Tri-ing Life and More

My friend and I have been enjoying learning how to take better pictures so I was thrilled when she hit me up about acres of sunflower fields in Poolesville, Maryland. The McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area has 30 acres of sunflowers in 9 fields and it is incredible.

This was my second favorite safari day (the crater takes the cake for me). Tarangire is a beautiful park that was on the way back to the hotel. Our guides said we would leave around lunch, but Holly talked our guides into staying longer since our flight was so late that night. We wanted every last minute we could get to watch the animal. This park was full of elephants, giraffes, zebras, and impalas. It was our first good view of the giraffes. We were also more active in asking questions to the guides this day. We wanted to know more about the animals and their way of life. It was nice having the guides provide that type of information. We just had to ask questions to get them to that point.

This is pretty much the only day during my whole trip to Tanzania that I didn't care for. We had spent the last two days exploring incredible areas and seeing beautiful animals. This day lacked animals and structure. Zara definitely over sold this day in their review and it didn't work out as they had stated. In hindsight, we really should have added a day to the safari which would have allowed us to get to the Serengeti, but hindsight always makes those decisions easier.

Day 2 was incredible. It started a little slow when we had issues getting our permit to get into the park, but that time provided us a chance to watch the monkeys get into different vehicles and get their lunch boxes. Thankfully, our vehicles were closed and we all kept our lunches. Finally, we got our permits and we were off. The first stop was a viewpoint area for the crater. It was a beautiful view, but we were still too high to see the animals. We saw our first giraffes at a distance on the hillside, hiding in the trees. It was our only giraffe sighting of the trip so far.

I adored the experience of climbing Kilimanjaro. It was a great sense of accomplishment and the views were incredible. I must admit though that I am not sure if I enjoyed the climb or the safari more. I loved seeing the incredible views from the safari and the animals. I cannot say enough about seeing these majestic animals in their environment. The way they protect their young, play, find dinner, and so much more. Some were active while others seemed lazy. We saw hundreds of animals, but I never tired of them. Even on day 4, I wasn't tired of seeing more zebras or elephants.