Tarangire National Park

We have visited this park among several others during a honeymoon trip back in 1999. This was our first safari but we have been enjoying this so much that we still remember this as the best trip of our life and keep dreaming of getting back there.
This park has impressed us but its great outdoors, the large grassy meadows. We also saw cheetahs there.

Tarangire is known for it's numerous elephant populations and bird species diversity. The area also has a wide variety of mammal species most abundant include baboon, impala, waterbuck, giraffe, and warthog. Over 150 species of birds can be observed in a single day by even the novice birder. Lion, leopard and cheetah are present but may not be observed daily. A stay of 3 days is minimal. I rate this park excellent for wildlife photography.

Tarangire is more famous for elephants. Wild cats are not the easiest to spot here.

Hard to pick, but Tarangire could be my favourite park.

We arrived the night before, staying at the Kirurumu Tented Camp. This was the nicest place we stayed on our trip, but also had the worst road of our trip leading to it. Reception is an elegant, airy building with a central corridor. Glass doors lead into an Internet room and the manager’s office. We were greeted with mango juice and hot cloths, and Maasai porters carried our bags to #10. Steps leading to a concrete verandah, canvas walls with sliding glass doors, three beds with nets, white duvets with colorful cloth blankets at foot of each bed, and a very spacious bathroom, with a flush toilet better than the one we have at home, and 2 sinks with facecloths! Plus a shower with enough hot water for the three of us. Paradise.

We settled in. Maasai men escorted us through darkening paths to the dining tent, which was surrounded with bushes covered in what looked like blue petunias. We had our best meal yet. A scrumptious butternut squash soup, tender pork chops in a tasty brown sauce, with lightly cooked green beans, carrots, and potato slices. An apricot walnut crumble cake for dessert. And the dining tent is fun, beautifully set with Maasai necklaces forming the placemats. Because the kitchen is in a separate building, they use silver plate covers to transport dishes. Great service – and playful. The waiter counted us in - 1, 2, 3 - and we would simultaneously remove the plate cover to reveal the food underneath. There is also a comfortable couch and a library of African books. So glad to have two nights here.

Tarangire National Park has a really nice entrance gate - well tended gardens, clean bathrooms, and a very tall wooden observation platform.

We begin the game drive. The weather is cool, and intermittently overcast. First off we see waterbucks. Then two different varieties of giraffe, a hilarious family of striped mongoose and two families of warthogs that let us take a good look at them before they trotted off - one had really big tusks. Then a family of dwarf yellow mongoose living in a termite mound. Speaking of which, termite mounds were everywhere, as were weaver nests, hanging from all the trees.

The Baobab trees are wonderful, looking very elvish to me. The grass long and green. Flowering bushes everywhere, covered in white petunia-like blossoms with delicate pink interiors. Little blue and yellow flowers by the side of the road, acacia trees, baobab trees, palm trees. The whole impression is of lushness and fertility.

We notice several vehicles gathered in the distance. Over we go. A female lion is wandering among the vehicles. Then we see the dead buffalo about 10 feet off the road. We notice some entrails and various organs about 5 feet from the road, and a big hole in the rear end of the buffalo. The female lion crosses the road and disappears into a thicket about 30 feet away.

A flock of African white-backed vultures arrive - why do they always pick the bare ugly trees? It’s like vulture central-casting. A Ranger Safaris' vehicle drives off the road, over to the thicket where the lioness had gone. A guide in another vehicle says there are more than 10 lions including a male in there. I was disgusted by the off-roading, but at least no one followed them.

The other vehicles leave and we settle in to wait. Thadei (our wonderful Safari Infinity guide) says the vultures will eventually go to the buffalo and that will draw the lions out. We back away from the carcass to give the vultures space. Sure enough, they start to circle! Eventually a couple of them land. We hear a loud grumble from the lion area, and look to see three females and a male emerge from the thicket. The vultures depart quickly.

The lions slowly make their way down to the carcass, with the male lion spraying copiously on his way. We notice a fourth lioness that must have been in the tall grass by the carcass all along. A female lion poops in the road and scrapes dirt over it like a cat. Then all five of them range themselves a yard or two from the carcass and just lie in the grass. Gerry says it’s a sentry system! One of the females returns to the clump - maybe there are cubs there.

One lioness nuzzles against another, purring. She then goes over to the male lion, licks him, rubs against him, then lies down and waves her tail enticingly. He licks her. She gets up, walks off and he follows. I hear a tourist say "they are going to get a room". But no, they just lie down a few feet from each other and start to doze, looking comfortable. We remain another 15 minutes or so, then decide to move on and check back later.

First thing we run into is a huge troop of baboons. There are many, many babies, including one that looks less than a week old. Some run along beside their moms, others ride on their backs, and still others cling to their mother's bellies. They are going to cross the river. It’s a wonderful sight - hundreds of baboons crossing the water, a few even walking on two feet. Some skirmishes, lots of squealing, shrieking and chucking sounds. The great baboon migration. Four reddish elephants in the background looking majestic.

We see a male ostrich with pink neck and legs - mating-ready apparently.

