RUAHA NATIONAL PARK
The game
viewing starts the moment the plane touches down. A
giraffe races beside the airstrip, all legs and neck,
yet oddly elegant in its awkwardness. A line of zebras
parades across the runway in the giraffe's wake. In the
distance, beneath a bulbous baobab tree, a few
representatives of Ruaha's 10,000 elephants - the
largest population of any East African national park,
form a protective huddle around their young.
Second only to Katavi in its aura of untrammelled
wilderness, but far more accessible, Ruaha protects a
vast tract of the rugged, semi-arid bush country that
characterises central Tanzania. Its lifeblood is the
Great Ruaha River, which courses along the eastern
boundary in a flooded torrent during the height of the
rains, but dwindling thereafter to a scattering of
precious pools surrounded by a blinding sweep of sand
and rock.
A fine network of game-viewing roads follows the Great
Ruaha and its seasonal tributaries, where , during the
dry season, impala, waterbuck and other antelopes risk
their life for a sip of life-sustaining water. And the
risk is considerable: not only from the prides of
20-plus lion that lord over the savannah, but also from
the cheetahs that stalk the open grassland and the
leopards that lurk in tangled riverine thickets. This
impressive array of large predators is boosted by both
striped and spotted hyena, as well as several
conspicuous packs of the highly endangered African wild
dog.
Ruaha's unusually high diversity of antelope is a
function of its location, which is transitional to the
acacia savannah of East Africa and the miombo woodland
belt of Southern Africa. Grant's gazelle and lesser kudu
occur here at the very south of their range, alongside
the miombo-associated sable and roan antelope, and one
of East Africa largest populations of greater kudu, the
park emblem, distinguished by the male's magnificent
corkscrew horns.
A similar duality is noted in the checklist of 450
birds: the likes of crested barbet, an attractive
yellow-and-black bird whose persistent trilling is a
characteristic sound of the southern bush, occur in
Ruaha alongside central Tanzanian endemics such as the
yellow-collared lovebird and ashy starling.
About Ruaha National Park : Size: 10,300 sq km
(3,980 sq miles), Tanzania's 2nd biggest park.Location:
Central Tanzania, 128km (80 miles) west of Iringa.
Getting there : Scheduled and/or charter flights
from Dar es Salaam, Selous, Serengeti, Arusha, Iringa
and Mbeya. Year-round road access through Iringa from
Dar es Salaam (about 10 hours) via Mikumi or from Arusha
via Dodoma.
What to do : Day walks or hiking safaris through
untouched bush.
Stone age ruins at Isimila, near Iringa, 120 km (75
miles) away, one of Africa's most important historical
sites .
Best time: For predators and large mammals, dry
season (mid-May-December); bird-watching, lush scenery
and wildflowers, wet season (January-April). The male
greater kudu is most visible in June, the breeding
season.
Accommodation:-
- Ruaha River Lodge
- Mdonya Old River Camp
- Jongomero Camp
- Mwagusi Safari Camp
- Tandala Tented Camp
|
