Tarangire is an excellent reserve for elephant viewing and the famous baobab trees. The landscape and vegetation is incredibly diverse with a mix that is not found anywhere else in the northern safari circuit.

 

Walking is allowed at a number of camps allowing guests to experience something other than game drives. This is especially true if guests have transferred from Arusha the previous day and have just got off an international flight the evening before.

 

From around June to October, it's dry and the game returns to Tarangire's swamps, and especially, its river system. This is the best season for a game-viewing safari in Tarangire, which can be excellent.

 

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.

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. Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like duetting. Tarangire's pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.