Ruaha National Park

Covering 13,000 km2 Ruaha National Park one of Tanzania’s largest and most remote wildlife areas and was for many years was virtually unvisited by tourists. It is only now beginning to open up and is still a quiet and little frequented park. In fact most of the visitors only reach the area around the Great Ruaha river and the Hills in the West of the park remain almost totally unexplored and inaccessible.

The Park can be visited at any time of year, however, the best time for game viewing is during the dry season from June until December when wildlife converges on the dwindling water reserves of the park and concentrates along the Great Ruaha River, the only permanent water source in the park.
During the 'rains' from December until April, the trees erupt into leaf and the Ruaha River swells into a bursting torrent.

Although the game viewing becomes more difficult due to lush vegetation, there is no major migration of game away from the park as happens in the north of Tanzania, so the game is still greatly in evidence.
This season is the best time for bird watching as the population grows with both the northern and southern migratory species visiting Ruaha.

Ruaha National Park contains every species you can see in the Northern parks with the exception of black rhinos. Of particular note are the relatively large numbers of greater and lesser kudu, roan, and sable antelope and huge herds of elephant and buffalo. Nearly 500 bird species have been sighted within the park. The Great Ruaha River has large numbers of hippo and crocodile and attracts lion, leopard, hunting dog and numerous other species such as waterbuck impala, giraffe, warthog and eland. Grants gazelle, ostrich and cheetah may be seen on the plains. Visitors also frequently see wild dogs (Lycaon Pictus) one of the few parks where they are still numerous. On our last visit we watched a large group play and hunt around our vehicle.

Ruaha National Park is 120 km from the nearest town Iringa down the rather aptly named 'Never-ending' road. This takes approximately 2 hours and there are also scheduled road links between Dar es Salaam, Mikumi and Ruaha. It is probably easiest to reach Ruaha by air and there are scheduled flights three times a week operating out of Dar es Salaam/ Zanzibar via Selous and Ruaha up to Arusha in the north. Alternatively, try old style train travel with the Safari Express Train.