INTRODUCTION TO TANZANIA

The name comes from a combination of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, united in March 1964. Kenya’s neighbour to the south – west, Tanzania is less developed than Kenya, but is as fascinating and exciting as any safari destination in the world.

Most commonly known is Tanzania’s “northern circuit” which includes Lake Manyara, the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater and the vast Serengeti National Park. But this is a far more fascinating country, from the beaches and resorts of Zanzibar (The Spice Island) to the wild virgin bush of Ruaha and Selous with their abundant wildlife, and the highest free – standing mountain in the world, the snow-capped Kilimanjaro.

Tanzania is a modern, progressive state with a rich cultural and historical heritage that began almost four million years ago when our primitive ancestors first left the forest and walked upright on the plains. Spread across the vast topographical tapestry are twenty-six million people made up of more than 100 loosely defined “tribes”. Some of these cultural groups can trace their ancestry back to pre-historic times, while others are merely immigrants of the last 100 years.

The population is unevenly distributed, this being decided geographically, due to poor soil for cultivation throughout much of the country. The major centers of population are scattered along the coast.

At the start of World War 1 the British controlled Zanzibar, Uganda, and what were to become Malawi, Zambia and Kenya. Tanganyika remained the only territory of German East Africa, effectively surrounded and their troops out-numbered. By the end of 1916 the British and Belgian forces controlled all the land north of the central railway line. At the end of the war, under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany surrendered all her overseas territories to the allies. Tanganyika was given to the British.

On 9^th. December 1961 Tanganyika was declared independent without a single shot being fired, under the ruler-ship of a school teacher, Julius Nyerere. Now only one thing remained for total unity, Zanzibar was still a British protectorate. Then in March of 1964, after a bloody revolution, a blue band, representing the sea, was added to the flag and Zanzibar and Pemba Islands joined with the main land to become the “United Republic of Tanzania”.

Nyerere ruled Tanzania as a socialist state until President Ali Hassan Mwinyi was elected in 1985. He was succeeded by the present President Benjamin Mkapa, democratically elected in October 1995.

Dar es Salaam

Tanzania’s capital city, Dar es Salaam, meaning “haven of peace”, is situated on the shore of a palm fringed bay. The architecture of low buildings with narrow twisting streets dates back to the Arab period, with the contrasting two-storey houses of the German colonial times reflecting an intriguing mixture of African and oriental influences.

There is a National museum that shows a fine display of Persian pottery, Chinese porcelain and trade “beads” which were used in earlier times before coins. The “Hall of Man” has on display the first finds from Ol Duvai gorge, including the fossil skull of Australopithecus Boisei.

Arts and craft, spices and tropical fruits can be bought at the local Kariakor market.

North along the coast lies the town of Bagamoyo. This town was at one time the capital of German East Africa, however it is better known as the slave caravan route. Remnants of this sad trade can still be seen.

introduction to ZANZIBAR

The islands of Zanzibar stir the imagination and conjure up images of magical Arabian nights, the scent of spices on the evening air and spirit of ages gone by. The name Zanzibar has such a romantic and exotic ring to it that some visitors are easily led to a comparison with “the ancient Baghdad of Haroun el Rashid”. From a distance, the whitewashed buildings of the stone town apparently dancing on the waves of the Indian Ocean create the feeling of adventure and the excitement of going back in time.

Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of Tanzania and is made up of a series of many islands, the main ones being Unguja and Pemba. Ungunja is better known as Zanzibar Island. Zanzibar (Unguja) is in the Indian Ocean about 40 kilometers off the Tanzanian mainland, a few degrees south of the equator. The island is about 85 Kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide at the widest point. Most of the population lives in the highly fertile North and West. The East of the Island is not suitable for farming and is covered in coral, but the beaches and reefs make it ideal for fishing villages and tourist resorts.

The people of Zanzibar are predominantly Muslim (about 95%) with their ancestry originating from Africa, Persia, Oman and Asia. The local economy is based on agriculture, fishing and more recently, tourism. The estimated population is 450,000, of which approximately 40% live in Stone Town. The literacy rate in Zanzibar is very high when compared to other African states in the region.

