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Alberto Aragones
ES
Visited:
October 2015
Reviewed: Nov 21, 2015
Email Alberto Aragones | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Ruaha, a real taste of wild Africa
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.
At
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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
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.
Javier Barbero
ES
Visited:
July 2015
Reviewed: Aug 9, 2015
Email Javier Barbero | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
adventure & wildlife
Ernest love his work & is an expert of Ruaha N P.
If a good option, you will not regret.
The cooker & the cook was excellent in the trip.
Donal C Wells
Visited:
June 2015
Reviewed: Jul 12, 2015
Uncrowded, walking safari along Great Ruaha River, great numbers of elephants, giraffes, crocs, hippos, zebras, and also mongoose, lions, yellow baboons, rock hyrax, warthogs, impalas, etc. Stay in a rustic banda along the river and make your own dinner to eat as you watch elephants and hippos play in the river below.
Rehema Ilanga
Visited:
February 2014
Reviewed: Jul 12, 2015
Ruaha National Park Scenery and Wildlife.
It's awsome visiting Ruaha National Park especially seeing the wildlife, and, ofcourse the attractive scenery and a fun place to relax on holidays!!!
camselrac1
FR
Visited:
August 2014
Reviewed: May 26, 2015
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very changing landscapes, a lot of animals, few tourists, great guides and very nice ecolodge
Nuno Grilo
Visited:
September 2013
Reviewed: May 21, 2015
This park is great for its exclusivity. We would drive the whole day, without seeing nobody else. Animals are a bit more difficult to spot than in Selous Game Reserve and landscape is in general less beautiful, but we would stay there again if we'd repeat this trip, because the feeling of littleness in this enormous savanna is unique.
We've stayed in Jongomero Camp and once again, the experience was unbelievable. So exclusive, so calm.
At the en we knew that we couldn't have chosen better honeymoon destination.
See it by yourself here: https://youtu.be/tX-cdXK1kCY
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
wildlifepictures.se
SE
Visited:
December 2011
Reviewed: May 3, 2015
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Hot and lots of Tzetze flies but still I love the place. It´s really wild.
Phil
US
Visited:
April 2015
Reviewed: May 1, 2015
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Had a great time camping in the bush
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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.