Unlike previous safaris, this one didn’t have a crazy early wake up call. We were to meet our driver at 8AM at a central supermarket, but he didn’t show up until 8:30. We booked last minute and I think got subcontracted into a different company, so we faithfully got into a mystery white van and started the 2 hour drive south to the entrance to the park.

Nick was nervous about leaving the car at the market all day so he slipped the security guard a few bucks to keep an eye on it.

Millie and I sat in the back and played with her little playmobil people. They all have names and personalities. Pictured here are Angela (brunette), Maya (blonde), and Baba (baby).

We stopped at a gas station and transferred to the Land Cruiser safari vehicle that would take us into the park. We shared it with three older women from Poland who I took an immediately disliking to for no good reason.

Our driver stopped on the way in to buy a baobab fruit for us all to try. It was slightly sour and had the texture of astronaut ice cream. Strange and good. The area was littered with massive baobab trees.

It was about Noon when we finally entered the park, and it was heating up. We know that most animals hide in the heat of the day, but felt confident that we’d still be able to spot the animal we came to see: elephants. This is the first park we’ve visited with elephants and they are abundant.

First we saw a lot of wildebeests, zebras, and baboons. It’s sad how quickly I can become immune to amazing things. Already I’m like “oh yeah Zebra? I’ve seen a bunch of those recently”. Need to figure out how to keep the wonder alive.

We stopped for a box lunch that the safari company provided. What a treat to open a mystery box of food. This is not sarcasm. I love not making decisions and being handed an assortment of things. We had chicken, hard boiled eggs, chapati, a carrot sandwich, a banana, juice, and a muffin. A+. We ate in the van so we wouldn’t get eaten by lions, I guess?

At this point we were kicking ourselves for not applying or bringing sunscreen. All other safaris we have done have been early morning and cold. Today we got blasted by the sun.

I continued to scowl at my Polish enemies because they had so many different tinctures and creams. They wiped down surfaces, had sunscreen, bug spray, electrolyte powder, gas and bloating medicine, wet wipes, matching sensible sun hats, charging cords, and binoculars. We had 3 tiny plastic dolls and 2 apples between us.

From there we spotted the elephants. I think elephants might be one of my favorite animals. I could have watched them all day. We saw a family of a dad, mom, and baby. Of course I felt connected to them and almost cried when the baby started nursing.

We moved on and continued to see groups of different elephants. Millie was fading but still watching. She took a brief nap as we slowly drove out of the park. Some got really close to our car.

We drove the 2 remaining hours back to Arusha. Considering the fact that Millie had now spent about 8 hours in a car without a screen, she did really well. She kept asking really deep and weird questions all day today. Amongst them: Why do we feel pain? Mom why do you don’t wear a scarf on your head? Why is snakes long? What would happen if we didn’t have skin?

The drive in and out of the park took us past Maasai huts and farmers. We aren’t really interested in doing the touristy village visit, but I appreciated the drive-by of seeing their way of life. At one point Nick and I saw a guy getting out of a tiny tuk-tuk with approximately 8 goats. I was amazed to see kids as young as toddlers roaming the fields by themselves.

My Polish enemies kept pointing their cameras at people outside of the window which made me cringe. It was the same energy they had taking photos of animals, but with real people going about their lives. Ugh.

This truck aggressively cut us off and I had to get a picture of the painting on the mudflap. Sums up East African driving.

We arrived back in Arusha during golden hour and for the first time in a few days the air was clear and we could see the mountains. It was very pretty.

We were dropped off at the same place we were picked up. There was a man guarding our car and when we got in he asked “everything good? No one touched it”. We didn’t expect them to actually stand guard for 8 hours for $3.

We got some food in the grocery store and then drove home to make a quick dinner. Who knew that being driven around all day could wipe us out so severely? Though maybe it was the sun and dehydration and energy wasted on disliking perfectly nice Polish women.