This is the biggest park in a country of huge parks. Not that we would see all of it, that would take years. It is indeed enormous, with great swaths of different ecosystems and rivers – all with fantastic scenery. The elephant population is the largest in the country and we found that elephants had different personalities in different parts of the park.

Over on the dry side we coasted up to a small group of seven medium size ellies, our windows rolled up and a big bush between us and them. No need to crowd them, we don’t get close. But they weren’t having any of it, one raised its foot, shook its head, and in a second it was charging the truck – a true charge, nothing mock about it. Punch it, Bishop… and the elephant running full on down the road after us. Interesting behavior as the group didn’t have babies that we noticed. They did seem small to be off on their own, we wondered if the matriarch was far away. It pays to be so cautious, not get too close, have an exit plan. Another encounter had an elephant slowly walking up to us, sniffing and cocking its head, reaching out with its trunk – it appeared to be very curious. Unthreatening behavior. We still kept the windows up, we have heard of ellies reaching into cars with their trunks – that is not to be taken lightly. Most of the time elephant just do what they do – shake trees to get seed pods, play in the water, take dust baths, and generally socialize. I’d call it cheap entertainment, and it is endlessly entertaining, but it is not cheap. Parks here are expensive and worth it.

Ruaha also has many lions. We heard them roaring in the night and we were up early to see if we could find them. One can drive around all over looking for lion and not see them while missing other interesting sights. This is not fun and leads to disappointment. We leave camp and go to the place where lion had been seen, no luck there, so we moved to a scenic lookout and had our coffee. Down the road are a dozen giraffe, we stop and play with them. They come closer and closer to the truck – then suddenly they are intent on something behind us. What do you know, the giraffe are staring at a pride of lions who’d popped up out of a gully. Nice! We turn the truck around and watch the them playing and butting heads until, exhausted by that, they lay down in the meager shade to rest. Four males and four females. This older female has an endearing look, with her lazy ear. The whole pride is still there when we go by in the afternoon. They had barely moved. It’s hot, why stress?

Where Katavi park had its palm trees, Ruaha has baobab trees by the thousands. Gigantic or enormous, or just plain huge, leafless or flowering, they are everywhere. Elephant tear and gouge at the trunks for the moisture and yet the trees survive with the scars to show. Some of the trees appear troll-like, others look like an alien spacecraft landed on a coke bottle. Holes in the trunks house birds, lion make use of the great shade the trunks cast. Baobabs – that’s “bow-bow”, as in bow to the queen, with a short o.

Vultures and storks flock to a lion-killed giraffe carcass and there is a vulture I have never seen. I must find an eastern Africa bird guide when we get to Dar Es Salaam, I am hopelessly out of range with my current book. There are fish eagles galore, screeching and crying all day – I have yet to see them actually fishing. This darling baby eagle owl had a swarm of lories harassing it, making so much racket we had to stop and investigate. Even as I have dozens of photos of bee eaters and kingfishers, I can’t stop shooting them. We follow the track along the river and wish we could stay for a year in Ruaha.