The safari starts right at the moment of landing. A long-legged and long-necked giraffe runs along the runway, in its own way graceful in its clumsiness. A chain of zebras walks across the strip after a giraffe.
In the distance, under a knotted baobab tree, several representatives of 10,000 Ruaha elephants (the largest population of any East African park) carefully surround their cubs.
Second only to Katavi in ​​untouched wilderness, the Ruaha is far more accessible. It protects a wide swath of tough scrub found in central Tanzania. These lands are fed by the great river Ruaha, which flows in a full-flowing stream along the eastern borders during the rainy season, but breaks into many small pools surrounded by blinding mounds of sand and stone.

A complex network of safari roads runs along the Great Ruaha and its seasonal tributaries, where impala, waterbucks and other antelope risk their lives during the dry season for a sip of water. Serious dangers lie in wait for them: not only prides of 20 or more lions ruling the savannas, but also cheetahs roaming the open steppe, and leopards hiding in the windbreak of coastal groves. To the impressive list of large predators must be added striped and spotted hyenas, as well as several impressive packs of African wild dogs (a species that is endangered).
The unusually high diversity of antelope in Ruaha is due to its transitional location between the acacia savannas of eastern Africa and the myomb forest belt of southern Africa. This includes the southernmost part of the range of Grant’s gazelle and lesser kudu, as well as the ranges of horse and black horse antelope. It is also home to Africa’s largest population of great kudu, which has become a symbol of the park. Kudu is distinguished by majestic twisted horns in males.
A similar duality is found in Ruahi’s list of 450 birds: the crested barbies, beautiful yellow-and-black birds whose long trills are characteristic of the bushes of the south, live here along with endemics of central Tanzania, such as the masked lovebird and the golden-breasted starling.

Area: 10,300 sq. km (3,980 sq. miles), the second largest park in Tanzania
Location: Central Tanzania, 128 kilometers west of Iringa

How to get there: Charter flights and scheduled flights from Dar es Salaam, Selous, Serengeti, Arusha, Iringa and Mbeya
All year round you can reach by road through Iringa from Dar es Salaam via Mikumi or from Arusha via Dodoma.