The islands of Zanzibar are fringed with white sandy beaches lined with palm trees swaying in the wind. Closed to tourism for many years, Zanzibar is now a welcoming and exciting destination for a relaxing or adventurous holiday. The name comes from a combination “Zanj” which in Arabian means “the land of black people” and “Bar” which means coast. The Islands truly deserve their nick-name “the spice islands”. Over forty of the most valuable, tropical and aromatic plants are grown here - introduced over the last two centuries by the Omani Sultans.

The Stone Town holds magic and mystery, where shafts of light joust with deep shadows creating a fascinating world in the narrow streets. It was recently declared by UNESCO as one of the world’s historic cities, and is thus now a protected area. Built only for pedestrian traffic, the streets wind between the tall buildings and open unexpectedly into ornamental squares.

Arusha National Park

Size	137 sq km
Location	Northern Tanzania, northeast of Arusha town
Getting there	An easy 40 minute drive from Arusha. Approximately 60km (about 35 miles) from Kilimanjaro International Airport
To do	Forest walks, numerous picnic sites; 3 or 4 day Mt. Meru climb – good acclimatization for Mt. Kilimanjaro
Best time	To climb Mt. Meru, June-February although it may rain November. Best views of Mt. Kilimanjaro, December-January

Arusha National Park is a secret jewel of many facets. It is not only the closest national park to Arusha town, but also one of the most beguiling. This is a treasure, a rich tapestry of habitats, teeming with animals and birds. The park has three distinct zones that contribute to its variety and beauty: the lush swamps of Ngurdoto Crater; the tranquil beauty of the Momela Lakes, each a different hue; and the chill rocky alpine heights of Mount Meru rising to 4,566 metres (14,990 feet). Zebra graze on red grasslands, wide-eyed dik dik dart into scrubby bush like overgrown hares on spindly legs. Leopards lurk in shadowy forests, which are draped with waterfalls. Reedbuck pick through marshy pools. There are more than 400 species of birds. Fluffy-tailed black and white colobus monkeys riot in the damp forest mists. Giraffes glide across the grassy hills.

In the distance Mount Kilimanjaro watches over all. But it is her unassuming cousin, Mount Meru, which dominates, offering unparalleled views of the famous neighbor. The rewarding climb up Meru pegs through forests aflame with red-hot pokers, dripping Spanish moss, carpeted with clover rising to open heath, spiked with giant lobelias.   Everlasting flowers cling to the alpine desert, as delicately hooved klip-springers mark your progress. Astride the craggy sumit, Kili stands before you, breathtaking, blushing in the sunrise.

Gombe Stream National Park

Size	52 sq km (about 32 sq miles), Tanzania’s smallest park
Location	16 km (about 10 miles) north of Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania
Getting here	Drive, scheduled or charter flight from Dar or Arusha, slow train from Dar or Mwanza or lake ferry from Burundi or Zambia to Kigoma then local or charter boat from Kigoma to Gombe (2-3hrs)
To do	Chimpanzee trekking, hiking, swimming/snorkeling; visit the site of Henry Stanley’s famous “Dr. Livingstone I presume” at Ujiji, near Kigoma and watch the renowned dhow builders at work
Best time	The chimps don’t roam as far in the wet (February-June, November-mid December) so may be easier to find; better picture opportunities in the dry (July-October and late December)

Gombe, the smallest of Tanzania’s national parks is a fragile remnant of chimpanzee habitat, a thin strip of ancient forest set in mountains cut with steep valleys clinging to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The chimps sip the streams tumbling into the lake, while at night the lanterns of hundreds of small wooden boats light the horizon like a sprawling city. You can meet the stars of the world’s most famous chimpanzee community, made famous by the pioneering British researcher, Jane Goodall, whose years of constant observation since 1960 has made this the longest study of its kind.

Gombe is a place of personalities. Chimpanzees are as individually unique as humans and no scientific expertise is required to distinguish the different characters in this cast – their repertoire of pants, hoots, grunts and screams defining the celebrities, the powerbrokers, the supporting roles.

