Leaving Arusha at the unearthly hour of 06:30 - and Tanzania is 2 hours ahead of us - we headed for Tarangire National Park en route to our next main destination, the Ngorongoro Crater. The original destination was Lake Manyara but there had been more rainfall than ever recorded so Lake Manyara was inaccessible.

On the way, we stopped to see a rather distant bird and the first photo session of the morning - a Long-tailed Paradise Whydah.

Parking in the entrance car park at Tarangire, there were several Superb Starlings - common here but so photogenic.

In the park, we came across our first Cape Buffalo - menacing animals.

and a family group of Warthogs

Other mammal species to show were Olive Baboons

Vervet Monkeys

and Impala

But the stars of the park were the bird life - I photographed 25 species during the day - here are some of them.

Hadada Ibis

Northern Red-billed Hornbill

Crowned Plover

Three-banded-Plover

Grey-headed Kingfisher

and White-browed Coucal

When we broke for a packed lunch, a Bataleur circled in the mid-distance

and later, a bird that I have never photographed in Europe, a Honey Buzzard.

In fact, there were so many bird species around, it was just not possible in the time available to stop to photograph every one so many were missed - one of the frustrations of the trip that was to be repeated almost every day.

When you see wildlife like this, it makes you realise just how denuded of wildlife we are in the UK.