Two for the Road: Couple explores Tanzania parks in rental camping Rover

“The large male elephant looked up and stared directly into the front window, giving me that piercing stink-eye look that says, get out of my way,” said Bill Pierce, recalling an adventure travel moment with an alarming pucker factor.

The African outfitter had told him and his wife, Debbie, to keep their vehicle running while they were near elephants.

“We had been briefed on recognizing behaviors that meant an elephant was becoming agitated or aggressive,” Bill said.

“He wasn’t flapping his ears or stomping his feet, the warning signs of a charge. But, man, that stink eye looked serious.”

While far-flung adventures are almost routine for the Spokane couple, they say Africa is set apart by its wildlife. Not even the Pierces’ travels in Alaska can stack up to their self-guided safari into the lairs of lions and elephants.

On this trip, they rented a Land Rover, gear and pack-along meals from Shaw Safaris. They camped 11 of 14 days, staying three nights at tented lodges.

“We thought it would be a great adventure to explore Tanzania at our own pace, to have private encounters with wild animals and the local people, and to spend nights in our roof-top tent, with the sounds of Africa all around us,” Bill said.

Getting there required 36 hours of flight time to Arusha, where the outfitters welcomed the Pierces into their lodge. “We immediately felt like we were visiting old friends,” Bill said.

They devoted two days to exploring maps, learning about camping at the parks and the needed permits, how to interact with the people and how to deal with the wild animals they would encounter.

There was much to learn – the GPS, cell phone, Rover maintenance, emergency equipment and how to put up the roof-top tent.

On the drive to the nearby village, they practiced shifting with left hands and driving on the left side of the road.

They stopped at a bank to exchange dollars for Tanzania schillings and launched their safari, the Rover stocked with water for washing, bottled water for drinking, extra fuel, two spare tires, cooking utensils, a propane stove, battery-powered refrigerator freezer and a starter kit for food.

First stop was Arusha National Park, unique among the parks they visited in Tanzania because of its dense, tropical montane forest.

The park is centered around 14,562-foot Mount Meru, an active volcano that last erupted in 1910. But just as big in the Pierce’s eyes were giraffes.

“A newborn is 6 feet tall and 200 pounds!” Debbie said, noting that adults stand 17 feet tall. “Giraffe is Arab for ‘the one that walks fast.’ ”

The couple was equipped with cameras and lenses ranging form wide angle to 400 mm.

“Either the driver or passenger would pick up the cameras and shoot the pictures, depending on which side of the car had the action,” she said.

The public campsite in Arusha was a simple clearing in the forest. “We were the only ones there and we relished the solitude,” she said.

“We carried one weapon, a sling shot for the olive baboons. We had a pile of rocks by our chairs to use if they bothered us. They roosted in nearby trees that night and their barking and screaming made for an unsettling first night on safari.”

On their way to Tarangire National Park, they passed through Arusha Town, pop. 400,000, and bought fruits and vegetables while soaking in the chaos of people and traffic.

Then they escaped into the dusty plains dotted with flat-topped acacia trees.

Maasai walked along the road or herded small groups of cattle. Women carried children in slings on their backs or had water and baskets perched on their heads.

Tarangire National Park has the second highest concentration of wildlife after Serengeti, and the largest number of elephants, Bill said.

“There were a lot of vervet monkeys hanging around the entrance and we had been warned to keep an eye on them.” The couple learned their lesson when they returned to the Rover after a walk and saw one of the furry bandits jump out of a small gap in the driver’s window with an apple in its mouth.

Animals wandered through camp as they ate. “That night we could hear the haunting laugh of the hyena,” Deb said.

“We didn’t have to drive far the next day to find the elephants. They were everywhere!”

The gray nomads were mostly unaffected by vehicles and did not change their behavior. “We were merely a part of their surroundings,” she said. “Occasionally they encircled the rig, so close that we almost could have touched them.

“Personal space is important to elephants and we were always aware of the warnings (the outfitter) had given us. He told us to always keep the car running and have an escape plan. If an elephant stops what he is doing because of our presence, then we have invaded his space. We’d better think about moving away quickly.”

The situation confronted them that day.

“He was only 40 feet away and didn’t look like he was happy with us in his path,” Bill said. “It was definitely a ‘stink eye’ and we needed to get moving fast. I put (the Rover) in reverse and quickly moved back, probably 20 feet.

