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Write a User ReviewWhere the Beach Meets the Bush
True, Saadani is not suited to those seeking a full-on safari experience. Then again, any wildlife-lover seeking a post-safari chill-out venue might want to consider it as an alternative to the more crowded and developed beaches around Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. Odds of seeing an elephant herd stroll along the beach are pretty small, but with a population now estimated at 200-odd, you may well see them away from the beach. Lions now number around 50, but sightings are far from guaranteed. More conspicuous savannah wildlife includes giraffe, buffalo, warthog,
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yellow baboon, vervet monkey, common waterbuck, bohor reedbuck and Lichtenstein's hartebeest. The magnificent greater kudu and handsome Roosevelt’s sable are rather less common. The diminutive and normally very shy red duiker is quite often seen in coastal scrub and forest.The beaches of Saadani form the only Tanzanian turtle nesting site north of Dar es Salaam, with green turtle being the most regular visitor. The undoubted highlight of Saadani is the boat trip up the Wami River, which offers excellent bird watching, including the possibility of African skimmer, mangrove kingfisher and Pel’s fishing owl, as well as reliable hippo and croc sightings, and a good chance of spotting the lovely Angola colobus monkey foraging in the riverine trees. Guided walks are also great fun, and very rewarding for birders, but are best undertaken in the early morning cool.
Bush and Beach in One
So why is Saadani not more famous? This comes down to the relative paucity of large wildlife. There are decent populations of giraffe, waterbuck and reedbuck, plus a few more unusual species such as Liechtenstein’s hartebeest. However, both elephant and buffalo are shy and low in number, a legacy of past hunting, while large predators – which include lion, leopard and spotted hyena – are elusive. Those determined to tick off the Big Five thus tend to look elsewhere.
This reality was born out on my most recent visit, when large mammals were thin on the ground and
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in three days, we didn’t see a large predator. However, a pride of lions had been around the previous month – we saw vultures on their old kill – and a leopard had recently been spotted close to the lodge. We also found fresh hyena tracks on the beach, alongside those of civet, genet and marsh mongoose.Predators aside, the highlight was undoubtedly a nocturnal visit from a family group of elephants, which browsed the palm thickets outside my villa in the small hours. Where else might you experience this, then go for a morning walk and find the nest of a green turtle just around the corner? Other highlights included blue monkey and red duiker, plus necking giraffes, hartebeest babies and a small, retiring buffalo herd.
Saadani‘s landscape of palm forest and coastal thicket is an attractive one, and the challenge of finding larger game increases the excitement when you succeed. The birding, meanwhile, is excellent and includes, as well as plentiful savannah species, migratory shorebirds (sandpipers, sand plovers, terns) along the beach. A boat trip on the Wami River brought us plentiful water birds, including herons, storks, fish eagles and the highly localised mangrove kingfisher, plus close encounters with hippos and crocs.
Saadani village sits in the middle of the park, which means some local activity, including traffic along the main dirt access road, while a salt extraction plant in the south may also compromise the wilderness vibe for some – though it’s a great spot for flamingoes and other water birds. Either way, camps are located in secluded beach locations, and the Indian Ocean ambience makes it a pleasure to return from any game drive. Marine wildlife is good in season, with turtles, dolphins and humpback whales seen offshore, and snorkeling trips can be arranged to nearby islands.
Wonderful Beach & Some Wildlife, Too
Tiny Saadani's real highlight is not its wildlife, but the coastline - long, wide, driftwood-strewn in parts and mostly deserted. I don’t recommend the park as a destination in itself. Rather, plan a stop here if you're travelling by road between Dar es Salaam and the Pangani-area beaches. The beach lodges within and near park boundaries generally have a more secluded feel than the coastal resort areas closer to Pangani, and with luck, an elephant or two may even wander into your ocean vistas.
Wildlife sightings are notoriously erratic, and plenty of visitors manage to leave Saadani without seeing much more than the occasional antelope. However, most times I've visited, I've seen elephants (including several almost on the veranda of the park guesthouse where I was sleeping), plus hippos and giraffes. Saadani is also of interest as a cultural and bush tourism destination, with the upmarket Kisampa camp (just outside park boundaries to the south) an ideal base for this.
Bush & Beach
The highlight of our stay was a boat trip on the Wami River. You’ll see plenty of crocodiles and hippos, and you might be lucky to spot a troop of Angola colobus feeding in the riverine forest too. The birding didn’t disappoint, and we were able to tick off mangrove kingfisher, among some other specials. As we skipped the night drive, we were delighted to have bush babies and a genet visiting
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the lodge at dinnertime.The beach side of things is very rustic and undeveloped. Don’t expect infinity pools and cocktail bars. Get up early and you might see the local fishers casting their nets at sunrise. If you’d like to spend a few days on the beach in a bush setting, Saadani might just fit the bill.
East Africa’s Unique Safari Destination on the Beach
Saadani is Tanzania’s only park with ocean frontage, but it wasn’t as scenic as I had expected; fairly flat and featureless, and the beach scruffy and not the paradisiacal swathe of sand usually seen in East Africa.
But I enjoyed the boat trip up the Wami River and saw plenty of crocodile and hippo, and watched two kingfishers hovering above the water before diving vertically. While the park is not renowned for its big game (lion and elephant sightings are rare), on game drives we did see baboon, vervet monkey, bushbuck, warthog, hartebeest and giraffe. Reedbuck were everywhere, replacing impala, which are so ubiquitous in other parks, and birds plentiful; glossy ibis, hamerkop, palm-nut vulture, and lots of lilac-breasted rollers.
Undoubtedly, the best feature of this park was that I loved being able to go for a dip in the ridiculously warm ocean after an afternoon’s safari.