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CuypersBart
Visited:
July 2010
Reviewed: Sep 10, 2012
Ruaha's Wildlife: The real deal.
I've visited Ruaha National Park as part of a field trip for Biology Students.
We got a very unique camp site at the side of the Ruaha River. The view was absolutely stunning. During our siesta's at noon, we could even see groups of elephants passing by and 2 huge fish eagles had their nest on the top of a tree on the other side of the river.
The weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot, and cool (but not cold) at night.
The park is huge an you can drive for hours trough the beautiful nature without bumping in to another jeep. Some places of the park are really green, while others are more savanna-like and very dry.
Most of the time we had our own guide, but one day we had a guided walk by a park ranger. He knew a lot about the animals and their tracks and dangers. Very interesting! We even walked along the river revealing many kinds of bird species.
So, in short. Ruaha National Park is really worth a visit!!
Câthy
NL
Visited:
June 2012
Reviewed: Sep 10, 2012
20-35 years of age
Amazing experience
The scenery is beautiful, with hills and so much variety. The park has over 10,000 elephants, so it's easy to spot them, esp. in the dry season. Hippos, impalas and girafes are easy to spot too. If you are lucky you can spot lions and cheetas. In the wet some of the roads are not accesable, but the scenery is beautiful;
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so much green and it's a great season for watching exotic birds. If you are going with your own transport you can 'hire' a guide in the park or you can arrange a driver/guide in Iringa town. There is a couple organisations who arrange safaris.I would recommend this park to everyone, although I hope it will maintain quiet with tourists now, so you really have the feeling you are alone in the park like you have now.
paulshaffner
TW
Visited:
May 2015
Reviewed: Aug 19, 2015
Email paulshaffner | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
A spectacular alternative to the crowded northern circuit and certainly worth a trip of its own.
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the scale of the problem in Ruaha, particularly farther afield in the north and out into the WMAs and game reserves).I've stayed at River Lodge and Mwagusi in the past (only River Lodge on this visit) and have to say that both Chris and Peter Fox run top notch operations: well maintained camps, excellent food and services, and really do a spectacular job training their guides on Ruaha-specific flora and fauna.
Two recommendations:
1. "Ruaha National Park: An Intimate View" by Sue Stolberger, is probably the best guide out there to flowers, plants, and trees of miombo woodlands, not just in Ruaha but for most of the country. It's a bit cumbersome to navigate until you get used to it, as the plants aren't grouped taxonomically, but Sue's insights and comments more than make up for this minor setback. I've seen a number of guides even up on the northern circuit using it as a reference. It is tough to get a copy of, but the main gate of the Park has copies in their storage room if you ask specifically for it. That is where I purchased a copy in May. I think it was US$45.
2. "A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Tanzania" by Charles and Lara Foley is another excellent resource that has recently become available and can be purchased more widely. It is also easy to use in the field as well with a good index that makes looking up details a breeze.
P Nahar
AU
Visited:
June 2014
Reviewed: May 13, 2015
Email P Nahar | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Ruaha - if you want to avoid the crowd
The park is rather remote and we were flown in by Coastal Airways from Tarangire. The Kwihala Camp had 6 double-bedded tents and therefore had that personal touch from our hostess Sandra and her staff. The facilities at the camp were superb with great food and wine.
Our guides, Lorenzo and Leverd were full of enthusiasm and were not hesitant to go that extra mile whenever needed. The camp had a few vehicles and we were lucky enough to get a vehicle for just 2 of us most of the time. The vehicles are side-open (top-covered) which have their pros and cons – great for general wildlife viewing but rather restrictive to watch and photographs birds in flight. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/pravin_nahar/15493381299/in/album-72157649073470005/)
We were greeted with a superb sunset
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near the Ruaha river on the day of our arrival.The usual arrays of wildlife and birds will keep you interested. We had some close (but safe) encounters with elephants.
The highlight of the trip was to watch a pride of 1 lion (named Grumpy by the locals) and 11 lionesses. The pride was feeding on an elephant died naturally a few days before our arrival. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/pravin_nahar/15493869208/in/album-72157649073470005/)
There were 3 young brothers who, being evicted from this pride, were trying to sneak in to have a bite or two. Their encounter with Grumpy (the leader) was something of a life-time experience for us – he managed to chase them (the 3 brothers) away one by one, making sure his pride is well looked after. The role of the lion (even though he doesn’t take part in hunting) in the pride was very obvious!!
In simple words, if you want a safari experience minus the crowd, visit Ruaha.
For my photos please copy and paste the link in your browser: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pravin_nahar/sets/72157649073470005
Superb safari in Ruaha NP
Ruaha is full of animals, already during the first hours of the first day we saw huge amount of them, including lions and leopard. And the same continued the following days, possibly the biggest highlight was watching pack of four cheetah to stalk their prey for few hours. Overall we counted that we saw something like thirty different mammals, and at least as many birds. Scenery of the park was very nice, there was a lot of variety and not just flat plans. It was also not crowded at all there, we perhaps saw one or two other cars there, so we were pretty much on our own all the time.
We stayed at the Mdonya Old River camp,
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which is open area where animals can (and will) roam freely. We enjoyed listening to the nightly noises around our tents, we preferred that over lodge accommodation. Everything worked smoothly in the camp, and the dinners they made us were of highest quality. Exchanging experiences of the day at campfire with other travelers was nice ending for a day.I can fully recommend Ruaha for your safari destination, you will enjoy the peace you have compared to the other crowded parks and all it has to offer. One of us has been in many parks in Africa before, and he considered it possibly the best experience he has had so far. I can easily believe him.
