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| Tarangire River - picnic site |
September 2010 - Our first view of Tarangire
December 2015 - Back for some rain and special sightings
Overview
Tarangire National Park is the southernmost park of the Northern Tanzanian parks featured along the Tarangire River. There is a sizable migration and movement of animals from the Northern parks to the Tarangire area dependent upon the rains. The park is home to all the main wildlife species in Tanzania and it's a large park consists of a large area that cannot be covered on a short trip, so we concentrated on the top end of the park.
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| A lioness watches a herd of elephants on the dry river bed |
September 2010 (camping)
December 2015 (camping)
Getting there
It's a 100 km 1.5 hour drive on the Arusha – Dodomo tarred road and the drive is easy from Arusha – keep straight at the village of Makuyuni 80 kms out of Arusha. Take a left at the Kwakuchinja village and the gate is 8 kms from the turnoff on a maintained gravel road.
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| The river offers great wildllife viewing |
The two main roads on either side of the river in the park are maintained gravel roads but you will need a 4x4 to cross the river (there are 2 crossings with bridges but far apart) and on some of the outlying roads.
Accommodation
Outside the gate there is a private campsite but inside the park besides the public campsite it's only lodge accommodation.
Camping facilities
The TANAP public campsite close to the gate is the best choice with running water toilets. The camp ground offers some wilderness with it being open on all sides to the bush. There are a few water holes just outside the camp so watch out for animals at night.
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| Waterhole close to the campsite |
Wildlife viewing
The park offers excellent wildlife viewing in the dry season when the grass is short and animals are forced to come to the river to drink and having to cross the road on each side of the river bank. We had excellent elephant, lion and cheetah sightings, a sighting of a leopard in a baobab tree, and all the plains game.
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| A pride of lionesses watch a herd of elephants |
The park offers a good wilderness factor especially if you get off the river and explore the outskirts. Given the close proximity to Arusha, there are a lot of day visitors to the park which erodes some of the wildlife feeling but its not a major factor. We spent our time in the northern area of the park, where the majority of the sightings - and the tourists - are, but it is a vast park that will get more wild the further south you go.
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| The river bed is action packed in the dry season |
Other logistics
Costs are as follows:
Park entrance permit: $45pppn (24 hours only)
Camping/Bandas: $30 pppn
Car: $40 per car pd (for foreign registered)
You can only pay with TANAPA card or credit card (Master/VISA), although when we were there, the network was down so we were allowed to pay in USD.
Our impression
How many times have we been? 2
We were very impressed with the park offering good river front opportunities with decent savannah and forest cover. In the dry season, the animal concentration was good and easy to find. You also don’t have to drive for miles to find the game, the area between the gate and 2nd river crossing offered excellent game viewing.
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