Nocturnal wildlife encounters at Tarangire National Park

There’s always some wildlife drama unfolding in Tarangire, Tanzania’s sixth-largest national park. The landscape is a mix of woodland, lakes and swamps and is covered in striking baobab trees.

Night drives are my favourite in Tarangire, as we get to see nocturnal animals like civets and serval cats, white-tail mongoose, leopards hunting and hyenas roaming around for food. I’ve even been lucky enough to see an aardwolf – which are very difficult to spot. Guests have an early dinner before we leave camp around 7.30-8pm for the night drive, arriving back around 10pm. We’re accompanied by a park ranger for safety purposes and a Maasai warrior, who’s an expert at spotting animals in the dark.

I like to stop and switch off all the lights so we can do some star gazing. On a clear night you can see so many constellations, the Milky Way and shooting stars. I tell everyone to sit and be silent for a few minutes so they can just take in the African sky, feel the power of nature and listen to the crickets and animal calls. It’s a beautiful experience – recently it even reduced one of my guests to tears, she was so awed to be out in the wilderness, beneath the stars.