...
and zebras to cross the road. We were in no hurry!
At the top of a tree far away was a Lilac Breasted Roller - quite rare and the only one we saw.
On the road, a White-headed-Buffalo-weaver.
We finally got to our Safari Lodge at Tarangire.
Our bags were carried to our luxury tents.
This is the nice view from our tent. This park was quite different from Amboseli. The vegetation was tall and green making it more difficult to see the animals. But having seen them, it was very interesting to see the excellent camouflage. Our lodging was more primitive but certainly adequate. Below, see Phyllis having a beer on her front porch. They were our neighbors in this camp. See the video for detailed tent pics.
Phyllis having a beer on her front porch before
Our late lunch in the dining hall.
This is the path in front of the tents.
In back, you could see the solar units that heated the water.
   
We did some bird watching after lunch. We have no idea what this bird is since Katau wasn't here. Ideas, Lorena? Walt thinks it looks like a White-rumped Helmer-Shrike. It certainly matches our picture!
Time for a game drive -- remember what we said about the tse tse fly? Here is one. Note the crossed wings. They are blood suckers and when we swatted them, you could clearly see its latest meal.

The afternoon game drive was so photo-fantastic, we decided to reserve a special page for it.

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