by Patrick Madden

The ancient cradle of humankind, Tanzania's spectacular landscapes are alive with primal grandeur.

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti is a huge expanse of grasslands and woodlands in Tanzania and Kenya. To many of its visitors, Serengeti has come to symbolize paradise. The Maasai, who have grazed their cattle on its enormous plains for many years, called it Siringitu, "the place where the land moves on forever."

World famous for its wildlife, the Serengeti region covers about 30,000 km², of which about 80% lies in northern Tanzania. Of that area, the Serengeti National Park (SNP) covers 14,763 km2 - roughly the size of Northern Ireland - but its ecosystem is about the size of Kuwait and the largest and most complex on Earth. Peerless for its natural beauty and scientific value and containing more game animals than any other reserve, the SNP is unarguably the world's most famous wildlife sanctuary.

Serengeti is perhaps most famous for the annual wildebeest migration. Every October and November, more than a million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra travel from the Serengeti's northern hills to its southern plains, then move west, and finally north after the long rains of April, May, and June. It is awe-inspiring to witness the ancient migration, especially from the classic hot-air balloon.

Ngorongoro Crater

Often called the eighth natural wonder of the world, the Ngorongoro Crater is the spectacular main feature of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservancy.

About 2 million years ago the Ngorongoro volcano - then one of the tallest in the world - erupted, and its pipe walls collapsed. The volcano floor sank to create a natural enclosure with walls about 600 metres high. Now, at an altitude of about 5,500 feet, and about 19 km wide, Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact caldera in the world.

Ngorongoro contains five distinct habitats:

The Lerai forest of tall, yellow-barked acacias is home to many small primates and antelope as well as a small population of giant bull elephants and the Crater's few elusive leopards.

Lake Magadi in the central-western region is home to thousands of migratory flamingos, while seasonal swamps in the north-west and the south-east of the crater are homes to hippos and water birds.

The crater's short grass supports grazers - wildbeest, Zebra and Thomson's gazelle - and its longer eastern grasslands support herds of buffalo.

The crater contains about 30,000 animals in total (including black rhinoceros and all the predatory cats) making it arguably the best safari destination in the world.

Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological site in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. A steep-sided ravine about 50km in length and 90 metres deep on average, Olduvai is along the route from the Ngorongoro Crater to the Serengeti.

The gorge was originally called Oldupai by the Maasai, after the wild sisal that grows on its slopes. It was first brought to the world's attention in 1911 by a German Lepidopterist, who stumbled upon some fossils while looking for butterflies.

Two years later another German, Hans Reck, found a controversial homo sapiens skeleton at the site. During his studies, Louis Leakey became fascinated by the Olduvai fossils and set off on an expedition to Olduvai in 1931.

In the 1970s, Louis and Mary Leakey were present when one of their team discovered the 3,7-million year old footprints of Australopithecus afarensis. These and other discoveries suggested that Olduvai was inhabited by the first humans ever to exist. Olduvai Gorge is often called the Cradle of Mankind.

Chumbe Island

Chumbe is a small, uninhabited island about 12 km south of Zanzibar Town, offering spectacular snorkelling and blissful and romantic accommodation.

In 1994, Chumbe was gazetted as a marine sanctuary to protect its incredible underwater life. This includes nearly 200 species of coral, about 370 species of fish, passing pods of dolphins, and hawksbill turtles that breed on the island.

The island (now Chumbe Island Lodge, a private, non-profit nature reserve) has been praised for its ongoing ecotourism initiative. The accommodation is far from fancy - all the entertainment you'll find here is strictly courtesy of nature. Besides the eco-friendly lodge, the only two other structures on the island are an old mosque and an abandoned lighthouse that offers an excellent view.

Mafia Island

The sleepy, lesser-known Mafia is a large island about 160 km south of Zanzibar, and the picture of archetypal Indian-ocean paradise. Non-commercialised, and seemingly timeless, Mafia is the largest island of the Mafia Archipelago and a protected enclave of natural beauty.

Mafia is a diver's dream. Chole Bay Marine National Park, East Africa's largest marine reserve, protects much of the island's southern coastline - an extremely rich marine environment with some of the best and most colourful coral in the Indian Ocean. This region is the main focus for diving on Mafia, but the island has many other excellent diving spots besides.

Kilondini is Mafia's main town. Stuck in a time warp about thirty years behind Zanzibar, the town is characterised by its very relaxed atmosphere, distant and respectful residents, and classic Swahili buildings with carved stone doors.

