The four of us set off early morning in the back of a game drive vehicle - in Tanzania they are subtly different to elsewhere in that almost all of them have the passengers sitting on raised seats in the open air on the back with the driver/guide in an enclosed cab. This seems like madness as the possibility of communication disappears almost entirely - if the driver/guide sees something, they can't tell you what it is, if the passengers see something, the only way they can let the driver know to stop is by banging on the roof - hardly ideal. Why is this? Having read the Tanzanian National Parks charging rules rather carefully (looking for loopholes!) by this time, I noticed that they charge "50% extra for open-top vehicles" - it seems like they are effectively driving down the quality of Tanzanian game drives by pushing the operators to use closed-cab vehicles leading to non-communication - better to go to another country if you want a GOOD game drive!!!!
In spite of this, we managed to see quite a good selection of animals and particularly birds - Sue demonstrated her growing knowledge of African birdlife, spotting a few endemic to the region and even a couple that were on the limit (or even a bit outside) of their ranges - luckily we had quite a few photos to be able to confirm some of them later.
One of the better sightings of the day was of a herd of 31 giraffe all moving in the same direction - we've certainly never seen such a large group before. A little later there was a distinct panic going on amongst the buffalo, gnus, zebra and giraffe with animals running in various directions, we tried to work out exactly what was spooking them, expecting to see lion, but nothing was apparent.
The day was long (we think that an all-day game drive is actually too much - particularly when being jolted around in the back of an uncomfortable vehicle, but we were all quite satisfied that we'd given it our best shot. Another meal in the restaurant with Clive and Ann.
In spite of this, we managed to see quite a good selection of animals and particularly birds - Sue demonstrated her growing knowledge of African birdlife, spotting a few endemic to the region and even a couple that were on the limit (or even a bit outside) of their ranges - luckily we had quite a few photos to be able to confirm some of them later.
One of the better sightings of the day was of a herd of 31 giraffe all moving in the same direction - we've certainly never seen such a large group before. A little later there was a distinct panic going on amongst the buffalo, gnus, zebra and giraffe with animals running in various directions, we tried to work out exactly what was spooking them, expecting to see lion, but nothing was apparent.
The day was long (we think that an all-day game drive is actually too much - particularly when being jolted around in the back of an uncomfortable vehicle, but we were all quite satisfied that we'd given it our best shot. Another meal in the restaurant with Clive and Ann.