Walking Safari, Game drives, Night Game Drives,

RUAHA NATIONAL PARK

Ruaha national park is vast, and was upgraded to a national park in 1964 and was further enlarged in 2008 to its current size of 20,226 sq km making it Tanzania’s second-largest national park. This makes it about the size of new jersey in the united states, or of the whole country of wales in the UK. In fact, Ruaha is part of a much larger ecosystem of about 45,000 sq km. nature reigns supreme across this enormous area.

And what area! Rivers, mountains, plains, rocks kopjes, swamps, dense woodlands, open savannas spread out across an immense landscape that has barely been touched by man. Wooded hillsides, many with rounded granite outcrops and scatterings of huge baobabs, are dissected by sandy, rock strew, seasonal rivers and streams running down to meet flood plains and seasonal swamps, many of which end up in great Ruaha River.

Seasonal rivers are lined by scatted groves of palms, thorn trees, fig-trees, and sausage trees providing mid-day shade for all sorts of wild animals. They are key features to enjoy during game drives, especially during the dry season when only pools remain or the elephants have to dig in the sand for water. This is Africa of a bygone era- the world as it was before modern man.

The only perennial river is the great Ruaha River which flows along the southeast boundary, but even this becomes only a trickle in places at the end of the dry season in October. Ruaha’s dry season is between June and October and its wet season is November to May. Temperatures range between 16-27 ^oc.