Adventure of Tarangire National Park
Located near Lake Manyara, about a 75-mile drive southwest of Arusha, Tarangire is Tanzania’s sixth-largest national park at 1,100 square miles. Established in 1970, it’s not nearly as world-renowned as some of the other parks on the country’s northern safari circuit (including Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area).
As such, it has far fewer visitors than those “Bucket List” safari destinations, even at the height of peak season (which lasts from July through October).
Zebras Drinking from the River at Sunset
The park is named after the Tarangire River, which passes through it and makes visiting Tarangire a seasonal boom-or-bust proposition.During the rainy season the majority of the wildlife migrates out of the park, across the Rift Valley and to the grazing grounds of the Masai steppe. But during the dry season, when the vast herds of the Serengeti make their Great Migration north to Kenya, the Tarangire River serves as a rare, reliable water source, drawing an immense concentration of animals.
The myriad species found there are as diverse as the stunning landscape, which varies from verdant hills dotted with Baobab and Acacia trees to dense bush and high grasses. In Tarangire you don’t need to go on a game drives to see wildlife here. The lodge grounds are filled with huge herds of Wildebeests and Zebras and families of Baboons and Warthogs.
While the Elephants are arguably Tarangire’s main animal attraction, they’re far from the only one.The brilliant blue sky, dusty red earth and brittle yellow grass provided a spectacular scenic backdrop for myriad species big and small, ranging from the tiny Rock Hyrax (a.k.a. Rock Badger) and Dwarf Mongooses to the famed Big 5.
Though not as frequently sighted in Tarangire as they were in Serengeti National Park, we saw Big Cats fairly regularly. We watched the two males pictured above for nearly an hour as they graciously posed right beside the road.
Leopard Lounging in a Sausage Tree
We spotted an average of one to two Leopards each day, usually resting on branches hidden in the shade of giant Sausage Trees.Finding them proved a difficult challenge, but getting the lazy Leopards to raise their heads so we could get a decent picture was damn near impossible. The shot you see above took us over an hour!
The Rusty-Spotted Genet (a.k.a. Panther Genet) outside our Safari Lodge tent was much easier to see, but much too quick to photograph as it scurried off into the night.