The Safari in the Tarangire National Park

The Tarangire National Park is located in Northern Tanzania and is a less visited park than the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area; the reason is a mystery, as it is a very beautiful park in terms of landscape and offers excellent opportunities for sighting.

We enter the main gate and take a trail that leads us to the Western part of the park; here the landscape is very beautiful and evocative, there is a wonderful valley and many trees.

This is the ideal habitat for leopards, we look for them but we do not find them, they are very shy animals and often hide among the vegetation, so it is not easy to spot them, especially at this time of the year when the rains have made more lush the vegetation.

We continue our tour and the landscape changes continuously: some areas of the park are open savannah, while others have marvelous and majestic baobabs, for which the park is famous; it is said that this is the "park of the giants", for the baobabs and for the large number of elephants that are found here.

The Tarangire river dominates the park and crosses it from North to South, it is a permanent source of water and therefore here, at any time of the year, you can make excellent sightings, since the animals are concentrated on its banks.

The name Tarangire derives from "tara ngire" that in the language of the Mbugwe means "the river of the warthogs", most probably the Mbugwe in the past have seen several warthogs going to the river.

In the most Southern part of the park there is a more humid area, that never gets completely dry, even during the dry season.

We spot a lot of elephant herds, some composed of 5 or 6 specimens, others decidedly more numerous; the best thing is that everyone has puppies, some really very small, and this means, not only that they are healthy, but they are a hope for the survival of the species, that is threatened by several factors, including poaching and conflict with man.

We also spot 5 lions, one of which up on a log, some are a bit far to take quality photos, but we admire them with our binoculars; two instead we see them a few meters from our car, they are wonderful, there lying along the river

We also spot cheetahs, we had never seen them before in Tarangire, even these are a bit far away but they are beautiful, lying in the shade of a bush.

We continue and everywhere we look, there are elephants, zebras and wildebeests; sometimes we sight some giraffes busy feeding and some waterbucks that seems to look a bit surprised.

We also spot many birds of prey such as the bateleur, the martial eagle, some vultures circling in the air.

Near the holes of water we also see the white storks, the saddle-billed storks and the marabou.

We arrive at the Silale Swamps where there is a very nice picnic area, with a spectacular view of the water meadows and the mountains that are on the horizon.

We have lunch here with a box of biscuits, the only thing we managed to buy at the bar where we had breakfast, at the entrance to the Tarangire National Park.

The plans were different, we should have had a picnic lunch prepared by the lodge, but with the fact that there was a fire, they were not able to prepare it; no problem, we are little interested in lunch, we are interested in safari and sighting the animals.

We leave again and we head towards the North and towards the exit, continuing to look for animals.

In the afternoon it's really hot and the sun is strong, we try to stay in the shade to look for a bit of cool.

The landscape is spectacular and everywhere we go there are animals, in this season the Tarangire National Park is really a show.

We arrive on the river and in front of us we see a wonderful scene: several herds of elephants have come here to cool off and to drink; as the river water is a little muddy, elephants dig holes in the sand to find clean water, these same holes are subsequently used by other animals.

On the other side of the river there are lions, we are a bit far away but we see them very well: two are lying near a bush, while two others are always on the river and observe the animals; elephants have puppies, some of them very small, but do not seem worried by the presence of lions.

We enjoy a bit the scene, then we go to the picnic area of ​​Matete that has a terrace overlooking this part of the river, even from there we observe the lions, trying to guess their intentions, and we look ecstatic the elephants .

Finally we go down by car on the opposite bank of the river, where there are the lions, is a bit late, we should already go to the exit of the park but we wanted to see them from near to take some close-ups.

From here we finally head towards the exit, we pass near giant baobabs, different acacias and herds of zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, elephants, that are really everywhere and, finally, we arrive at the gate.

Bye Bye Tarangire, you gave us, as always, spectacular moments and sightings!