Mkomazi

Mkomazi lies in north-eastern Tanzania, mostly in Same District of Kilimanjaro Region, with its eastern part in Lushoto and Mkinga districts of Tanga Region. TANAPA gives its area as 3,245 km². Its long north-eastern edge is the Kenyan border, and across it is Tsavo West National Park, so animals can move freely between the two.

The park joins two old reserves: Mkomazi Game Reserve in the west and the smaller Umba Game Reserve in the east. TANAPA's brochure says the name comes from a Pare word for "a scoop of water", because water is scarce here.

The land is semi-arid. It is mostly acacia and commiphora bush and grassland, with rocky hills and sand rivers that are dry for much of the year. The Pare Mountains rise along the west and the Usambara Mountains to the south, and TANAPA says Kilimanjaro can be seen on a clear day.

When the Mkomazi reserve was created in 1951, the colonial government let some Parakuyo herding families stay, with a few thousand cattle, in the eastern half. Other herders came in over the years, among them Maasai and local Pare and Sambaa farmers with cattle. Published histories of the reserve, drawing on the geographer Dan Brockington's research, report about 20,000 cattle were counted in the eastern half in the early 1960s, and about 80,000 across the whole reserve by the mid-1980s.

The government decided that grazing was damaging the reserve, and by July 1988 all the herders had been evicted. Some of them took the government to court. In June 1998 the High Court found that a group of Maasai plaintiffs had customary rights in the Umba part of the reserve and that their eviction had not followed the law. It ordered compensation of TZS 300,000 (about USD 450 at the time) for each of the 15 who had given evidence. The plaintiffs appealed, and the case reached the Court of Appeal in 1999.

The eviction is still argued over. For conservation groups, Mkomazi is a success: a damaged reserve brought back to health. Critics, Brockington the best known, say that thousands of people lost their grazing, that most got no compensation, and that the case for removing them was made without much evidence.

In 1989 the government invited Tony Fitzjohn, who had worked with George Adamson in Kenya, to help restore Mkomazi. For the next thirty years the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust worked with the government, rebuilding roads, dams and airstrips and paying for patrols. According to the Trust, only 11 elephants were left in 1989, and up to 600 were counted in the wet season of 2010.

The Trust built a fenced rhino sanctuary between 1995 and 1997 for the eastern black rhino. It was first 45 km² and later grew to 55 km². Fifteen rhinos were brought in: four from Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa in 1997 and four more in 2001; three from Port Lympne in England in 2012; and four from Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic, three in 2009 and one in 2016. The Trust says there were 34 rhinos in the sanctuary when it handed the project to TANAPA at the end of 2019.

In 1995 the Trust began the first programme in East Africa to breed African wild dogs in captivity and release them. It started with 25 pups from three packs on the Maasai Steppe. By 2019 more than 200 wild dogs had been released into the Mkomazi–Tsavo ecosystem. The wild dog is listed as Endangered.

Fitzjohn died on 23 May 2022, aged 76.

TANAPA names fringe-eared oryx, gerenuk, lesser kudu, Grant's gazelle and eland as the animals of this dry country. The oryx, gerenuk and lesser kudu are hard to find in the better-known northern parks. There are also elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and cheetah, and zebra, hartebeest and giraffe. With the rhinos in the sanctuary, TANAPA says the park has all of the Big Five.

TANAPA counts more than 450 bird species. Some are birds of the dry country of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia that reach the southern edge of their range here, among them the violet wood-hoopoe, Friedmann's lark, the Somali long-billed crombec and the yellow-vented eremomela. TANAPA's brochure calls them endemic, which they are not, but it also gives the real reason they are here. Other birds include the vulturine guineafowl, ostrich, secretary bird and eastern chanting goshawk. TANAPA suggests Zange, Maore, Mbula, Dindira, Norbanda and Ngurunga for birding.

By road, the main gate is Zange, 6 km from Same town. TANAPA puts it 112 km from Moshi, 152 km from Kilimanjaro International Airport and 190 km from Arusha. From Tanga (150 km) or Mombasa (140 km), you can enter at Umba gate, but only by special arrangement. By air, charter flights land at the Kisima and Kavateta airstrips inside the park.

Fees. Mkomazi is in TANAPA's lower band, with one rate all year: USD 30 per non-East African adult per day, USD 10 for children aged 5 to 15, and TZS 5,000 for East African citizens. All are exclusive of 18 per cent VAT, so USD 35.40 in practice. Rhino viewing in the sanctuary is USD 30 per adult for one hour (USD 10 for children), and must be booked in advance. A walking safari is USD 20 for up to four hours or USD 25 for longer, and a park guide USD 20 per group per day.

Staying. TANAPA runs cottages at the public campsite at Zange, and there are special campsites at Dindira and Maore. Public campsites are USD 30 per person per night and special campsites USD 50. The schedule also lists the Kisima base camp at USD 200 per person per night. There is one private tented camp, and staying at a private camp inside the park adds a concession fee of USD 25 per night. Same town, 6 km from the gate, has small lodges and hotels.

When to go. The long rains fall from March to May and the short rains in November and December. TANAPA says it is hottest from October to April and coolest from May to September. June to October, after the long rains and before the short ones, is the usual time to visit.