Tarangire National Park, a Pond and a Lion's Pride!

This is a smaller park than Serengeti but is still significant. After paying Norman in advance for the entire trip, we moved into an aged Land Rover and cruised towards our animal safari.

Before we entered the park a picnic lunch was served. With check in and a few formalities later, we moved in.

This was my best encounter with lions so far and I even saw a pride of six lions feasting next to a small pond.

They were having a ball rolling on the sand and playing with each other. There was one who just couldn’t finish his lunch and kept on chewing on the wild beast the pride had just hunted down.

My shutters were clicking full time and I took extreme close up shots of the lions drinking water, eating the kill and sleeping. One of them even tried to climb a tree.

All this activity went on near the pond as wild beasts and a group of zebra strolled past them and yet, kept a fair distance just in case of a sudden attack.

Oh, I wanted so much to capture a live kill through my lens as I prayed and waited.

To my disappointment, they were full today and only wished to drink, eat, sleep and play.

Man, I would love to have their life. Wouldn’t you? It is the most uncomplicated worldview that I can think of.

The kings of the jungle were all for me to view today as I patiently observed their every movement.

Dixon, my guide cum driver, then proceeded to show me a herd of elephants with huge big tusks playing in the mud as the male broke and ate branches from the trees and merrily strolled on the vast grass.

On my right were a family of wild giraffes eating thorns and leaves from trees as they stuck their neck out of the bushes only to be captured through my lens.

Then there were the male and female kampala sprinting on the grass. The male with its majestic horns stared right at me as I captured its pride through my lens.

The kingfisher birds and what was that? a tribe of mongoose just went past by my Land Rover.

Animals everywhere as I saw a beautiful black male partridge by the bushes and gave a pose for my camera.

The marabou stork, a crane-like bird, sitting on top of a barren tree was my next victim as I clicked on with the blue sky as the backdrop. This picture really stands out. It is a bit of a sophisticated scavenger.

Animals all around as I sipped away at my Red Bull lighting up the occasional smoke once in a while to cool off. We went right up to the hill to get a panoramic view of the park and I think I have taken enough pictures and videos for a lifetime. My Land Rover meanwhile has a charger and a fridge facility, so, it’s very chilled out.

As the evening set in, we were headed for Karatu through Mto wa Mbu. This is where my lodge is which is called Bougainvillea and so till then, have a great time and enjoy the wildlife pictures.

Originally posted on http://tikkustravelthon.in/2016/08/29/tarangire-national-park-a-pond-and-a-lions-pride/