Perhaps you will see a flicker of understanding when you look into a chimp’s eyes assessing you in return. Sharing more than 95% of our genes, it’s a look of recognition from our closest animal relative. 

The majority of the park’s mammals are primates – most of them forest species. Likely to be seen, in addition to the famous chimpanzees, are the colorful red-tail and blue monkeys. Herbivores and carnivores are a rarity in the forests, making Gombe a haven for walking safaris.

Katavi National Park

Size	4471 sq km (about 2780 sq miles)
Location	Southwest Tanzania, east of Lake Tanganyika
Getting here	Charter flights from Dar or Arusha. A tough but spectacular day’s drive from Mbeya (550km, about 340 miles); possible from Kigoma (390 km, about 240 miles) in the dry season only
To do	Walking, driving and camping safaris
Best time	Dry season: May-October and mid December-February

Katavi National Park is remote, hard and wild. It sits on a high, wide flood plain in south-western Tanzania. This is a true African safari, just you and the wilderness – an untouched landscape. There’s little chance you’ll have to share Tanzania’s third biggest park with anyone else, except an abundance of wildlife.

The park’s main features are the watery grassy plains to the north, palm-fringed Lake Chala in the south-east, and the Katuma River. Katavi boasts Tanzania’s greatest concentration of both crocodile and hippopotamus. The hippo is the world’s third largest land animal, spending its night devouring up to 60kg of fodder before returning to its aquatic home.

Katavi immortalizes a legendary hunter, Katabi, whose spirit is believed to possess a tamarind tree ringed with offerings from locals begging his blessing. Katavi’s lion and leopard have no shortage of prey: delicately bounding impala, beefy eland, black legged topi, zebra and herds of up to 1,600 buffalo wandering the short grass plains. A kaleidoscope of more than 400 bird species flits across the acacia, the riverbanks, the swamps and palm groves while flotillas of pelican cruise the lakes. Elephants graze in the marshlands, up to their sizeable waists in reeds.

If traveling by road, allow plenty of time to get there and back. The park maintains an airstrip for charter planes.

Mount Kilimanjaro National Park 

Size	755 sq km (about 470 sq miles)
Location	Northern Tanzania
Getting here	128 km (about 80miles) from Arusha. About 1 hour from Kilimanjaro airport
What to do	Six trekking routes to the summit and other more demanding mountaineering routes. Day or overnight hikes on the Shira plateau. Nature trails on the lower reaches. Trout fishing
When to go	Clearest and warmest conditions from December to February, but also dry (and colder) from July-September

Kilimanjaro. The name itself is a mystery wreathed in clouds. It might mean Mountain of Light, Mountain of Greatness or Mountain of Caravans. Or it might not. The local people, the Wachagga, don’t even have a name for the whole massif, only Kippo (and now known as Kibo), for the familiar snowy peak that stands imperious, overseer of the continent, the summit of Africa.

Kilimanjaro, by any name, is a metaphor for the compelling beauty of East Africa. When you see it, you understand why. Rising in the absolute isolation, at 5,895 metres (19,336 feet), Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest mountain and one of the world’s most accessible high summits, beacon for visitors from around the world. Most climbers reach the crater rim with little more than a walking stick, proper clothing and determination.

Those who reach Uhuru Point, the actual summit, or Gillman’s Point on the lip of the crater, will have earned their climbing certificates and their memories.

But there is so much more to Kili than her summit. A journey up her slopes takes you on a climatic world tour, from the tropics to the arctic. The grassy and cultivated lower slopes turn into lush rainforest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo and antelope. Higher still, heath and moorland, covered with giant heathers, becomes surreal alpine desert and, finally, ice, snow and the magnificent beauty of the top of the continent.

