National Parks in Tanzania

Any trip to Tanzania should (or must) include a trip to any of the numerous national parks scattered around the country. That's exactly what I did just this past week. Tagging a long four friends we embarked on a journey covering the popular Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Lake Natron (not a park per se) and if you thought this was enough I also ended up visiting Arusha National Park with some other friends as well.

Of course they all offer different things. For example Ngorongoro is probably one of the most well-known parks and the views are spectacular. Any trip there is worth wild because the animals are very easy to spot and there are plenty of them just under your nose. If not then you should ask for a refund. This time around, during the rainy season, we saw four out of the five Big 5 animals. The only one to escape my supervision was the illustrious leopard hiding somewhere in a tree or bushes in the park.

Lake Manyara provides, just like the previous park excellent viewing of African animals. The elephants just appeared from no where just a few meters to our right. That is an amazing animals! The rest of the park also displays a large number of birds, zebras and giraffes for example. If you really want to see animals and only have a few days to spare these places are your best bet.

Our trip also included a long journey on a dirt track (100km) straight north from Lake Manyara to Lake Natron. The scenery was incredible, especially now when everything is lush and green. The mountains are very beautiful and zebras and occasional wildebeest roam the area freely. This is something you didn't really experience in the other two parks. There you almost had the experience of being at a zoo, because the animals didn't really seem to be bothered by all the 4x4 Landcruisers and the tourists cameras frenetically capturing their every move.

Lake Natron is something totally different from the other parks. This place feels like the end of the world and you really wonder why there are people living out here. Nothing really grows for much of the years, just some occasional scrubs in this lava filled soil. However, the lake with its minerals do provide the animals with a lot of important nourishment. Hence, there is a reason for them to come there. The other reasons are to see the lesser flamingos covering the lake eating the algae living in the salty water but also to climb the still active volcano called Ol Doinyo Lengai (2800m). It means the "Mountain of God" and serves as very important place for worship in the Maasai culture. Nevertheless our trip there was haltered a bit because of the heavy rain the night we were set on climbing. Instead we ended up make a short trip down to the lake and also to a beautiful waterfall in a fresh water river in the area.

Arusha National Park was my last stop on this short trip in northern Tanzania. It is one of the few arks where you are allowed to walk. It is supposedly also one of the prettiest parks because of its varied terrain and also because it is the home of the fourth highest mountain in Africa, Mount Meru (4565m). Unfortunately it is rainy season so the mountain was covered in clouds and the animals were conspicuous by their absence. There were a few buffaloes, zebras, giraffes and warthogs when we walked on the plains of this park. However, it seemed like the trail was set so afterwards it felt a bit lame. I had bigger hopes actually and seeing animals very close in the other parks this didn't make me get goose bumps. The walk could be extended to the peak which might have been better or just come another time when there are more animals.

By now you might think I'm done doing safaris but No. My next plan is to visit Mikumi National Park just an hour south of Morogoro. It will pretty much have the same animals as the other parks, but I'm just right next to it so I sort of have to go there. Some friends went there just a few weeks ago and saw Lions climbing trees. That sounds pretty cool I think. Another idea would be to visit the Udzungwa National park just a few kilometers west on the other side of the highway. This isn't a park where you'll see african carnivores or elephants and such. However, it is one of the few places in Africa with endemic species of monkeys, birds and plants, which means this is the only place where they live and hence the park is also knows as the "Galapagos Islands of Africa". There are 11 different primates and five of them are endemic, one of them is the red colobus monkey. Instead of doing a 4x4 trip you actually hike and camp in the park and hopefully spot some of the 2500 plats (160 are medicinal) and 250 bird species (2nd highest concentration in Africa).

http://www.udzungwa.org/


http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/