User Reviews of Ruaha National Park (65 Reviews)

I really enjoyed seeing Ruaha. I've been to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Selous before, but Ruaha was still really impressive for several reasons: First, we camped in Ruaha, which you can't do everywhere (especially not for the reasonable rates that you get in Ruaha). And when I say 'camped', I really mean camped - we took our own tent and set up camp in a little-used private campsite. We cooked over a campfire, and sat out under the stars. No other camps or people anywhere close. That's another of the benefits to Ruaha - there just aren't as many people there as in the Northern Circuit parks (especially Serengeti and Ngorongoro). Third, although the Northern Circuit may be a bit better for seeing wildlife, you certainly won't be disappointing at Ruaha! In two days, I saw elephants, lions, greater kudu, impala, giraffe, baboons, vervet monkeys, nile and savanah monitor lizards (one Savanah monitor even spent the afternoon, evening, night, and

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the next morning in a tree over our camp), hippos, black-backed jackals, banded and lesser mongoose, and lots of birds (2 spotted eagle owls, several bustards, lilac-breasted rollers and European rollers, shrikes, buffalo-weavers, white-headed vultures, fish eagles, brown-hooded kingfishers, pied kingfishers, lots of Franklins and other quail, guinea fowl, red-billed hornbills, ground hornbills, hammerkops, among others). If you go with a tour guide, you're liable to see even more, since they communicate with each other by radio to learn where all the key animals are (I went with a couple local Tanzanians).

April isn't the most popular time to visit - there's more rain and more vegetation, which decreases visibility on safaris, but we had very little rain, still saw a good sampling of wildlife, and had the added benefit of the park being practically empty.

Ruaha is my favorite Tanzanian national park due to its fairly remote location and the spectacular landscape. An incredible variety of wildlife and some very well-trained outfits operating there. Ruaha's remote location and massive area, two of the things that are most attractive, are also its main vulnerabilities. I had made many visits to the park when I lived in the area from 2005-2008 and was concerned when I returned earlier this year because of all of the accelerated poaching that's gone on in the area over the last several years. Ruaha's remote location and massive area, two of the things that are most attractive, are also its main vulnerabilities. The quality of safaris for guests however, remains mostly unchanged in my opinion. Most of the game viewing tracks are in a relatively small portion of the park that is well-protected. Having heard so much about how hard the park has been hit, I was surprised at the abundance of wildlife (this is of course not to minimize

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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.

In the last 10 years I have visited many of the best well known national parks in Africa, including those of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa. During October and November of this year 2015, I traveled to Tanzania again to explore Selous, Mikumi and Ruaha and end the trip in Mafia Island for diving with whale sharks. The plan is basically always the same, buy a flight to a major city (in this case Dar es Salaam), prepare a driving gps with off-road programs, points of interest and hundreds of maps, and rent a 4WD vehicle with camping equipment if possible.

We arrived to Ruaha NP after having visited Selous and Mikumi, it took us about 8 hours from Mikumi, with a two hour stop in Iringa to refuel and buy some food, water and drinks. From Iringa to Ruaha NP the road is not very good and you will need a 4WD car, you have two options to make the second half of the route, take the one to the right, the road is much better.

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/> At the main gate you will spend some time, paperwork is slow, also payment by credit card is preferred, if you are not sure of the number of days you are going to stay, you can always extend your permit in the HQ office close to the airstrip, like we did twice. The accommodation options are the usual, expensive luxury private lodges, cottages, bandas and camping but not very massive. I can only tell about camping because I have never used the other options. We were assigned to "public campsite #1", it is located in the Ruaha river bank with a very scenic view, some trees provide shadow and there are some facilities like a kitchen building and very basic toilets, we were the only group in the campsite. Campsite #1 is about two or three km from the rangers camp, it was a pleasure to share a beer with the park people in the community hall every night, you can even join the buffet they have available for the park personnel and their families (10,000 tsh or 5 USD).

If you have good maps loaded in your off-road gps you don't need a guide to move safely around Ruaha NP, if in doubt, just ask anyone in the community hall, but the best routes for game drive are obvious, simply follow the river sides. If you are not good at spotting animals you will appreciate the help of a guide that you can hire in the rangers camp for about 30 dollars a day. We start the morning game driving very early in the morning after a brief breakfast, and it usually lasts until we can no longer stand the heat, then we go back to the campsite to have a shower and a rest. Wildlife is great in Ruaha, we saw lots of elephants, giraffes, buffalos, wildbeast, zebras, waterbuck, impalas, warthogs, grand kudus, hipos, crocodiles, osprays, ostriches, etc. As for predators we saw hyenas, leopards, jackals, wild dogs and lots of lions, we missed cheetah, we were told that in that season they move to another part of the park. Game drive in the evenings is also very interesting but I prefer to choose a good spotting point close to the river and relax watching how animals come to drink. We spent 5 days in Ruaha NP, so we had time to explore the hills and some other parts of the park, specially Mwagusi river, where we found the wild dogs pack.

October and November are very hot in Ruaha, but it is the beginning of the raining season and we were rewarded with a couple wonderful storms. We were told by the people in the HQ camp that the park was in lack of visitors, and that it was diificult to maintain the park with such a low number of visitors. Poaching is a big problem in Ruaha because it is a very large park.

We met just a few tourist, Ruaha is not Serengueti or Ngoro-ngoro where you can meet dozens of other vehicles in every game drive, in Ruaha you may meet one or two if you are lucky, and we always stopped and shared our findings (the elephants herd drinking in the river or the pride of lions eating a zebra in the river side).

In general, Ruaha is, if not the best, one of the two best parks I have visited, I cannot tell about luxury lodges or other accommodation types, but camping is great and you will enjoy the nature very close. Campsite #1 will surprise you, a pride of lions lives there and will share the camp with you, just respect the norms and follow the recommendations and you will be safe.

I hope this comments help someone to enjoy Ruaha as we did.

Regards,
Alberto Aragones