Mahale Mountains National Park

Size	1,613 sq km (about 1000 sq miles)
Location	Western Tanzania, bordering Lake Tanganyika
Getting there	Charter flight from Arusha, Dar or Kigoma, charter boat services from Kigoma; weekly steamer from Kigoma, 7 hours, then hire a local fishing boat or arrange with park HQ for pickup in park boat another 1-2hours
To do	Chimp tracking (allow 2 days); hiking; camping safaris, snorkeling; fish for your dinner
Best time	Dry season (May-October) best for forest walks although no problem in the light rains of October/November

A chain of dramatic peaks draped in lush forest commands the lake far below, thin curls of white sand lacing crescent azure coves like flashes of silk. Like its northerly neighbor Gombe, the Mahale Mountains are home to some of the last remaining wild chimpanzees in Africa. There, in isolated rainforest, around 1,000 of these fascinating primate’s roam the valleys and hills.

A trip to see the chimpanzees is a magical experience. Your guide’s experienced eyes distinguish last night’s nests – shadowy clumps high in a gallery of trees crowding the sky. Scraps of half eaten fruit and fresh dung become valuable clues, leading you deeper in the forest. Butterflies flirt in the dappled sunlight. Suddenly, you are in the middle of a chimpanzee day. They preen each other’s glossy coats in concentrated huddles, squabble noisily or bound effortlessly into the trees, swinging nonchalantly through the vines.

The area is also known as Nkungwe – named after the park’s massive mountain. At 2,460 meters (8,069ft), it is the highest of the six prominent points that make up the mountain range that runs down the Mahale promontory, alongside Lake Tanganyika.

You can also trace the Tongwe people’s ancient pilgrimage to the mountain spirits, hiking through enclaves of rainforest to grassy ridges checkered with alpine bamboo. Then return to the lake to plunge into the clear waters, home to 250 unique species of fish, before returning as you came, by boat.

Lake Manyara National Park

Size	330 sq km (about 205 sq miles), of which about 200 sq km (about 125 sq miles) is lake
Location	In northern Tanzania, 126 km (about 80 miles) west of Arusha
Getting here	By road, charter or scheduled flight from Arusha, en-route to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
To do	Canoeing, with plans for forest walks on the escarpment. Cultural tours, bike tours and abseiling outside the park
Best time	Dry season (July-October) for large mammals, wet season (November-June) for bird watching, the waterfalls and canoeing

Cradled in the glory of its surrounding below the sheer majesty of the Rift Valley wall, Lake Manyara lies serene, spreading in a heat haze backed by a thin green band of forest and the sheer 600 meter red and brown cliffs of the escarpment.

A wedge of surprisingly varied vegetation sustains a wealth of wildlife, nourished by chattering streams bubbling out of the escarpment base and waterfalls spilling over the cliff. Acacia woodland shelters the park’s famous but elusive tree-climbing lions, along with squadrons of mongoose feasting on the trail of buffalo and elephant – the most pachyderms per square kilometer in Tanzania

Deep in the south of the ark, hot springs bubble to the surface in the shadow of the escarpment. Hippo wallow near the lake’s borders of the sedge. The park hosts 400 varieties of birds, including thousands of red billed quelea flitting over the water like swarms of giant insects; pelicans, cormorants and pink streaks of thousands of flamingo and their perpetual migration.

Entering Manyara from the village of Mto wa Mbu an eclectic market town where several tribes converge to form a linguistic mix that is the richest in Africa.

Mikumi National Park

Size	3230 sq km (about 2000 sq miles) for Mikumi park, but it form’s a part of the Selous ecosystem, the world’s largest game reserve…
Location	283 km (about 175 miles) west of Dar es Salaam, north of the Selous Game Reserve and en-route to both Ruaha and Udzungwa Mountains National Parks
How to get there	By road from Dar-es-Salaam, Udzungwa, Ruaha or (dry season only) Selous; charter flight from Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Selous; or by local bus from Dar to park HQ where game drives can be arranged
To do	Combine with a visit to nearby Udzungwa, the Selous Game Reserve or continue on to Ruaha
Best time	Accessible year round

Swirls of opaque mist hide from the advancing dawn. The first shafts of sun color the fluffy grass heads rippling across the plain in a russet halo. Confident in the camouflage of their stripes at this predatory hour, zebras pose for our pleasure, like ballerinas on stage, heads aligned, stripes merging, flowing motion.

