Tusk

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From Zanzibar we’ve made our way by ferry to Dar es Salaam and then by bus (a very long day!) to Arusha where we begin a 6 day Tanzania camping safari. Two of our friends from England join us here and we will travel together for this safari and afterwards for 12 days in Uganda.

Tarangire National Park is our 1^st stop out of Arusha. It’s not one of the better known game parks so I’m unsure of what we’ll see here, but I shouldn’t have been worried, the game viewing here is excellent. It’s been almost 30 years since we were last in East Africa (and that was in Kenya) but I’m aware of a number of high profile stories about the problems of poaching and threats to animal numbers such as elephant, but it looks, at least in Tanzania, that things aren’t too bad. Tarangire is particularly scenic and is known for its large baobab trees. There is also a permanent river here so the park is relatively green and maintains a healthy population of wildlife all year round.

Our guide tells us we will see more elephant here than in the Seregenti and also herds of wildebeest as from here they don’t migrate north. But there is so much more! The highlight of our 2 days is finding a leopard lazing in a tree, but we also see a lioness hunting which is a real thrill to watch. The prey gets away this time which we’re all quite happy about. As well as these highlights we see all the usual antelope, warthog, zebra and giraffe you would expect, and of course lots of elephant.

I take plenty of pictures, a small selection are attached which hopefully give an impression of how good Tarangire is for a safari. After this it’s going to be hard for the Serengeti to top this but let’s see in Africa anything can happen!

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