Ruaha
National Park · TANAPA
The second largest park in the country, and one of the emptiest.
- Area
- 20,226 km²
- Established
- 1964
- Region
- Iringa Region
- Best time
- June–October
Wildlife
- Lion
- Leopard
- Elephant
- Greater and lesser kudu
- Sable
- Roan
- African wild dog
Ruaha covers 20,226 square kilometres of the central Tanzanian plateau, making it the second largest national park in the country after Nyerere. It receives a fraction of the visitors the northern circuit does, and in the dry season it is as good as anywhere in East Africa for predators.
The park sits on a transition zone where eastern and southern African species overlap — which is why you can see greater and lesser kudu in the same place, along with sable and roan antelope. Its elephant population is among the largest of any park on the continent, and its lions live in unusually large prides.
The Great Ruaha River is the spine of it. In the dry months it shrinks to a chain of pools along a wide sand bed, and everything in the park arranges itself around them. Baobabs stand across the hills, and the light in the late afternoon is the sort people spend a career trying to photograph.
The Great Ruaha River
Dry-season pools where the whole park concentrates.
Large lion prides
Ruaha's prides run larger than most, and are well habituated to vehicles.
Kudu, sable and roan
The transition-zone overlap that makes Ruaha's species list unusual.
Almost nobody else
A fraction of the northern circuit's traffic, on many times the area.
Flights from Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Selous to Msembe airstrip. By road it is around ten hours from Dar via Iringa.
Driving in is not practical. Camps here run their own vehicles, and we arrange the flight and the game drives instead of a hire.
Checked against
- Tanzania National Parks — official siteTANAPA
- Ruaha National ParkWikipedia