Safari - 3 days/ 2 nights

We have finally recovered from the most gruelling adventure of our lives – hiking Mount Kilimanjaro. Before we booked this, we always knew that while in Africa we had to do a safari. As The hike with Monkey adventures had went so well, we also booked our safari with them which would take us on an animal immersion for 3 days/ 2nights leaving from Arusha.

We were picked up by our guide Frank, who is incredible, full of knowledge and is very personable guy with fantastic English. What we hadn’t realised is that we were on a private tour so just me, Leo and Frank. It is actually perfect though as we have the full 7-seater safari monster truck to ourselves and effectively call the shots with how long we want to stay in each place for.
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We began our drive to Tarangire National park which is home to warthogs, elephants, giraffe, leopards and much more wildlife. Tarangire has the second-highest concentration of wildlife of any Tanzanian national park (after the Serengeti) and reportedly the largest concentration of elephants in the world. We were so excited to see these animals in the wild! The drive there took around 2 hours, but it was interesting to pass along the towns and villages along the way while Frank told us all his stories and about his life. 

​Arriving at the park we were greeted with a heap on monkeys and were able to explore and grab a coffee for 15mins while Frank checked us in and obtained the correct paperwork. Upon entering the park, I was immediately blown away – it was so green, lush, full of life and scattered with the infamous baobab trees (these has been on my bucket list, so I was so excited to see them). The first wildlife that we saw was actually a ‘hornbill’ a.k.a ZAZU from Lion King! From there we passed various families of Warthog with their babies and then we saw it… right in front of us was a leopard! 1 of the big 5, and incredibly difficult to see during the day! I MEAN, WHHAAATTT??? 10 minutes into the park and already ticked that sucker off the list. I was practically levitating with excitement. We waited to see if it would come any closer but eventually it just disappeared into the bush and we made our way deeper into the park. From there we had the most magical elephant encounter I have ever witnessed. A herd of around 20 surrounded the car, with their babies while we snapped away. These gentle giants are one of my fav animals and getting to see their young up close was truly breath-taking.

​After lunch, and after ticking off essentially all the wildlife in the park we made our way to ‘Eileens tree’ accommodation, where we would spend the next 2 nights. IT IS AMAZING! It should be renamed, Eileens secret wonderful garden – it has a pool, the most amazing food and the rooms are HUGE!! On top of that while we were lounging by the pool out steps our friends from our hike! What are the chances? The day just got even better! We had the most amazing meal with these guys before heading to bed. Tomorrow we are off to the Ngororogoro crater to spot some lions…I, as per always am so excited!