Tarangire
National Park - Plenty of giraffes and ancient baobab
trees.
The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape,
baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass
as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shrivelled
to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked
with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds
of parched kilometres knowing that here, always,
there is water.
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river
bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest,
zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and
eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It's the greatest
concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti
ecosystem - a smorgasbord for predators - and the
one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope
such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar
long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed. During
the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter
over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until
they exhaust the green plains and the river calls
once more. But Tarangire's mobs of elephant are
easily encountered, wet or dry.
The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus
for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species
in one habitat anywhere in the world. On drier ground
you find the Kori bustard, the heaviest flying bird;
the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world's largest
bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering
like turkeys.
More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open
for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful
yellow-collared lovebird, and the somewhat drabber
rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling - all endemic
to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania.
Itineraries for Tarangire
