We stayed at Zion Camp near the small town of Olasiti, about 6km from Tarangire National Park. This was definitely not a remote campsite with wild animals wandering around, sadly. Our group had a corner of the campsite (which is surrounded by a stone wall) to ourselves, where our fleet of tents was set up – we were 3 students to a tent. Additionally, we had a building for eating and such. Since that was one of the few places with shade, we spent a lot of time in there.
The first week was spent doing very little; projects didn’t start until the second week. My original idea didn’t work out, so I had to come up with a new idea that week. I had two main priorities: to get the experience of spending many hours observing animals, and to be able to work pretty independently. So I ended up watching birds at a puddle near the park entrance. I’m not sure how my paper will turn out, but I got what I wanted out of it: I got to spend a good 50 hours at the puddle and didn’t have to deal with park entrance fees, translators, having a spot in a car, etc. Moreover, since birds are more active in the early mornings, this gave me a great excuse to get up early every day. I’d wake up at 4.50am, get a sandwich from Eric, one of our fantastic cooks, hop the wall and be on my way by 5. It was still dark out by then, and the stars and moon were amazing. Over the course of the hour it took to walk to the puddle, it would slowly get lighter, and by the time I arrived at Tarangire, I’d see a gorgeous sunrise. Those mornings were probably my favorite times in the field. At first I’d go alone, but the last week or so other people came with, which made it all the more enjoyable.
Basically, each day felt really long, but the time went past very quickly overall. Most days were pretty similar (which isn’t a bad thing) but there were some really fun occasions too, like Halloween. We all dressed up as well as we could and each tent gave out some kind of a treat, and at the end of the evening we made a fire.
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