Destinations in Tanzania
SELOUS GAME RESERVE
area: cca 44.800 km2
location: south Tanzania, GPS: 9°00′00″S 37°24′00″E
speciality: biggest elephant population in the world - 65.000, UNESCO world heritage site, bush walks
best time to visit: June-November
warning Tse-Tse area
The Selous is home to enormous herds of elephant, large journeys of giraffe, lion and leopard.
The Selous Game Reserve lies in an area of practically uninhabited miombo woodland divided between southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique. Bisected by the great Rufiji River, the Reserve is a vast region of largely unexplored bush. There are a variety of different habitats, including the wide meandering river interlaced with myriad channels, swamps, terminalia woodland and magnificent grass plains. The sheer diversity of the landscape - from hot volcanic springs, placid lagoons and numerous river channels - makes the Selous a unique area in which to observe a large array of African wildlife. The Reserve supports a great diversity of mammals and is renowned for the volume of game harboured within it, especially the elephant population which is estimated at 65 000 - the largest in the world.
Wildlife: elephant; hippo; buffalo; wildebees; hartebeest; Greater Kudu; sable antelope; eland; reedbuck; bushbuck; waterbuck; warthog; zebras; giraffe; lion; spotted hyeana, rhino; leopard; hunting dog; cheetah
SERENGETI
area: 14.763 km2
location: north Tanzania, GPS: 2°19′58″S 34°34′00″E
speciality: migration, high concentration of animals, UNESCO world heritage site, bush walks
best time to visit: April-October
The principal feature of the Serengeti is its stunning wildlife and the annual spectacle of the migration of millions of zebra and wildebeest in pursuit of water and food in response to the changing seasons. Its name derives from the Masai word siringet, which means an " extended area', an apt description of seemingly endless rolling plains that give the Serengeti a timeless, romantic beauty. This is a plain-dwellers' stronghold of 14 763 square kilometres, reaching up to the Masai Mara in Kenya. The park teems with wildlife - it is thought that over 3 million large mammals roam the plains with at least 35 different species of plain-dwelling animals. The bird life is also fantastic.
Wildlife: Patterson's eland, klipspringer, dikdik, impala, zebra, gazelles, water-, bush- and reed buck, topi, kongoni, cotton's oribi, grey bush duiker, buffalo and wildebeest, lion, hyaena, jackal, porcupine, warthog, hyraxes, baboon, vervet monkeys, leopard, cheetah, bat-eared fox, wild dog, roan antelope
RUAHA NATIONAL PARK
area: 12.950 km2
location: south Tanzania, GPS: 7°30'00"S 35°00'00"E
speciality: pristine, abundant wildlife
best time to visit: July-November
Ruaha is bordered in the north by the Kizigio and Rungwa River Game Reserves, and together they form a 26 500km2 conservancy, one of the biggest in East Africa. By road, it is a five-hour journey from Iringa, but there is also an airstrip at Msembe for fly-in safaris. Ruaha is visually a treat, with rocky outcrops and mountain ranges giving it a topography that ranges from 750m to 1 900m on the peak of Icing Mountain, and the focal point of the reserve is the Great Ruaha River, with its deep gorges, swirling rapids. With over 10 000 elephants, 30 000 buffalo, 20 000 zebra and huge populations of lion and leopard (not to mention more than 400 bird species) Ruaha is a naturalist's paradise.