That seemed to be all that was needed to calm the elephant. “He and the rest of the family peacefully crossed the road and were on their way.

“If you want to appreciate what may happen if you ignore the warning signs from an agitated elephant, then Goggle ‘elephant turns over vehicle in Kruger Park,’ ” he said, referring to a video of an elephant violently attaching a tourist vehicle.

The Pierces were intrigued by the elephants.

“Their trunks, which have over 40,000 muscles, are strong enough to pull down trees so they can eat the leaves on the top, yet sensitive as well, serving as hand, arm, taster, trumpeter and spritzer for bathing,” Deb said.

A baby elephant is entirely dependent on its mom for the first year, suckling from two nipples between her front legs. At roughly a year old, it begins to nibble on plants, tapers off nursing and is completely weaned between 2 or 3 years of age.

“Elephants are big eaters, consuming 200-600 pounds of food a day,” she said.

A gathering of parked rigs attracted the Pierces to see a cheetah under a tree. A tip from other drivers helped them spot their first lion, which was crossing the Tarangire River.

Zebras were widespread in forests, savannahs and mountains, living in harems of one stallion, roughly 20 females and their colts, Bill said. “Every zebra has a distinct pattern of stripes, like a fingerprint.”

Wildebeests were plentiful, too, and made an iconic African scene as they grazed under the upside down baobab trees, they said.

The couple spiked their travels with the occasional overnight at tented lodges for luxury, food and entertainment, such as Maasai music and dancing.

At Lake Eyasi they met an affable Datoga tribal member and hired him as a personal guide for a few days as they headed into the range of Hadza bushmen.

He led them to a tribe gathered around a fire in the shelter of a hollow baobab tree. “It looked like a world you only see through a National Geographic magazine,” Deb said.

“The Hadza are one of the few true hunter-gathers left in the world. They grow no food, raise no livestock, and live without schedules or calendars, an existence that is little changed from 10,000 years ago.

“They eat everything they kill – from birds to wildebeest, antelopes to rodents,” she said. The kill that day was a kudu. “Their favorite meat is the baboon. The head is the biggest delicacy.”

Joining two of the men on a bird hunt and watching them harvest wild honey was another highlight of the trip.

“I had been a pretty adventurous eater so far,” Deb said, “but I was relieved when they didn’t offer me a bite of the rodent they were cooking on the fire back at camp.”

They also spent time with a Datoga tribe, who were dressed in traditional ochre goat skins, accessorized with bead work and brass necklaces and bracelets.

“It was a wonderful experience to sit in a hut with the women as they had a relaxed and intimate conversation with our guide,” Deb said.

Later on the safari, they drove to Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact volcanic caldera in the world. “At the rim, beautiful blue green vistas stretched out below us,” Bill said.

They camped there and explored the UNESCO site, a sanctuary for some of Africa’s most dense large animal populations.

They were able to photograph warthogs and a black-backed jackal, a highly adaptable carnivore that follows the hunting of the lion and cheetah.

The numerous bird species included the easy-to-spot, fleet-footed ostriches – standing 9 feet tall and weighing up to 300 pounds.

Rules require visitors to stay in their vehicles as they drive through most areas. Prides of lions roam freely. At one area they were able to get out and photograph hippos.

At Serengeti National Park, back on their own, they encountered another vast array of wildlife of which they have hundreds of photos.

“On a self-drive safari there is no guide to tell you what animals you are seeing,” Deb said. “It was easy for us to recognize the iconic animals, and we used field guides to identify others, especially the many antelopes.”

“We had our only flat tire as we were leaving the park,” Bill said. “It was good timing on our part, since we were about to head into the most remote region of our entire trip.”

At Klein’s Gate, they began 160-kilometer drive to Lake Natron, an isolated village on the Kenyan border. “The roads can vary from a descent surface to a barely drivable trail,” Bill said.

A guide led them to waterfalls, more wildlife, cultural treats and helped them weld a broken spare tire rack.

Their final destination was Lake Manyara National Park, one of Tanzania’s smallest, yet diverse, parks with savannahs, marshes and evergreen forests, and a chance to photograph cape buffalo.

Their images tell the story of a great adventure, but only their memories can do justice to the spine-tingling roars of distant lions that haunted and intrigued them as they camped.