Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Boundary Hill Lodge...owned by our safari group. After four nights of camping…this was just what we needed. Each “cabin” has its own private hilltop location…and looks out over the plains of Tarangire. The bank of floor to ceiling windows allows you to watch an incredible sunrise each morning. I think we have found heaven.

Yes…this is the bathroom. Makes you want to drink lots of water. At night, the stars light the room.

This is the first accommodation to get three photos in the blog! Our second patio has a functioning bathtub as well as a private outdoor shower. Oh, and did I mention the fact that everything is solar powered? Luxurious and eco-friendly.

The next day we headed into Tarangire National Park for a game drive. James was quite surprised when we found these, as apparently they are quite rare. I find it amazing that on every single game drive we see something new….

Tarangire is arguably the best park in Africa for elephants with a population of over 3,000. You see them around every bend…but their favorite spot is down by the water.

We sat and watched this group have a pool party. They sprayed mud, flopped down in it, rolled around and generally had a blast! Somehow they avoid sitting on the babies…but barely.

We got to spend a morning in a masai boma. The walls of the hut are made of mud and cow dung…very water repellent. This young girl is one of the wives…they do not get a choice as to who they marry….and it can be a very young girl with a very old man. The more prosperous the man, the more wives he has.

We are sitting on one of the beds, which is a ledge covered with a cow hide. We sat around some coals and talked all about the masai culture with James and a masai warrior that works at our lodge. The boys are circumcised anywhere after about twelve years of age, and can NOT make a face or cry during the procedure. The girls are also circumcised so that they do not “feel pleasure and become prostitutes”.

Dean said that the young girls could not take their eyes off me. Perhaps because I am twice the size of them! They live on a diet of milk mixed with blood, porridge and red meat. If a “warrior” passes through the area and needs a place to sleep he gets one of the beds. He puts his spear across the door so that the husband knows not to come in. Hmmmm. I'll have to try that at home. (Kidding!)

Our last activity was a safari walk. We went with our masai warrior, who would protect us with his spear. Did I mention that each night at dark a warrior meets us at our door with a spear or bow and arrow and a lantern to walk us to dinner? (As we were leaving James told us the reason for the escort after dark- a lion killed a zebra right in front of OUR unit a few years back.) We only saw small creatures and zebra, but had a lion appeared I was ready to witness some warrior prowess. On to Zanzibar! It is beach time…