Ngorongoro Crater to Tarangire National Park

(FYI, there's been some updates to these posts since we first created them... :D maybe you'll detect which are the new pictures!)

(Update, Qihui sent out a link about wildlife photography.. WHICH WE ALL AGREE WITH!!!! ie that nature photography takes A LONG TIME. but WE REALLY DID SEE A ZEBRA CARCASS.. WE REALLY DID....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092105782_pf.html)

The next day was cold and cloudy and we set off bright and early :) Li Ling was very pleased because she declared sadly on the first day that she had never been in a cloud before and when we stepped out of our rooms at Rhino Lodge we were IN A CLOUD!

(this photo does not really reflect the sleepy/cold state of the rest of us - which looked more like this)

After 2hrs of singing/sleeping in the safari vehicle, we reached our 2nd park: Tarangire National Park.

All the animals are bigger and seem more active in this part of Tanzania.. One of the first things we saw upon entering the safari was.. a herd of 11 adult elephants crossing the road in front of us..!

(this one is staring at us)

Other active animals we saw:

Look closely, the leopard's on this tree... this was the distance we had to see it at :( But thanks to the W's ultra super lenses, we were able to get the close-up on the leopard.

The park was also littered with baobab trees - beautiful upside down trees!

Sunset as we drove back to Tarangire Sopa Lodge for dinner and SLEEP!!

Sopa Lodge was really posh, but it didn't have the coziness and character of Rhino Crater Lodge! (but I realise that this collage (which rebec made!) actually makes the Sopa Lodge look quite nice lor. well it was lar.)

The Lodge was set amongst the foliage and animals were wondering in and out of the lodge the whole time. We had to be escorted by the night guard whenever we left our rooms! Wanlin and Li Ling ran into an elephant on the way to their room, and while Rebec was showering and I was standing alone near the balcony of our room, there was suddenly a loud snort right outside which scared me out of my wits!! I drew the curtains and ran back into the room screaming for Rebec, who was like, "Aiyo relak lah, they can't come in! Take picture of it!" And when she came out of the bathroom she valiantly went to peer outside the balcony in an attempt to spot the creature which scared me so. [please note, currently, rebec is editing TY's post. aka she is writing as first person TY.. aka this part of the blog is probably rather biased.-WL

Tarangire National Park! Highest density of elephants (no/sq mtr) in the world.