ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK

Last weekend our friend Trenton came to visit. He has been working in Nairobi for two months with a micro finance organization that provides loans to low income workers. His visit gave us an excuse to go out for a couple of nice meals and also go on our first safari! Arusha National Park is only 20 km from where we are living, but rarely visited by the regular safari crowd who are going to the bigger parks; Serengeti or Ngorongoro. It made for a perfect day trip. Our guide book informed us that hiring a ranger and walking thru part of the park was an option, which sounded like a great way to get some exercise (unlike us Trenton has been spending his days sitting at a desk). However, when we arrived at the first gate, the park ranger told us that yes, it was possible to go on a walking safari, but not to the part of the park we wanted to go to. He also told us that the only way to get to the next gate, from where the walking safari started, was by taxi. Somewhat reluctantly we opted to hire a driver (with a pop-top van) for the day to take us thru the park, which in hindsight was a good idea because we were able to see much more of the park and get much closer to the animals. The Animals! Within the first 100 yards we came upon a heard of giraffe, practically in the road. There were eight or ten of these majestic creatures just relaxing, eating, passing the time. We could have stayed and watched them all day, but our driver was eager to keep going, a sign which we took to mean the entire park would be as densely populated. So for the next hour we drove thru the mountain and saw only colobus monkeys, sausage trees, and elephant dung. We did get a chance to walk for a little bit after the van spun out and could not make it all the way up the hill, but this part of the day was overall uneventful. Moving thru the next section of the park we saw many baboons; then zebra, buffalo, water buck, huge warthogs, gazelle-like creatures, and some unidentifiable birds (sorry Lacey). In addition the day was clear and we had great views of Mt. Meru and caught our first glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We could write more, but I think checking out the photos will tell the rest of the story.