Into the Heart of Africa: Part 2
The monkey should have been our first warning that we weren’t in Kansas (or Toronto) anymore.
Picture this: You’re sitting in an elegant dining room at the Arusha Serena Hotel, sipping coffee and contemplating the day ahead, when a vervet monkey casually strolls through the open doors, hops onto the breakfast buffet, grabs a banana, and sits down on the arm of an upholstered chair to enjoy his morning meal. An employee chased him away, but not before we all got the message: Welcome to Africa.
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That moment of delightful chaos was our official introduction to a continent where the rules are different, where wildlife doesn’t just exist in distant preserves but walks right into your world when you least expect it. It was the perfect prelude to what awaited us in Tarangire National Park.
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Into Elephant Country
After James’s safari briefing at 7:30 AM, we loaded into our Toyota Land Cruiser and headed toward Tarangire National Park. Even en route, we spotted wildebeest in the distance—a tantalizing preview of the wildlife spectacle ahead.
Nothing, however, could have prepared us for what we’d encounter once we entered the park.
Tarangire National Park holds a remarkable distinction: it has the highest concentration of elephants in the world. With over 3,000 elephants calling this 2,850-square-kilometer sanctuary home, the park offers what researchers and wildlife enthusiasts consider the best opportunity in East Africa to witness massive elephant herds in their natural habitat.
Our first sightings came quickly—impalas, then warthogs, followed by a solitary male giraffe standing majestically near the roadside. Each animal filled us with increasing excitement, but we had no idea what was coming.
The Encounter That Changed Everything
Then we saw them. Our first elephants.
Magnificent was the word Lynne wrote in her journal, and it still doesn’t capture the awe of that moment. But it was what happened next that would haunt me for years and eventually become the emotional foundation of Blood Oath.
We stopped our Land Cruiser near a large herd that included several massive bulls and numerous young elephants, including babies. As we watched, something extraordinary happened: the herd began walking directly toward us. Not just near us—toward us.
Within moments, elephants were walking in front of our vehicle, behind it, and alongside it. Some actually touched our jeep with their bodies as they passed. We sat motionless, barely breathing, as these giants—each weighing up to six tons—treated our vehicle as nothing more than another obstacle in their path.
It was completely exhilarating. It was also terrifying in the most primal way imaginable.
The Seeds of a Thriller
In that moment, surrounded by the largest land mammals on Earth, I experienced something that would later become central to Alex Martel’s character: the simultaneous rush of awe and the stark recognition of one’s own vulnerability. Here we were, these soft, fragile humans, completely at the mercy of creatures that could crush us without even noticing.
The elephants’ behavior revealed the intricate social structures that researchers have documented in Tarangire. These herds, led by experienced matriarchs, can number up to 300 individuals during the dry season. The family units we witnessed—protective mothers keeping calves close, adolescents learning survival skills, elders guiding the group to water sources or sometimes off by themselves, excluded from social activity because of their orneriness—displayed the same kind of loyalty and protective instincts that would drive Alex’s desperate mission to save her father.
A Landscape of Giants
Beyond the elephants, Tarangire revealed itself as a land of superlatives. The iconic baobab trees—some over a thousand years old—rose from the savannah like ancient sentinels. These “trees of life” store water in their massive trunks, which elephants strip for sustenance during dry seasons. Surrounding them, acacia woodlands provided the classic African vista of umbrella-shaped canopies stretching to the horizon.
We lunched at the Tarangire Safari Lodge, looking out over vistas that seemed torn from the pages of Out of Africa. The plains stretched endlessly, dotted with acacia and those magnificent upside-down baobabs, with elephants visible in the distance like moving boulders.
The afternoon brought more encounters: gazelles, impalas, a leopard sleeping in an acacia tree (too far for photos, sadly), and dozens of bird species including vultures, eagles, and the charmingly named bare-faced go-away bird. We saw termite mounds topped with tiny mongooses—an image so perfectly African it could have come from a nature documentary.
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The Fiction Takes Shape
That evening at the Tarangire Sopa Lodge, as we sipped G&Ts and watched elephants, impalas, and dik-diks from the bar deck, I began to understand something crucial about Africa: you never have to leave the lodge to see everything. The wildlife comes to you, whether you’re ready or not.
This realization would become key to Blood Oath. Africa doesn’t allow for the illusion of safety that distance provides. There are no barriers between you and the wild. When violence erupts in Alex’s story, it happens not in some remote location, but right where she thought she was safe—on safari with her father.
Our first day had been unbelievably great, but it also taught us that in Africa, the beautiful and the dangerous often occupy the same space. The elephants that had thrilled us could have just as easily trampled us. The leopard sleeping peacefully in that tree was a perfect killing machine. The vastness that felt so freeing could swallow you whole.
These weren’t abstract concepts anymore. They were lived experiences that would shape every page of the novel to come.
Building Toward Danger
As I write this, I can see how that first encounter with Tarangire’s elephants planted the seeds for the novel’s central themes. The way Alex responds to crisis—with medical precision, tactical thinking, and absolute focus—mirrors how we all responded when surrounded by those massive creatures. You don’t panic. You don’t make sudden movements. You trust your training and your instincts.
Most importantly, you respect the fact that you’re a visitor in a world where the rules can change without warning.
What’s Coming
Next Thursday, we’ll descend into the Ngorongoro Crater, often called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” There, in that collapsed volcanic caldera, we’ll witness hunting techniques that would make David Attenborough weep with joy—and see behaviors that would inspire some of Blood Oath’s most intense action sequences.
But before we leave Tarangire behind, I need to share one more detail that would prove crucial to the novel. That evening, a gentleman from Turkey fell down the lodge stairs during dinner. As a paramedic, I assessed him and determined he was okay, but the incident reinforced a lesson that would become central to Alex’s story: medical emergencies can happen anywhere, anytime.
In Blood Oath, when Alex applies battlefield medicine to save a wounded ranger’s life, she’s drawing on the same instincts that kicked in during that flight to Amsterdam and again at that lodge in Tanzania. The skills are universal. The stakes are always life and death.
Africa had welcomed us with a monkey stealing breakfast and elephants touching our jeep. It was showing us beauty beyond imagination while quietly reminding us how quickly everything could change.
Asante sana for staying with us on this journey. The wild is just getting started.
Steve Urszenyi
Blood Oath releases November 18, 2025. Discover how a peaceful safari became the inspiration for Alexandra Martel’s most dangerous mission.
📚✨ Pre-order Blood Oath today and secure your copy! ✨📚
🇺🇸 Amazon US: Order on Amazon US
🇨🇦 Amazon Canada: Order on Amazon Canada
📖 Indigo Books: Order on Indigo Books
🏢 Barnes & Noble: Order on Barnes & Noble
📚 Novel Spot (Local Indie): Order at Novel Spot
💪 Why pre-order matters: Your pre-order helps boost the book’s visibility, supports independent bookstores, and ensures you get your copy on release day - November 18th!
👥 Help spread the word! Share this with fellow thriller fans who love heart-pounding Alex Martel adventures. Every pre-order makes a difference for authors like me!
🎯 Don’t wait - secure your hardcover copy now and be among the first to dive into Alex’s most dangerous mission yet!
#BloodOath #PreOrderNow #ThrillerBooks #AlexMartel
