Day 5 of the Safari was spent driving back to the Springlands Hotel in Moshi with a planned detour through Tarangire National Park,  This almost 1100 square mile park was located southwest of Arusha.  One of the draw of Tarangire is it’s year round supplies of water contained in the river which it is named for and several swamps.  This resource helps to sustain numerous non migratory animals and birds during the season.   Tarangire was a nice way to  end the safari as we saw many of the same big animals a few smaller new ones.  I believe Kate’s new second favorite animal is the zebra mongoose.  The Baoabob trees located in Tarangire were everywhere and amazing in size and shape. Another highlight of Tarangire was the two elephants  off in the distance fighting.  Their trumpeting calls and the sound of horns clashing carried up the valley to our truck.

After a few hours at Tarangire we headed back to Moshi for a relaxing afternoon and nice Austrian meal in town with Ben and Marcus.  After eating food tailored for tourists for two weeks we were excited to try some authentic Tanzanian cuisine, and then we ended up at Salzburger Cafe, good fun but not really representative of where we were.

The safari was an amazing once in a lifetime experience but after 5 days we were ready to head off on our own.  Tomorrow we fly to Zanzibar for some culture and beach time.