OUR CURRENT FAVOURITES : Ruaha National Park

 

 

 

 

A WILD WILD PLACE - RUAHA NATIONAL PARK

There are not many places left in Africa that I consider to be wild and relatively unexplored. Ruaha National Park is one of these. Approximately two hours flying time in a light aircraft heading due west from Dar es Salaam (also accessible by road for the more adventurous), will bring you to this beautiful reserve which is home to no more than a handful of lodges and camps offering varying standards and styles of accommodation to the visitor.
  
The park is dissected by two rivers, the Mwagusi and the Ruaha and at the end of the dry season (September/October) both of these rivers have pretty much dried up. I visited in October which is hot (in the 30s generally) but as Ruaha is reasonably high, there is no humidity so this heat is tolerable. The game viewing at this time of year is excellent as the animals come down to the river bed to dig for water. There are plenty of elephant in relatively large herds (an increasingly diminishing sight these days) and an hour or so spent sitting on the river bank watching these magnificent pachyderms going about their daily business is one of the better ways of passing the time of day. In less than twenty four hours I also spotted cheetah, a huge variety of plains game, lion, leopard, porcupine and warthog to name but a few. We took a walk one day in order to view the smaller things that are missed on a game drive and this was one of the rare occasions where I saw more game on foot than I have done in a vehicle.    

The landscape is broken by plenty of baobab trees and Real Palms and it is these two tree types, together with the two rivers that make the Ruaha the spectacular looking park that it is. The trees provide shade to the herds in the heat of the day (it is quite incredible how a herd of fifteen elephant can all somehow find shade under one tree!) and the size of some of the baobabs that have stood for several thousands of years leave one feeling quite humbled.  Small wonder that the internationally acclaimed sculptor Rob Glenn and his wife have made this park their home..

Ruaha is home to over five hundred species of birds and even the uninitiated will easily be able to spot up to a hundred species without even really looking, as many are to be found around the camps. Mwagusi Camp has one of the nicest settings in the park, on the banks of the seasonal Mwagusi Sand River. This is one of the few owner run camps in Africa and Chris Fox has built and kept it as a true bush camp. This camp is not for those who like air conditioning and satellite TV (no more is this park for that matter!) but is rather for those who appreciate the finer things that the bush has to offer. Meals are served in interesting locations (dinner in the river bed - even when the river is flowing I'm told…) and the resident elephant makes a journey to or from ones room at times interesting…..

In addition to Mwagusi, accommodation in and around the park includes luxury camps such as Jongomero and Kwihala, larger lodges such as Ruaha River Lodge as well as more simple accommodation for the more budget minded traveller. Whatever your style, if you have a list of places to visit before you die, I would strongly recommend that you add Ruaha to it!



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