Traveling to the Tarangire

Entering Tarangire is impossible for anyone who has read the "Little Prince" without immediately thinking of it.  There are more grand baobab trees here than anywhere in Africa.  The Maasai legend which claims a baobab is an upside down tree provides you with enough information to become completely disoriented, as you seem to be moving upside down just under the top of the earth!    

Tarangire is a huge wilderness, a long rectangular park whose eastern side is a series of intriguing and beautiful swamps.  Only the Serengeti is larger.  The interior is composed of very dense woodlands cut by sand rivers.  This is a big game country of the best kind.  Everywhere elephants dominate, and the park has one of the densest leopard populations left in East Africa.

The park gets its name from the great sand river that winds through it.  Sand rivers only infrequently have visible water flowing but always underneath the sand, drawing the game to the water holes that are dug along its meandering route.  Tall palms rise from its banks and thick palmetto forests spread into the more distant woodlands.  Sand river parks like Tarangire are more a feature of southern than East African wildernesses, and so is some of Tarangire's unique game like kudu, roan and sable antelope.  Although rare to find this far north, their populations in this well protected park are growing rapidly.

Twenty years ago these great wildernesses, which more or less are found down the entire spine of the Great Rift Valley, were the purvey of hunters rather than tourists.  And for the century before that they were the greatest single impediment to the early explorers and trade caravans seeking Africa's interior from the Zanzibar coast.  Today, they provide some of the most exciting game viewing for the visiting tourist, experiences dominated by dramatic elephant encounters.