Lunch at the Matete lookout. The river is far below us. We watch a herd of elephants cross it as we eat. I am happy to see a green apple in my box. I put it and a bag of peanuts aside. Thadei leaves the table. Suddenly there is a thump and I look up to see a vervet monkey springing away, my green apple clenched firmly in his mouth. He lands on the fence across from me. Nick and I are in fits of laughter - nicely played, monkey!

The rest of the day is an easy pace. Just looking around. We see two battling waterbucks, a turquoise kingfisher, a hamercop stork, two monitor lizards swimming around, a saddle beak stork, a beautiful blue roller, flocks of teeny orange birds that look like flying poppies, a dik-dik, and a tawny eagle.

I love this park. The rolling hills, the trees, the river, the flowers. It's like a classic picture of Africa. Near the river, there are tall single stalks with one delicate purple blossom on top. The Tarangire River seemed to be drying up fast – it was flat and winding, but with a big expanse of sand on either side.

I want to watch some elephants for a while. This is not so easy. Two big ones cover themselves in mud, but they move away as soon as they are done. Thadei says the elephants here are wary of people, since they sometimes come into conflict with the agriculturalists outside the park. It's not surprising - even a single elephant could pretty much ruin a crop.

One elephant even looks like it might charge. We move on, find another group down the track, and watch some mothers and babies for a while. A little one rests its head on Mom's leg. Awww.

We decide to go back and see what's happening in lion land. To our utter delight, there are three small cubs tearing away at the organs on the ground, which are looking surprisingly fresh after a day in the sun. The kittens have a pretty hard time chewing - they don't seem to be able to get much of a mouthful.

The poor buffalo is looking emptier. There is another big hole near its neck. There are MANY flies. Only one female lion is nearby. We surmise the rest of them must be back in the bush fort.

Sure enough, slowly they emerge and come down to join the party. We count six juveniles, and three females. The cubs wander off to some nearby water, and are joined by the juveniles and one of the moms.

Three females start chewing on the buffalo. There is a small altercation. Two of them leave, and one remains tugging and scraping at the carcass. Clearly there is a hole in the side we can't see - she sticks her head inside and we can hear the chewing. Every time she pulls it out we see the blood on her face.

She tries to turn the carcass over by using its leg as a lever. It's too hard for her, and she looks around for help. Everyone is at the water. The male lion emerges from the thicket, and paces his way down to the lower field, spraying vigorously every few yards. He makes a wide circle, and then lies down near the crowd at the water.

The female lion is clearly going to succeed in turning the buffalo over. It seems we could stay there watching all night, because there is still a lot of buffalo to eat, and many lions to eat it. Not to mention the vultures. But the afternoon is getting on, and even though it is our last game drive, we want to have time for a shower and beer before supper and packing. Reluctantly we move off and go back to the lodge, stopping only briefly to check out a male and female buffalo weaver.

We return to camp around 5, happy to have a little time in our lovely tent before supper. We all shower, and sit on the porch with a beer, chatting and looking at photos.

Supper tonight is cream of pumpkin soup, Tilapia, and crème caramel. Not as delicious as the night before, but still good. Thadei drops in just as we are leaving. We arrange to leave at 8 am the next day. Can't believe the safari is ending!

Amazing, up close wildlife!

From the moment we entered Tarangire NP, we saw more wildlife than we expected. In no time at all we were incredibly close to elephants, giraffe, and a number of other herd animals. This was our first park and the beginning of our trip, and it was a spectacular way to start!

Fantastic

I had a perfect safari through Tarangire National Park, everything was well prepared. Two very friendly and helpful guides, made that trip perfect. I had been deep impressed. Weather had been fantastic, the guides tried to show as much animals as possible and I often think back to that trip

Elephants paradise

It was the first of 8 parks we visited in Africa, and also the first Safari we've done. We didn't know what to expect, but we knew that we weren't going to find any lions or rinohs. As we were newbies we found really exciting meeting a lot of monkeys from a really short range, then we came across diferent groups of hervibors such as Impalas, Topis and some other horned ones. But the best thing of this park are by far the Elephants. We got to see a lot of diferent groups, playing in the small rivers, walking from the water to the shadows of the baobabs, they don't seem to care about the few vehicles in the roads, they were walking just beside us, it was really beatifull.

Ah, watch out with the tsetse fly, they bite quite hard.

Very good, very beautiful place.

Not too bad. But average when compared with Serengeti and Ngorungoru.

To see elephants in Tanzania, go here

We saw lionesses hunting, and other fun wildlife, but the most spectacular was the day we were surrounded by elephants on all four sides of our safari vehicle, en route to the river. This didn't happen anywhere else, and it was the best day of our trip, including more famous national parks. We also loved just sitting overlooking the water watching the elephants playing. The density of the elephant population made this a wonderful visit.

We stayed in Boundary Hill Lodge, in the Conservation Area, and it was our favorite lodging of the trip. Spectacular place to stay to visit Tarangire. The weather was no different than in Ngorongoro Crater or the Serengeti. The scenery was much less our focus here, though. However, the baobabs are unbelievable, too.