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 shrivelled to a shadow of its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife.

Thirsty nomads have wandered hundreds of parched kilometres knowing that here, always, there is water. 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 can be observed, although very rarely.

Tarangire is one of the most diverse parks in Tanzania and situated in the north-western corner of Tanzania’s Masai Steppe, east of The Great Rift Valley. Covering an area of 1,360 sq km comprising scattered acacia woodland, baobab and palm trees, plains, swamps and rivers. There is an abundance of big game including lion, elephant and buffalo, as well as a vast bird and lesser game population.

More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared lovebird, the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling – all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central Tanzania.