The day started with elephants visiting the watering hole next to the dining area during breakfast.
Since last year’s trip to Botswana, I’ve learned to temper my expectations. During that trip I was hell bent on seeing large prides of lions with their cubs. However, we only saw 5 lions on that entire trip – 2 males lions sleeping in the brush, and 3 females walking away from us in the dark. What we did see tons of during that trip were BIRDS – thanks to Tony (our guide in Chobe) and the birders in our jeep.
Lions in Botswana…
There’s a lion head somewhere in the picture 
I have to admit that I was so disappointed last year that it nearly ruined the trip for me. So I’ve learned to lower my expectations for this trip so that I wouldn’t be so dispirited. My expectations for Tarangire wasn’t too high to begin with as this place is really know for baobab and elephants. So I went on the all-day game drive expecting to see the usual suspects.
We were treated to some animals we’d never seen before.
Then you have the usual.
As we’re trundling along the dirt path, Samwell suddenly stops and spots a lion. A lion! I really didn’t expect we’d see a lion so quickly.
In Chobe National Park in Bostwana, the park rules are that the jeeps must stay on the paths and not go off road. In Tarangire, the rules also exist, but since the park was deserted Samwell took matters in his hands. He said, “we’re going to get closer, get your camera ready.”
It’s hard to tell in the photo, but there were 5 other lions within the brush. No wonder we couldn’t see any lions in Botswana, they were all hidden away and we couldn’t get close to them. Of course we couldn’t stay too long as we were off road, but that just made my day. We just saw more lions than our entire trip to Botswana. I thought to myself, this is a good sign for the rest of our Tanzania trip. Little did I know how good of a sign this would end up being.
As we’re heading toward Silale swamp, Samwell asked, “do you guys want to see a snake?” I thought that was strange question. Maybe some people don’t like to see snakes. I thought about it and said ‘sure, why not’. He backed up the jeep and pointed out the python.
This python looked like it had swallowed something big.
Samwell told us that the python is likely done eating for the next few months, and will be spending all its time in the tree digesting.
We got to Silale swamp and it looked like a painting.
A reed buck along the marsh.
Samwell was looking as he was driving. It was unclear as to what he was looking for, and then he spotted the 2 legs dangling from the tree.
A leopard! Photo taken from 300 ft away with a zoom lens.
He had been looking for this leopard for his prior group but could not find it. We had seen a leopard in Okavango Delta last year, but I didn’t take this one for granted as we know elusive they are.
Here’s the beautiful leopard we saw last year in Botswana, as we followed it for close to an hour.
She posed for us like she was on a Vogue cover.
Back to the leopard we saw this time – it just decided to sleep in the tree and made no movement at all except for a flick of the tail.
Samwell got word that there were 2 lions close to the path, so we left the leopard behind.
We were told that the male lion is still young and therefore the mane isn’t as full as one would expect. However, we were later told by the guide at the Serengeti, that the reason the mane is not as full as the ones seen in the Serengeti is because of the terrain. Tarangire has a lot more brush and therefore the lions lose their hair as they’re walking through the brush. Whereas the Serengeti plain has nothing to grab onto their hair to cause hair loss, as you’ll see in pictures in later entries.
After spending a good amount of time with the lions, we headed to the picnic site for lunch. Samwell told us to get our cameras ready before driving right up and under the sleeping leopard.
On our way to the picnic site, we saw a few more interesting animals/birds.
Sanctuary provided us with packed lunch – chicken rice, cucumber and red onion salad, sweet yam with figs, brownies, and it was all amazingly good.
An interesting tidbit we learned during lunch – since hunting in Tanzania was banned 5 years ago, bush meat is considered illegal and anyone caught with it will end up in jail.
On our way back to the camp, we ran into the the first pride of lions again.
Samwell had wanted to find the cheetah for us, but we couldn’t possibly be so lucky in one day.
After a long day, it was happy hour at the camp.
Sanctuary Swala used to have a swimming pool, but had it covered earlier this year during their renovation after the swimming pool was becoming the animals’ watering hole. The staff told us that there were so many animals on the grounds when the swimming pool was in place that the camp was like a zoo.
Today’s tally of cats: 9 lions and 1 leopard.
Africa 2018 