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We actually arrived one day before the trip was scheduled to begin and we took advantage of our early arrival to take a day trip to the Arusha National Park with one of our guides. The park is about 150 miles northeast of the town of Arusha, so we left first thing in the morning and had a scenic drive in the direction of Mount Kilamanjaro. Once we arrived at the park we shifted into safari mode by opening the roof hatches were ready to observe wildlife. We were not disappointed. As we left the entrance parking lot we ran into a troupe of baboons and just a half mile down the road we entered a meadow in which giraffe, zebra, and warthogs were grazing and while we were watching them a large troupe of baboons appeared.

The great thing about Arusha National Park is that it is the home of some unique critters that are not common to the rest of Tanzania. As we were driving through a wooded section of the park we were lucky enough to find a troupe of Colobus Monkeys. A mother with its baby were playing in the branches right above our heads. We also saw another primate species, Blue Monkeys, and a couple of antelopes, the Bushbuck and Red Duiker, which we did not see in other parts of Tanzania.

On the return trip from the park we passed though several villages along the highway and a large busy marketplace near the hotel in Arusha. In the evening we had dinner with our tour group and met our fellow safari members. We had a short orientation and then turned in early to be ready for an early departure the next morning.

(Click on map for interactive Google map)