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Write a User ReviewAn Underrated Gem
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spotted hyenas are vociferous by night. Endangered African wild dogs occasionally range across to Mikumi from the Selous, but less regularly than they did a few years back. All in all, it is a great little reserve, offering some good wildlife viewing and – away from the road – an untrammelled feel bolstered by the very low tourist traffic.
Ideal Stopover on the Tanzam Highway
With the Tanzania–Zambia highway bisecting the park, Mikumi National Park lacks the wilderness appeal for which other reserves in southern Tanzania are known. But for me, Mikumi is perfect to break up the trip from Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Park. I’ve always found the game viewing very good. There are good numbers of elephant, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest. The main waterhole is a magnet for thirsty animals and on my last visit huge herds of buffalo were a constant presence here. We saw a good variety of antelope, including impala, reedbuck, eland and greater kudu. The game-drive circuit is quite small, so a one- or two-night stay is all you need.
The park is often visited by noisy crowds from Dar es Salaam, which can spoil the experience at crucial points such as the waterhole and picnic sites. Therefore, weekends are not the best time to visit.
A road runs through it
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during our short stay – watching hippos lurch and snap at each other as the sunset over the dam was a highlight – which overall made it a worthy stop on way to Ruaha.Wildlife Watching Just off the Highway
Mikumi's highlights are its ease of access (it's an easy four-hour drive from Dar es Salaam along the main highway), its reasonably-priced lodges and the chance it offers to see a good array of wildlife within a short amount of time. Every time I've visited the park, I've been lucky enough to see elephants, zebras, giraffe, buffalo and plenty of baboons, plus some more elusive nocturnals, including the honey badger. The down sides are the lack of a wilderness feel (due to the location bisected by the highway), and the relative 'ordinariness' of the safari experience in comparison with Tanzania's other protected areas. I don't recommend Mikumi as a destination in itself, especially for first-time safari goers. However, it makes an enjoyable destination as a stopover if you are travelling along the Tanzam highway, or as an easy weekend getaway from Dar es Salaam.
A stretch of typical savannah with unexpected game-viewing on Tanzania’s Great North Road
Straddling the Morogoro-Iringa highway, Mikumi has typical woodland and grassy plains, and the lush vegetation of the Mkata River floodplain attracts a fair variety of animals and birds throughout the year. I’ve passed through en route between Tanzania and Malawi, and game-viewing is as simple as slowing down to the prescribed speed limit. It’s quite an odd experience to drive through a village, then a pristine wildlife area, then immediately back to farmland and villages on the other side. But just on the 50-kilometre drive through, I’ve seen plains game, elephant, and lion and they seem quite accustomed to the vehicles that rumble past. While I wouldn’t make a special effort to get just here as it’s a fairly long drive from Dar es Salaam, there is a good choice of accommodation and it can be combined with other parks in southern Tanzania.