Forming the northern border of Africa’s biggest game reserve, the vast Selous – Mikumi is one of the most popular of Tanzania’s national parks, the most accessible part of a 75,000 square kilometer (about 47,000 square miles) wilderness that stretches almost to the shores of the Indian Ocean. The main feature of the park is the Mikumi flood plain, eventually merging with the miombo woodland covering the lower hills.

Here, lions survey their kingdom, sometimes from a perch high in the trees to keep their feet dry when the rains soak the plain’s sticky black soil. Many other animals retreat to the miombo woodlands in the wet season, where observation towers above the treeline offer panoramic views of the plain laid out below, home to formidable herds of buffalo. Mikumi’s elephants are more compact than the rest of their Tanzanian cousins, but still a lot bigger than any Land Rover. The rains swell the park’s bird population to more than 300 species as Eurasian migrants seek refuge in Mikumi, joining resident stars like the lilac breasted roller.

The park’s road network provides visitors with a variety of easy game drives. Hippos inhabit pools 5 km north of the main entrance and zebra, giraffe, hartebeest and wildebeest abound.

Ngorongoro Crater

Size	259 Square kilometers, 610 meters deep
Location	180 km (111 miles) North West of Arusha and lies between Lake Manyara National Park and the Serengeti National Park
How to get there	By road from both Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam
To do	Combine with a visit to nearby Ol Duvai Gorge, where fossil remains dating back to 1.75 million years ago or continue to the Serengeti or Lake Manyara National Parks
Best time	Accessible year round

Indisputably one of the true wonders of the African Continent, the Ngorongoro Crater is an extraordinary area of haunting beauty and nature, with its majestic mountain ring and pink lake shimmering in the blue grey haze 2000ft below.

The crater is home to an abundance of wildlife that is permanently resident on the crater floor of the largest intact caldera in the world. The crater’s lake is home to flamingo, Rosy-breasted Longclaw and waders. The plains are host to various plains game as well as the big five.

Olduvai Gorge lies between the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park. The area has become famous as an archaeological site, where in 1959 Dr. Mary Leakey discovered the fossil skull of early man that lived some 1.75 million years ago. The skull can be seen in the “Hall of Man” in Dar es Salaam.

Also found at this site, were the remains of a pre-historic elephant and giant-horned sheep, which were painstakingly unearthed. The nearby museum, although small, explains the significance of the fossils, geology and artifacts of the gorge.

Ruaha National Park

Size	10,300 sq km (about 6,400 sq miles). Tanzania’s 2nd biggest park
Location	Central Tanzania, 128 km (about 80 miles) west of Iringa
Getting there	Charter flights from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Iringa and Mbeya. Year-round road access from Dar es Salaam (about 10 hours), Mikumi, Iringa and Arusha via Dodoma
To do	Day walks or hiking safaris through untouched bush. Stone age ruins at Isimilia, near Iringa, 120 km (about 75 miles) away, one of Africa’s most important historical site
Best time	For predators and large mammals, dry season (mid May-December); bird watching, lush scenery and wild flowers, wet season (January-April)

Our game viewing starts the moment we touch down. A pair of giraffe race beside the airstrip, all legs and neck elegant in their awkwardness. A line of zebra parades across the runway in their wake, while protective elephants guard their young under the shade of a fat baobab tree.

Wildlife is concentrated along the cascading Great Ruaha River that is the park’s lifeblood. Home to hippo and crocodiles snacking on school’s of fish, it is a flooded torrent after the rains, dwindling to precious pools surrounded by a blinding sweep of sand in the dry season. Waterbuck, impala and the world’s most southerly Grant’s gazelle risk their lives for a sip of waters… a permanent hunting ground for lion, leopard, jackal, hyena and packs of wild dog – rare elsewhere. Ruaha’s 8000 resident elephants remain the largest population of any national park in East Africa, recovering strongly from ivory poaching in the eighties.

