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TANZURI
A huge bare-branched baobab standing beside a track in Tarangire National Park

Landscapes

Baobabs & Landscapes

Ancient trees, granite kopjes and horizons that keep going.

The baobab is the emblem of it. Thick-trunked, bare-branched for much of the year and often described as looking planted upside down, baobabs store water in their fibrous trunks and can live for a very long time — individual trees are frequently described as many centuries old, though ageing them precisely is difficult because they lay down no conventional growth rings. Elephants strip their bark for moisture in the dry season, leaving the scars you see on trunks in Tarangire and Ruaha.

Elsewhere the character changes completely. The Serengeti’s short-grass plains are broken by kopjes, ancient granite outcrops that hold water, shade and, very often, lions. The Rift Valley throws up escarpments and volcanoes. The Eastern Arc Mountains are cool and green, with forest, waterfalls and terraced farmland in the Usambaras. Saadani puts baobabs and palm within sight of the Indian Ocean.

Landscape rewards timing more than luck. The green season, roughly November to May, brings dramatic skies, clean air after rain and vivid colour; the dry season gives golden grass, dust and strong light. Early morning and the last hour before sunset are worth getting up and staying out for, and a guide who understands that will build your day around it.

Highlights

  • Baobab-studded valleys in Tarangire and Ruaha, especially striking at sunrise and sunset
  • Granite kopjes rising from the Serengeti plains, often with lions or hyraxes on them
  • The Rift Valley escarpment, soda lakes and volcanic cones of the north
  • Cool, green montane forest and waterfalls in the Usambara and Udzungwa Mountains
  • Mikumi’s Mkata floodplain, with the Uluguru Mountains rising behind it
  • Saadani, where savannah, baobabs and the Indian Ocean meet in the same view
  • Dramatic green-season skies and the golden light of the late dry season

Where to see it

Best places for this

  • A giant baobab tree rising above the green bush of Tarangire National Park
    Tarangire National Park

    Northern Circuit

    The classic baobab landscape of northern Tanzania, with the river valley below and huge trees scattered across the hills.

  • The braided Great Ruaha River with sandbanks, winding through Ruaha National Park
    Ruaha National Park

    Southern Circuit

    Rugged, rocky and baobab-covered, with the Great Ruaha River and its sand beds running through it.

  • Umbrella thorn acacias standing on the grassy plains of Serengeti National Park
    Serengeti National Park

    Northern Circuit

    Open plains, kopjes and river lines — the scale of it is the point, and it photographs best in early and late light.

  • Grass and scattered acacia scrub on the Mkata floodplain of Mikumi National Park, with blue hills on the horizon
    Mikumi National Park

    Southern Circuit

    The Mkata floodplain with mountains behind, easily reached by road from Dar es Salaam.

  • Ridges and rocky peaks of the Usambara Mountains fading into haze in the evening light
    Usambara Mountains

    Central & Highlands

    A complete change of scene: cool forest, viewpoints over the plains, waterfalls and village walks.

  • A red sand track running between golden grass and coastal bush in Saadani National Park
    Saadani National Park

    Zanzibar & Coast

    Where the bush runs down to the beach, with baobabs, palms and the Wami River reaching the sea.

A giant baobab tree rising above the green bush of Tarangire National Park
The braided Great Ruaha River with sandbanks, winding through Ruaha National Park

Journeys that include this

Umbrella thorn acacias standing on the grassy plains of Serengeti National Park7 days · 6 nights

Northern Tanzania Safari

Seven days through Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater

Arusha · Tarangire National Park · Lake Manyara National Park · Serengeti National Park · Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Private or small groupView itinerary
A curving white-sand beach with turquoise water and coconut palms at Matemwe, Zanzibar10 days · 9 nights

Tanzania Safari & Zanzibar Escape

The Northern Circuit’s great parks, followed by Stone Town and the white sands of Zanzibar

Arusha · Tarangire National Park · Serengeti National Park · Ngorongoro Conservation Area · Zanzibar

Private or small groupView itinerary
A Masai giraffe and its calf on a lake shore in the Selous (Nyerere National Park), with hills beyond8 days · 7 nights

Southern Tanzania Wilderness

Boat, walking and game-drive safaris in Nyerere and Ruaha, far from the crowds

Nyerere National Park · Ruaha National Park

PrivateView itinerary

More to see

Green crater floor and a winding lake beneath the forested, cloud-topped rim of the Ngorongoro CraterLandscapes UNESCO

The Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the world’s largest intact volcanic calderas, formed when a great volcano collapsed in on itself. Grassland, swamp, a soda lake and patches of forest on the floor support a high density of wildlife that stays largely inside the crater year-round. The wider conservation area is also a Maasai homeland and holds some of the most important early-human sites on earth.

The ash-streaked cone of Ol Doinyo Lengai rising beyond the shallow soda flats and channels of Lake NatronLandscapes

The Great Rift Valley

Tanzania sits astride the East African Rift, where the continent is gradually splitting along a system of faults. The Eastern branch gives northern Tanzania its towering escarpments, alkaline lakes and volcanoes, including the active Ol Doinyo Lengai; the Western branch holds Lake Tanganyika, one of the deepest lakes on earth.