Kilimanjaro & Meru

Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru are Tanzania's two highest mountains, both free-standing volcanoes in the northern Serengeti plains.

Kilimanjaro (just 'Kili' to the hard-core) has three peaks. The central peak, Kibo, has Uhuru as its summit - the highest point in Africa, at 5986m. Kili's eastern peak is Mawenzi, with Hans Meyer as its summit - a very difficult and rarely-attempted climb. West of Kibo and less distinct than the other two peaks is Kili's third peak, Shira.

Climbing Kili requires no extraordinary mountaineering experience, though it is a tough hike and does require thorough preparation, steadfast determination and money. The climb starts from cultivated farmlands and progresses through rainforest, mountain meadows, and finally a cold, rocky moonscape to the peaks.

Meru is Tanzania's second-highest mountain, at 4566m. Though overshadowed in travellers' consciousnesses by Kilimanjaro, the hike to Meru's crater rim remains a spectacular and rewarding one. It starts from the grasslands and forests of the mountain's lower slopes and culminates in an exhilarating tiptoe along a razor-edged path to the crater rim.

Selous Game Reserve

Covering over 50,000 km² - more than 5% of Tanzania's land area - Selous is Africa's biggest nature conservation area.

The most notable feature of this generally flat reserve is its drainage system, comprising three rivers - the Rufiji, the Ruaha, and the Beho Beho. The Ruaha carves out what is perhaps Selous' most dramatic feature - Steigler's Gorge, in the north of the park, where the river descends a narrow granite gulley.

There are more than 80,000 animals in the park, and so many giraffe that it is known in Dar es Salaam as giraffic park. Due to Selous' massive area the game density is lower there than in Tanzania's other parks. However, due to its riverine environment, Selous is an excellent birding site with more than 440 resident species.

Only a tiny corner of Selous Game Reserve is accessible to visitors. The rest is almost entirely occupied by a massive swamp, which supports huge populations of wildlife away from human influence.

Ruaha National Park

Situated just west of Iringa in central Tanzania, Ruaha National Park was for a long time one of the country's least accessible nature reserves, and is now one of the most gorgeous and pristine nature sanctuaries in the country. The reserve protects most of the big game species as well as more than 350 species of birds that aren't found in northern Tanzania.

Ruaha's wildlife and its striking topography offer travellers the kind of wild safari to which the early explorers of Africa were accustomed. Bordered by the Great Ruaha river to the east and the Mzombe river to the west, Ruaha is an ecologically varied wilderness of buckling plateau, punctuated by rocky outcrops and veined with dry sand rivers. The landscape around the Great Ruaha river is particularly striking.

Mahale Mountains National Park

Accessible only by boat or by air, Mahale Mountains National Park is among the least accessible, least visited and most beautiful parks on the African continent.

Covering 1,577 km² of land about halfway down the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, and famous for its unrivalled chimpanzee viewing opportunities (with around 700 resident chimps), the park also protects at least 50 other land animal species. Many of these are monkeys, but the number also includes some species of antelope as well as lion (though these are rarely spotted).

Mahale's scenery is second to none. You'll find clear, blue water in Lake Tanganyika surrounded by white beach sand and lush, wild rainforests on the slopes of the mountains. And there are so few visitors that you'll likely have it all to yourself.

Katavi National Park

About 35 km southwest of Mpanda (read: in the middle of nowhere) is the Katavi National Park, among the last of the great African wildernesses.

Gazetted as a national park in 1974 and renowned ever since by intrepid safari addicts worldwide, the game at the million-hectare Katavi is unmatched for quantity and variety by any park in Africa.

Katavi is centered around two lakes (or, in the dry season, tracts of open grassland) - Lake Katavi and Lake Chada. Katavi's single camp is accessible only by a four-hour charter flight from Arusha. It is best for travellers who are prepared to pay for the best raw safari in Africa.

Gombe National Park

With a land area of just 158 km², Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's game reserves, and as it is located in the extreme northwest of country it is also one of the most remote.

Made famous by Jane Goodall's chimpanzee projects, Gombe contains the world's longest-running animal observation project.

However, the park is beset by problems. The land area is too small to sustain two troupes of chimpanzees, and population pressure due to incoming refugees from neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi has put increasing pressure on the park's boundaries. This has led to serious clashes between the chimpanzee and human populations. It is unclear whether a solution will be forthcoming, but until it does Gombe unfortunately remains a park with a problem.

Article © Copyright 2006 Go2Africa.

Print this page |  Send to a friend

Related content