Scouring the vast wilderness of rocky outcrops and wooded hills you may see the shy kudu’s corkscrew horns gleaming like worn metal behind a camouflage of thorny thicket. Unique combinations of animals co-exist here – both the greater and lesser kudu, sable and roan antelope – Ruaha being the only protected area in the world where the flora and fauna of eastern and southern Africa overlap.

Rubondo Island National Park

Size	240 sq kms (about 150 sq miles)
Location	Northwest Tanzania, 150km (about 95 miles) west of Mwanza
Getting there	Regular flights from Arusha, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Mwanza. By road from Mwanza and then boat transfer. Contact the Park for transport details
To do	Walking safaris, boat excursions, sport fishing, chimpanzee treks, plans for canoe trips
Best time	Dry season, June-August. Wildflowers and butterflies, wet season November-March. December-February best for migratory birds

A fish eagle guarding the gentle bay shrieks an alarm, head tossed back. A well-fed monster of a crocodile snaps to life, startled from its nap in the morning sun. It stampedes through the crunchy undergrowth, crashing into the water in the front of our boat, leaving only sentry post eyes skeptically monitoring our movements.

Rubondo Island is tucked in corner of Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest lake, and inland sea sprawling between three countries. With 9 smaller islands under her wing, Rubondo protects precious fish breeding grounds. Tasty tilapia and the rapacious fishers with challenging sport fishing and world record catches.

But Rubondo is more than a water wonderland. Deserted sandy beaches nestle against a cloak of virgin forest. Papyrus swamps host the secretive sitatunga, a shaggy aquatic antelope and the dappled bushbuck, fleet footed through the maze of tamarind, wild palm and sycamore fig, strung with a cage of trailing taproots. The malachite kingfisher’s azure brilliance competes with the paradise flycatcher’s glamorous, flowing trail. Rubondo is home to fish eagles and a global stopover for hundreds of migratory birds. Wild jasmine, 40 different orchids and a smorgasboard of sweet, indefinable smells from the forest greet you.

Ninety percent of the park is humid forest; the remainder ranges from coastal grassland to lakeside papyrus beds. A number of indigenous mammal species – hippo, bushbuck, monkey, genet and mongoose – share their protected habitat with introduced species, such as chimpanzee, elephant and giraffe, that benefit from Rubondo’s inaccessibility.

Selous game reserve

Size	55,000 Square kilometers, about four times the size of the Serengeti National Park
Location	South East Tanzania
How to get there	Charter flight from Dar es Salaam (aprox. 50 mins flight time); not accessible by road
To do	Take a cable car across Stieglers Gorge which is 100 meters deep and 100 meters wide; bird watching with over 350 species in the reserve; fishing for Vandu and Tiger fish to the West of the reserve; walking safaris accompanied with an armed ranger; boat trips are possible from some of the luxury tented camps
Best time	June to October. It is inaccesible from March to May due to heavy rains and floods

The remote game reserves, parks and sanctuaries in Southern Tanzania are vast areas of untouched virgin bush. The Selous Game Reserve is just this. The reserve, which carves out a huge portion of Southern Tanzania, makes it the largest Game Reserve in the world - 4 times the size of the Serengeti, it possesses a diverse landscape from hot volcanic springs, sporadic lakes and channels from the Great Rhaha and Rufiji rivers. Walking within the reserve is permitted, with an armed ranger, and with over 2,000 species of plants, 350 species of birds and over a million wild animals including various species of antelope as well as the big five and some of the biggest population of elephants in the world, makes this the most heavenly sanctuary to explore.  

Serengeti National Park

Size	14,763 sq km (about 9,000 sq miles)
Location	335 km (about 208 miles) from Arusha, stretching north to Kenya and bordering Lake Victoria to the west
Getting there	Charter flights from Arusha, Lake Manyara and Mwanza. Drive from Arusha, Lake Manyara, Tarangire or Ngorongoro Crater
To do	Hot air balloon safaris, Maasai rock paintings and musical rocks. Visit neighboring Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, Ol Doiny Lengai volcano and Lake Natron’s flamingos
Best time	To follow the wildebeest migration, December-July. To see predators, June-October

A million wildebeest… each driven by the same ancient rhythm, fulfilling their instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life: a frenzied 3 week bout of territorial conquests and mating; survival of the fittest as 40 kilometer long columns plunge through crocodile infested waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than 8000 calves a day before the 1000 kilometer pilgrimage begins again.

