Tanzania safari | Ruaha National Park | baobab
Ruaha National park is one of Tanzania's best kept secrets. Here, in the middle of Tanzania, the fauna and flora of East and South Africa overlap each other, resulting in a unique combination of game species. The park is rugged, with rocks and forested hills. The game in this fairly arid park is concentrated in the area around the Great Ruaha River.
Ruaha National Park: the real Africa
You can drive for hours through Ruaha National park (10,300 km²) without meeting any other visitors. When you enter this rugged wilderness of forests and large open plains, on which baobab tress (or 'upside down trees') grow, you'll feel like you've entered the 'real', wild and truly unspoilt Africa. It is similar in this respect to Katavi National Park, but fortunately Ruaha is easier to access.
Ruaha National Park is part of an extensive ecosystem that also includes the game reserves in Rungwa and Usango. The Great Ruaha River is quite literally the lifeline of this otherwise arid park and in the rainy season it swells, creating a torrent of water that bursts the river's banks; yet the dry season has brought the Great Ruaha River an ever-increasing aridity. Possible explanations for this relate to the rise in irrigation for rice cultivation and the increase in cattle breeding in the area.
Ruaha National Park - a transition zone
Central Tanzania forms the transition zone between eastern and southern Africa and Ruaha National Park offers the best of both worlds as far as flora and fauna are concerned.
The fact that Ruaha National Park is located in a transition zone is particularly evident in the large variety of antelope species; both greater and lesser kudu, as well as sable and roan antelopes, live here in complete harmony. There are also impalas, Grant's gazelles and dik-diks, which in turn attract various animals of prey that lie in wait for the different antelope species as they near the river. The lion prides here are particularly large here and can include up to 20 lions. There is also nowhere else in Tanzania where you will have a better chance of seeing leopards. Wild dogs are not yet extinct in Ruaha National Park and - in spite of the poachers - the park's 10,000 elephants constitute the largest elephant population in East Africa. The herds of buffaloes also help to fill the entire horizon. In the Great Ruaha River, from which the park's name is derived, the crocodiles feast themselves on the sheer abundance of fish.
The fact that Ruaha National Park is a transition zone is also evident from the large diversity of bird species, estimated at no less than 475. Bird-spotters can become glued to their binoculars here and those who don't have an affinity with birds certainly will after visiting the park!
