Tanzania Mission Trip update # 2
Sunday, July 15
By: Jeff Pruitt

After a well-earned, good night's rest, we set out early Sunday morning to Arusha National park for our first safari. The weather has been very mild so far, and today was no exception, with clouds blanking most of the sky and temperatures in the low 70's. While we welcomed the clouds keeping the temperatures down, it also obscured our view of Mt. Kilimanjaro ("Kili"), which is a key part of our trip through the park. After popping the roofs on our safari vehicles, we set out into the park - less than 10 minutes later, we came upon a herd of zebra and a tower of giraffes (yes, that is the correct term for a group of giraffes, according to our driver/tour guide, Gerald). These were Masai giraffes, the type native to Tanzania. Giraffes are very photogenic and seem to find no issue with 5 or 6 safari trucks full of gaggling tourists stop to look at them (the zebras never looked up from their breakfast). After a few minutes, we pressed on to our first (of at least 8) troops of baboons. The baboon population is thriving at Arusha and we were able to see all sizes of them - adults, adolescents, and even babies less than a month old. As we were leaving the baboons, we spotted a large bull elephant in the road - we all wanted to see an elephant, but were told we may or we may not. Gerald told us he was likely agitated, but he was gracious enough to stay close to the road to allow us some great pictures - he also trumpeted at us a time or two. We were all very excited - all of this wildlife less than 30 minutes into our day!

We proceeded to drive into more dense forest where we also saw some colobus monkeys. The tree canopy was dense and the air was cool - reminding me of the forests in the Smokey Mountains. We came to a lookout point that allowed us to look down into the valley below. Arusha NP includes two mountains, and a large volcanic crater (Ngurdoto Crater) containing both swamp and grasslands. After this stop, we loaded back into our vehicles to drive to another area of the park about an hour away, where we would have lunch. This was also a panoramic view of the crater and a clear, unobstructed view of Kili - unfortunately, though the sun had come out, there was still heavy clouds hiding the peak of the mountain from us. After such a great day, we were wondering whether we would get to see the great mountain!

Back in our vehicles, we then proceeded to a parking area before setting out on a hike with a park ranger (an armed escort to protect us from any wildlife). From a starting point about 3930 feet above sea level, we hiked an aggressive trail to about 5,300 feet for another sweeping view of the park, after our park ranger diverted us away from a herd of water buffalo. He was also able to share with us some interesting facts about the animals we were seeing as well as some of the fauna we saw on the way. We reached our destination, winded and a bit light-headed. Kili was there, but remained hidden from view! We hiked back down, then detoured to see Tululusia Falls - a 25 meter (about 80 feet) high water fall spilling into a split in the rock. It was incredibly loud, but made for a great photo shoot. We were foot sore and ready for a rest back in our vehicles, so we set out back to the parking area, briefly interrupted by our sharp-eyed park ranger spotting a juvenile puff adder just off the trail. Back in our vehicles, we set out to continue the main loop through the park. Grateful for the chance to sit and enjoy the cool breeze through the open canopy of the truck, we were not as attentive as we had been earlier in the day. We saw a few baboons and other small mammals, but really weren't expecting our trip could get any better. How wrong we were….

After reaching a small clearing for a short photo op with a single Masai giraffe and one of her young, we began to see signs of elephants - large piles of fresh dung on the road, broken tree branches, clear pathways cut by large animals - and began to wonder if we may get lucky again. We did - we stopped at a point in the road where there were 3 elephants just off the road - one on our right and two on our left. They were merrily feeding on the trees in the dense brush and seemed not to notice or care about us. Suddenly, one of the elephants on the left trumpeted and squared its enormous head at us, flapping its large ears and showing its massive tusks. It did not charge us, but gave us quite a show (and some great photos). We were very excited to have seen more elephants and were sharing our photos with each other when we came upon several other parked vehicles about 1000 feet from the park exit. They two had found some elephants - about 4-5 of them about 100 yards out in a field from us - including a baby! As we franticly took pictures of this great scene, we looked up to see the clouds had finally broken and Kili was there, in all of her snow-crowned glory! We continued to marvel at the wonder of it all, as several more elephants crossed the road behind us to join the others. It was spectacular!

I have been fortunate to see many of God's wonders in nature - Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, forests and animals of all shapes/sizes - but this surpassed everything I could have imagined. It was so peaceful to see these marvelous animals moving about in such a majestic and magical location - it was humbling to conceive of the gifts God has bestowed upon us through nature. We have all seen such beauty in books, computer posts and television shows - but nothing compares to experiencing it all in person, in the presence of friends and family.

Tomorrow, we are visiting one of the schools supported by The Lunch Project tomorrow and are looking forward to meeting the kids and continuing this great trip!