My Tanzania trip – Dec 2022
19/12 – Arusha national park
20-21/12 – Tarangire national park, visiting Hadzape & Datoga tribes
22/12 – Ngorongoro crater
23-25/12 – Serengeti national park
26/12 – Manyara national park
The largest eastern African country, one of the poorest countries in the world, is one of the richest in wildlife thanks to long-term planning.
Three climates zones: tropics on the eastern Indian Ocean shore, the mostly arid highlands, and the mountains. Two rainy seasons are the end of October to the beginning of December (although there is slight shifting due to climate change causing drought) and April to the end of May.
Most travelers do the “Northern circuit,” containing the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, and Arusha.
What animals will you see? It’s up to what mother nature will send your way. However, in some of the most interesting animals we’ve seen, it was a matter of being alert! If we’d blink at the wrong moment, we would miss a Leopard one meter from our Jeep. So, always look in your surroundings and look up for something moving in the bushes!
Masai giraffe
The giraffe species with largest build
Day 1: Landed at dawn in Kilimanjaro Airport (Arusha), we headed to our first destination- Arusha National Park for our first game drive. A few minutes later, we’ve seen our first Giraffes! We’ve seen them later on all other game drives.
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Plains zebra
These zebras with the underbelly stripes are the longest migrators in Africa
The giraffes weren’t alone! Zebras and their cabs were grazing peacefully along them. We saw these beauties, which my wife particularly likes, in all national parks.
African buffalo
They are also known as the “black death” or “widowmaker,” which says a lot about them – dangerous!
Added to this scene are several massive-built, uninterested African (cape) buffalo; we’ve seen them again roaming alone or in small groups in other parks, savanna, and forests.
Common warthog
Widely distributed and the only pigs that live in grasslands
Warthog with 4-5 small cabs was the fourth animal we’ve seen in this scene, marking our first four sightings in a minute (it’s all been less than 1 hour after we landed in Tanzania!). We’ve seen them plenty of time later, running with their tail up! Super cute.
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Blue monkey
The blue monkey’s digestive tract has developed to accommodate a diverse range of diets; however, they prefer fruits 50% of the time
Our first monkey! A single blue monkey (colored black) was posing for us on the side of the road. We’ve seen them again (this time in a group) only at Lake Manyara national park.
Olive baboon
The most wide-ranging of all baboons, native to 25 equatorial African countries
Baboons are a big deal here. Accustomed to their remote family comrades – us humans – we’ve seen them everywhere, specifically next to hotels, park entrances, and side roads in Lake Manyara. Visiting the Hadzabe tribe, I wore a baboon skin crown. Hatzabe and baboons are long-time enemies.
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Cape bushbuck
Females hide their young and eat the feces after nursing them, so no trail of their scents remains to entice predators
Our first “classic” antelope, shy and elegant.
Serval
Owners of the longest legs-for-body-size of all cats are widespread in sub-Saharan savannahs
“Cheetah!” My boy shouted. Getting closer, it turned out to be a cat indeed, just smaller. Still, our first predator! A large, head-spinning serval was walking approx 20 meters from us. Continuing on its way, we had the chance to enjoy it for a minute. We will see another serval on the Serengeti.
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Vervet monkey
Used for studying genetic and social behaviors of humans as they have human-like characteristics such as anxiety, hypertension, and social and dependent alcohol use
Day 2: Tarangiri natinal park. Entering the park, we’ve seen several groups of velvet monkeys. Later, they would snatch a sandwich off my wife’s hands and open my lunch box (!). We saw them again on Lake Manyara national park.
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