Safari Introduction

January 30, 2019

Safari Introduction

The safari is over and it’s time to reflect on this experience. It’s difficult to put into words the feelings of awe and wonder at the vastness of the land and the enormous variety of life, or lives that cohabitate in the African landscape.  This experience generated feelings of reverential respect for the balance of the whole creation. So you see? I stumble with the words to express the experience.

As soon as we arrived at Tarangire and I saw the plethora of animals, I wanted to capture the moment, the feeling, the details of what I saw.  So, I started taking pictures…and taking pictures….and taking pictures.  Then, I was reminded of the time I went to Holland in 1980 and became enamored with windmills.  I used up ½ of my film on windmills.  I wanted to capture the experience, the feeling. But, of course, the photos don’t capture the awesomeness of the moments of any experience…  And so it was with this one.  I took close to 600 photos, thinking that I could re-experience the high, the intense passion of the moment. But, alas, that is not possible. The photos create only a memory of the excitement and not the dopamine high of the experience. Like Don Quixote, I was chasing windmills in my idealistic and impractical hope of a safari reincarnation. Now, as I go through the photos, I realize that most of them are either blurry or dark or the animals are too far away to identify.  So there you have it. I can relay the memory with a few photos but the experience is one you’ll have to have for yourself.

A few words about where I went.  Take a look at this map.  You can easily find Arusha near the center.  Below Arusha is a purple “oval” which is Tarangire National Park (with “alternative spelling” on this Michelin map). Towards the upper left corner is a much larger purple outline of the Serengeti National Park.  As you can see, a small part of it extends into Kenya.  Between the 2 purple figures is Ngorongoro Crater in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which covers 8292 square kilometers / 5152 square miles. These are the three parts of my safari.

(Note: Tarangire is pronounced “ter-an-geer-ay.” Ngorongoro is “en-gor-n-go-ro.” Serengeti is “ser-en-ge-ti.”)

In the safari posts, I’ve written the highlights. There is so much more but I can save the details for a long visit with a glass of wine.

Let’s get on with it….