More than 6 million hooves pound the legendary plains of the Serengeti. Every year, triggered by the rains, more than a million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle gather to undertake the long trek to new grazing lands. Tanzania’s first and most famous park, the Serengeti, is renowned for its wealth of leopard and lion. The vast reaches of the park help the black rhino to fight extinction and provide a protecting breeding ground for the vulnerable cheetah. Witness predator versus prey and the fundamental interdependence of the Serengeti’s abundant species, from more than 500 varieties of bird to 100 types of dung beetle.

The Serengeti is a sense of seeing to the ends of the earth, the sunburnt savannah shimmering to the horizon. Yet, after the rains this golden horizon is magically transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. But there are also wooded hills, towering termite mounds and rocky kopjes, rivers lined with elegant stands of fig trees, ebony and acacia, stained orange by dust. It is so vast you may be the only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege, focused unswervingly on their next meal.

Tarangire National Park

Size	2600 sq km (about 1600 sq miles)
Location	118 kms (about 75 miles) southwest of Arusha
Getting there	Easy drive from Arusha or Lake Manyara; can continue on to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. Charter flights from Arusha and the Serengeti
To do	Guided walking safaris; day trip to the Barabaig tribes ancient Kolo rock paintings
Best time	Year round but dry season (June-September) for sheer number of animals

Day after day of cloudless skies. The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shriveled to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometers knowing that here, there is always water. Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the parched river bed for underground streams while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, gazelle, hartebeest, eland and oryx crowd the shrinking lagoons. It’s a smorgasobord for predators – the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem.

The rains scatter the seasonal visitors over a 20,000 square kilometer (about 12,500 sq mile) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’ s mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus of 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. On drier ground you find Kori Bustards, the heaviest flying bird; the stocking thighed ostrich, the world’s largest bird; and ground hornbill that bluster like turkeys. 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.

Udzungwa Mountains National Park 

Size	1990 sq kms (about 1240 sq miles)
Location	5 hours (348 kms, about 215 miles) from Dar es Salaam, 65 kms (about 40 miles) southwest of Mikumi
Getting there	Drive from Dar es Salaam or Mikumi National Park
To do	From a 2 hour hike to the waterfall to camping safaris. Combine with nearby Mikumi or en route to Ruaha
Best time	Possible year round although slippery in the wet. The dry season is June-October before the short rains but be prepared for rain anytime

The Udzungwa Mountains are almost unearthly. Primeval. Burgeoning with rampant, verdant growth. An enchanted forest of leafy glades freckled with sunshine, where fungus, lichen, moss and ferns ingratiate themselves into every damp crevice. It is at once vivid detail and larger than life: a new variety of the tiny African violet discovered in the shelter of 30 meter high trees. It is a hothouse nurturing species found nowhere else on earth, a secret bank account of precious genetic stock. Of its six types of primate, two are endemic – the Iringa red colobus monkey and the Sanje Crested Mangabey, not detected until 1979. Four previously unknown birds, including the rufous-winged sunbird and a new species of the partridge-like francolin, make this Tanzania’s richest forest bird habitat and among the three most important bird conservation areas on the continent. One of East Africa’s great forests, undoubtedly this undisturbed habitat is yet to reveal all its treasures, waiting to further scientific exploration to catalogue its wealth.

A link in the chain of Africa’s eastern arc mountains, Udzungwa is made for hiking and climbing with trails through the rainforest and escarpment. The plateau is a natural penthouse, with views of sugar plantations against a patchwork of grassland and mountain forest extending over 100 kilometers. But the centerpiece is the Sanje River where it reinvents itself as a spectacular waterfall, plunging 170 meters through the forest to land in a spray of mist in the valley below.