Ruaha rainy season visit: April 2014 post 1 (A LOT of photos to show you!)

That bumpy dirt road again! Made more hazardous in some places after the rains though...

I loved Ruaha the first time we visited in September, and not only because of the luxury tented camp we stayed in but because the surroundings were so spectacular, and I didn't think it could get any better. Thanks to Sjak, Joke, and Bart I visited again during the rainy season, and I was absolutely astounded by the breath-taking beauty of Ruaha. The flowers, the plants, the trees: the whole scenery was just beautiful and lush; full of life, and we were still able to see plenty of animals despite the huge amount of foliage everywhere.

(These first photos to be accredited to Bart and Sjak van der Weegen, thanks guys.)

This time we stayed in the 'new', government-owned bandas, with a restaurant nearby cooking local food (rice, ugali, beans, chicken, chips....). Although there was a kitchen in the banda, it was unfurnished, so we were glad we had taken the kettle, mugs, tea, coffee etc as well as our own picnics for during the day. It was a nice place to stay: the bathrooms were en suite (setting these bandas apart from the 'old' bandas), there was a comfortable seating area, kitchen with sink so you could at least rinse out your mugs, and of course very importantly mosquito nets over the beds. Although we were in the park and had a lovely view out of the glass back door and windows, we didn't see any animals visiting us, unfortunately (although they may well have done of course, very quietly!).

This is the view from the banda:

Ruaha dry season visit: September 2013

I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit Ruaha National Park twice during my stay here in Tanzania: first I went during the dry season, at the end of September, and again in the rainy season, in April. Two very different visits, and both equally amazing.

Here are some pictures from the visit during the dry season, where we splashed out and stayed in a luxury tented camp ('Mwagusi'), which was worth every penny, overlooking the dry river bed. During the night you could hear animals outside munching on the trees and in the morning the staff identified the prints as giraffe. Very cool!

(Sharing photo credits with Bart, dank je wel!)

Setting off from Iringa town...

...on a dirt road for about 2 and a half hours from Iringa to Ruaha...

 

But it was worth it, especially when we saw our banda!

 

With dinner on the dry riverbed (and with several staff members ready to make sure we didn't become anyone else's dinner)...

 

 

Monkeys and elephants frequently crossed the river bed right in front of us or ran across the front of the banda.

This is the tent as it is closed up for the night, with animals free to come into the entrance of the banda if they wished!

The dining and relaxation areas:

The camp:



We spent 48 hours in Ruaha National Park, with one very early morning drive to try and view as many animals as possible, as well as being out during the late afternoon/early evening:

Breakfast on the bonnet of the 4WD, while the giraffe looked for his....

This elephant tolerated our photos for a while but then decided s/he had enough and began to walk quite quickly towards us, prompting an urgent reaction from our guide to make the driver move on: "anakuja! Anakuja!" - "She's coming!"

Ruaha NP apparently has the largest gathering of elephants in all the national parks of Tanzania.

We didn't see so many giraffe or zebra on this trip, but it did feel amazing to see the animals living wild so close up. We saw plenty of lions, elephants, impala, kudu, dikidiki, monkeys, one leopard, one cheetah, and quite a few birds. There were probably quite a few others that I have missed off this list too. Also there weren't hoards of us trying to see the animals, and I am glad to say that our driver didn't go aggressively towards the animals, making sure they had space and were not crowded by onlookers. I don't know if that still makes a safari a good thing, but I was grateful for the experience.