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Touring Tanzania's 'Big Five'

Author: Charlie Gray

Charlie Gray devises a Tanzanian safari that takes in its five best parks, bringing him the highlights but also exploring its less-visited regions.

It’s been quite an amazing 18 months for me at Aardvark. Before joining in June 2004 I had visited Africa just a handful of times; twice to South Africa on family holidays and once to Botswana and Zimbabwe in 1999. Four further trips over the last year and a half have re-ignited my passion for my favourite part of the world and helped me create some interesting and original trips for clients. Kenya was a fantastic experience; a country for so long labelled a mass-market safari destination proved that it had interesting, small and personal camps and lodges in remote areas with great wildlife well away from the crowds. The trip to Botswana brought back many happy memories of my previous visit and once again showed itself to be the number one place to view diverse and abundant wildlife in a unique environment. Earlier this year I was in Zambia which introduced me to some of the best guiding I have experienced, and a return to the grass roots of safari; simple camps, great locations and personal hosting.

So, what could Tanzania conjure up? Well, I had three weeks to try and see as much of the country as possible. I decided to combine the southern game reserves of Selous and Ruaha with the more traditional game areas of the north, Serengeti, Tarangire, and Ngorongoro, and make them a personal Tanzanian ‘Big Five’. Add to that the island of Zanzibar and fleeting visits to smaller game areas like Lake Manyara and I had the makings of an epic trip. I wondered by the end of it whether each of the places I visited would just melt into a general memory morass of safari camps and national parks, but as it turned out this trip truly inspired me.

The Selous Game Reserve in the south of Tanzania, was my first port of call. I didn’t know what to expect. In my mind’s eye I had images of volcanic peaks, craters and vast grassy plains, but knew these came from pictures and films I had seen of northern Tanzania. The south of the country for me was an unknown quantity. What I discovered in Selous was a wildlife heaven. This vast game reserve, Africa’s largest wildlife protected area is home to abundant game; elephants, lion, leopard, buffalo, giraffe and more, plus countless bird species. My visit centred on the northern section of the reserve, where the Rufiji River cuts through the land. With fewer than a 1,000 visitors a year and just a handful of quality lodges and camps, the Selous won my heart. I toured for three days and in that time saw just three other vehicles. Good accommodation, good guides, good game and few vistors; the Selous has the perfect ingredients for a great safari.

I then headed west to Ruaha National Park. Unlike the low-lying Selous, Ruaha is on average 1,000 metres above sea level and therefore has a different climate and ecosystem. At the tail end of the Rift Valley the park is dotted with granitic outcrops and countless baobab trees. Again, just a few good quality camps service a protected area of 13,000 square kms. Greater kudu, lesser kudu, and lions with an unusual taste for giraffe – and no wonder, since there were so many of them. What I didn’t see were any other safari vehicles. Where was this ‘crowded’ Tanzania that everyone had told me about? Admittedly, I was travelling in November, a quiet time of year, but in fact these two vast wildlife refuges never really get busy. So much for expectations. Southern Tanzania had blown them out of the water. Heading north I wondered whether the second half of my trip would be disappointing.

From Ruaha I flew north to Tarangire National Park, a relatively small area of land bounded on all sides by Masai farm land. This jewel of northern Tanzania is home to many different environments; riverine woodland, marshes teeming with birdlife and open grassland ideal for walking safaris. However protected areas like Tarangire are under constant threat from the pressures of pastoralist farmers, a constant issue in this part of the world that reminded me of the time I had spent in Kenya’s Masai Mara. The Masai have their traditional way of life; the tourists come and go in their Land Cruisers. On the surface it works and sympathetic management allows the Masai to farm as they always have done, but the constant demand for land means that many of the wildlife corridors no longer exist and the ‘Tarangire Migration’ is now mainly concentrated within the park’s boundaries. Although the wildlife doesn’t roam as freely as it once could the upside is that visitors can often see large concentrations of wildlife and the sight of over 300 elephant grazing on the Silale Marsh was truly spectacular.

As I headed north west towards the Ngorongoro highlands, the famed crater and the open plains of the Serengeti, the Land Cruiser count began to rise as we drove into the hub of Tanzania’s safari world. However the trick with northern Tanzania is to veer away from those areas where larger lodges have sprung up and head out on a more traditional, tented safari. Granted you can’t do this in the Ngoronogoro Crater, but this awesome spectacle with its surrounding volcanic peaks momentarily makes you forget you are in one of Africa’s busiest safari destinations. At the start of a trip this amazing natural feature with its breathtaking views and concentrations of game could not fail to impress. To then enjoy the contrasting wide open spaces of the Serengeti from a simple bush camp would make a fantastic safari.

Although the main migration had been scattered by sporadic November rains, I was once again in the hands of some expert guides. As with those that I had experienced in Zambia, you could happily sit in vehicle with for half a day knowing you were not going to get bored or frustrated even though millions of wildebeest were not sweeping past the bonnet of the vehicle. The semi-permanent camps run by safari operators like Nomad, CCAfrica and Asilia are sited in remote areas, but are close enough to the game to move with the migration as it shifts around the Serengeti. For me it was the first time I felt as if I was on a really traditional safari, in a simple, but comfortable camp, in a remote location with a good guide and great food. Everything felt genuine and as if it was laid on just for me. To be honest this was something I never thought I would hear myself say. I have always enjoyed the comfortable lodges with their flushing toilets, running water and overhead fans. Without wanting to sound too dramatic I felt as if I had come of age in the world of safari; appreciation of the wildlife and the environment I was immersed in was now more important than cooling off in a plunge pool with a view.

Tanzania did something special for me. It reminded me of how beautiful Africa can be and sparked a passion for real safaris. Botswana has incredible wildlife diversity. Zambia’s guides are supreme. However, the combination of wildlife, scenery and culture I experienced in Tanzania would be hard to beat. It felt to me like the crossroads between southern and east Africa offering the best of both worlds; the remote parks of the south with the familiar and well documented open plains of the north. I could confidently say that a well planned trip in Tanzania will give you one Africa’s best safari experiences.


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