Wildlife and Bird Photography—On Safari in Tanzania, Part 2 – Tarangire National Park

This is Part 2 of a series of posts on our Tanzania trip. Here are links to Part 1 in Arusha National Park (opens in a new tab).

While Arusha National Park is known for its views of Kili, Tarangire is nothing short of quintessential Africa.

It’s the Tarangire River that draws in the wildlife. This is especially true in these dry season months of September to November, when water becomes more and more scare. It’s a gently rolling patchwork of grasses, brown from lack of rain, and still-green acacias dotting the landscape. Baobabs, bare-branched with new flowers and leaves just opening contrast with the leafy-green sausage trees that line river banks, their wares hanging down like a traditional delicatessen.

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Technical note about the photos: Unless otherwise noted, all photos were made with an Olympus/OM System OM-1 with an M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400/5.0-6.3 IS zoom. Raw files were processed in Lightroom for iPad during the trip with subsequent processing afterwards, as well. Any alterations from this are stated in the captions.

Viewing photos: Click on a photo to view a larger version. Use the back button to return to the blog. The size of each photo is limited to 1500 pixels on the long size. If it appears full-screen, then your device may be up-sizing it, which can lead to blurriness.

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Strolling through the grasses and amongst the trees are a host of Africa’s finest wildlife: elephants, giraffes, Cape buffalo, waterbuck, impalas, antelope, zebras, wildebeest, dik-diks, and eland amongst others—always with lions, cheetah, leopards and jackals awaiting their opportunity partake of the buffet. Soaring overhead are kettles of vultures, auger buzzards, tawny eagles, fish eagles, martial eagles and snowy-white black-winged kites.

We stayed in the park at Tarangire Safari Lodge, a relaxed, casual tented camp with safari tents arranged along the top of a ridge overlooking the Tarangire River valley. We’ve been fortunate to travel to many truly beautiful locations around the world, but this is, above all, our favourite. It’s a chill place in the heart of wild Africa. The Simonsons have been running the lodge since the mid-1980s and Annette, her son Brendan and their staff are wonderful stewards of this quintessential corner of Africa, balancing the needs of their guests with the fact that wildlife regularly roams through the lodge grounds (and sometimes the lodge, itself—check out their Insta and FB pages!)

But, it’s the captivating and engaging view that really makes TSL such a favourite place to stay. You could choose not to go on a wildlife drive and still see everything! We’ve sat for hours on the terrace or, during the heat of the day in the open-air lounge, enjoying the unobstructed 270° view—a living diorama of herds of elephants and zebras and waterbuck and giraffe and Cape buffalo and- and- and—casually and continuously moving down the valley slopes to the river, into and across the river, then up the other side.

While reading a book or editing images, a sudden movement down in the valley catches our eye: a young elephant is running, scampering in its trunk-flopping, comical way, towards the water and play time. Just as Arusha National Park is known for its giraffe (Giraffic Park), Tarangire is known for its elephants, though Pachyderm Park, doesn’t have quite the same cachet. The real excitement comes when someone announces that there are elephants on the lodge grounds.

Elephants regularly pass along the back of the tents, browsing on the acacias and sometimes trying to access the water. In fact, we watched as they turned on faucets with their trunks to access water. More on that in Part 3!

One other advantage of being at the lodge is Brenden—the guy in charge. In his young thirties, he has literally grown up there. After his dad passed a few years ago, Brenden stepped in to keep things running with his mom, Annette. Brenden is a knowledgeable birder and accomplished photographer (see @brenden_simonson on Insta) and offers bird hikes from the lodge. Walking through the bush with an armed ranger is an adventure not to be missed. Because Brenden is there all the time, he knows exactly what birds can be found where.

Furthermore, Brenden has put a few large agricultural disks as bird baths out in various places around the lodge and has instructed the staff to keep them clean and filled with water. This alone is all the birds need to congregate around the site. The one outside the dining room provides endless entertainment with parrots and go-away birds competing for time at the bath. The one he’s placed down at the far end also attracts wildlife. We were woken up late on night by the loud sound of lapping, like a dog drinking from its dish. Under the light of the full moon, I kid you not, there was a full-grown leopard, 3-metres from our tent drinking its fill. The next night it returned. The night after that four water buck drank the disk dry. Phenomenal!! If only I could shoot through the mesh of the tent netting.

Okay—enough about the lodge, though I could wax on about it forever.

Just like Arusha National Park, Tarangire is full of surprises. However, once you get to know the park, you learn where to look, and the river is biggest draw. After crossing the bridge about 1km south of the lodge, we headed south taking each of the River Loops A, B and C. Where loop B meets the river there is an elephant mud hole. They’re not there everyday, but if the timing is right, like it was for us, you are treated to the happiest, most joyous hour of watching elephants of all ages flipping and flopping in the mud and splashing and spraying themselves with mud and water. Pictures and words don’t begin to describe the experience of pure fun and joy the elephants are having, trumpeting and calling to each other. Even my poor attempt at a 10-minute video doesn’t do it justice.

Further down, in Loop C, we forded the river, passable during the dry season as the water is only axle-deep. After crossing we could have gone further south, down to the Silale Swamp, but decided to wind our way back to the lodge, slowly meandering north along the east side of the river. Earlier, we had spotted a number of safari trucks stopped in one location—a good indication of something interesting. Sure enough, there were six lions resting and sleeping on the sand beside the river.

We carried on up to the Matete Picnic Site high above the river, where we found resident and habituated Vervet monkeys with young. Years ago, long before the picnic site was formally developed into what it is now, we encountered mating lions, who just continued on doing their thing as we pulled up near them and watched and listened. Unforgettable really, in so many ways! This time, it was the intimate portraits of these monkeys and their young that made the stop so captivating.

Sometimes we approach this same road by turning south just before the bridge, driving down the east side of the river. This is often where elephants are tracking down to the river along with zebras and wildebeest. Lions are also around, frequenting the ridges and humps in the ground, keeping a watchful eye on what’s happening below. We’ve seen zebra kill along here on a few occasions.

A third favourite location is along the river to the north and west of the lodge. Though we didn’t get there this time, it proved to be a most exciting place when our daughter joined us two weeks later for our second safari to Tarangire. Because she is less interested in birds, Laura and I tried to pack as many birding moments into this safari as we could.

On another drive, we drifted north and eastwards then south to the open country in the hope of seeing a cheetah. No go, but it was still a worthwhile exploration, turning up a black-winged kite, beautiful lilac-breasted rollers, huge ground hornbills, some antelope, zebras, wildebeest, and eland. We also came across large areas burned by the bush fires. At one point, the road was heading directly into a bush fire, but we joined up with the main road which allowed us to head north again, back to the lodge.

It is always with sad hearts that we leave Tarangire Safari Lodge and the National Park. There is nothing that can replace those few days of casual and exciting wildlife viewing combined with chilling on the terrace or in the lounge, never knowing what might suddenly appear, but always knowing there will be something amazing.

Stay tuned to Part 3: Close Encounters with Lions!

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