TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK:

The northern entrance to Tarangire National Park is about 60 miles to the south west of Arusha below the Rift Valley escarpment (a half hour flight or drive of two to three hours). The northern section of the Tarangire park lies close to the southeastern tip of Lake Manyara and from here it stretches southwards some 60 miles into the maasai steppe.

Like the Serengeti, Tarangire should really be viewed in the context of the full ecosystem of which it is only a small part. The system extends south and east into the Maasai steppe, and this vast area acts as a dispersal area for much of the game during the rainy season. It is during the dry season (July - Oct) that Tarangire becomes home to impressive concentrations of migratory wildlife species. The migration here does not girate around in a Serengeti-like fashion, but instead the animals of the region migrate outwards during the rainy season and then reverse and come back inwards towards the permanent water of the Tarangire River in the dry season.

During this period the Tarangire river is one of the few sources of permanent water left in the area and consequently attracts large numbers of wildebeest, zebras, elephants, eland and oryx which gather to stay until the onset of the rains when the ongoing migration sees them disperse again to adjoining grazing areas.

Resident animals here include impala, giraffe, kudu and waterbuck, but in the dry season the park fills with large herds of gazelles, buffalo, eland, oryx, hartebeest, zebra. The absolute highlights are the enormous herds of elephant that congregate along the river. It is not unusual to see groups of 300 at a time. There is no doubt that Tarangire is one of the best places in all Africa to view elephant.

One of the greatest features of the park are the baobab trees. The drive along the ridge road down to Poacher's Baobab can be superb on a clear day, with views of the hills of Ngorongoro and even the distant volcanoes of Lengai, Meru and even Kilimanjaro. One of the largest trees in the park, Poacher's Baobab has a diameter of around 10m and is reckoned to be over 3000 years old. Passing through a small doorway in the side of the tree, the cavernous interior has clearly been used in the past for shelter, perhaps for twenty or more hunter-gatherers.

As you head south the views over the vast Silale swamp to Ol Donyo Sambu hill are beautiful and the area attracts great concentrations of animals as the park dries out. During the dry season it is possible to head down to the swamps, where there is excellent bird life. There is also good game viewing where standing water remains, with buffalo and elephant heading into water. These areas are incredibly remote, with the farther reaches of the park being practically unvisited. The area is also renowned for huge tree-climbing pythons. To the east of Silale the habitat changes to open acacia savannah, dominated by quintessential African flat topped tortillis trees.