6/27- Tarangire Day 3 Baby Elephant

6/27- Tarangire Day 3

After our morning breakfast, we load up our truck, which sits under a beautiful baobob tree, and we say goodbye to our crew.  Hussein was so great to us and we exchanged emails to keep in touch.  We absolutely loved our Tarangire camp an crew! Oh, and Elizabeth adopted a Leopard tortoise right in camp!

On our way out of Tarangire, we were treated to something special.  On a bluff across the river, we watched and elephant accidentally scare two brother lions out of the brush.  The angry elephant proceeded to drive them down into the river basin, but the brothers split up and doubled back, completely befuddling the elephant, who gave up the search.  Amazing!

 

Later we watched a baby male elephant romping around and trying to learn (often unsuccessfully) how to use his trunk, and he seemed to love annoying his older sister by backing his rear end into her side over and over and over as she tried to eat.  Clearly it is natural for young males in all animals species to annoy their older sisters, not just in Elizabeth and my family.

We left Tarangire behind and climbed the escarpment that borders the Great Rift Valley.  Now we relaw at Gibbs Farm Coffee Plantation, which sits on the outer flanks of Ngorongoro Crater at about 5,000ft.  The place is an oasis!!!

At dinner tonight, I surprised Elizabeth and had champagne delivered to the table to celebrate our honeymoon, and everyone surprised us when the wait staff sang the African version of Hakuna Matata as they delivered a cake to us that said Happy Honeymoon. 

Tomorrow we descend into Ngorongoro crater for more wildlife!