So we took the agent's advice and flew to Tanzania – an hour and a half to Dar es Salaam – where we caught a connection with Safari Air which runs a drop-off service to the camps in the less-visited southern half of the country (The northern parks – the famous. Ngorogoro crater and the Serengeti – have also fallen prey to mass tourism.)
Tanzania’s Best-kept Secret?, Ruaha National Park, Patrick Cruywagen, SA 4x4, agazine, January 2009 edition
When someone suggested a short stop at Ruaha National Park during our return journey from the Nile River, I had to reach for a map to see where it was. Little did I realise I’d end up discovering a gem that I’d rate as one of Tanzania’s best parks.
If you use Google as a measure of popularity, you wont be overly inspired to visit Ruaha National Park – there are only 126,000 results. By way of comparison, if you Google Serengeti, you’ll get an incredible 4 820 000 results.
Tanzania’s Remote Ruaha National Park, By Bunny McBride, Special to the Washington Post
The Mwagusi is one of Ruaha National Park’s several sand rivers, which flow underground except during the height of the rainy season. As we walked along this dry river bed in central Tanzania, I suddenly saw, amid a flurry of African buffalo tracks, a bare human footprint in the middle of a gigantic elephant footprint. The sight cast me into a reverie of ancient days when humans met nature on an equal footing, responding to, rather than controlling, its pulse.
The shadow of our 12-seater bush plane flits over the hot dry heart of Tanzania as we bounce through the midday thermals. But the landscape changes as we draw closer to Msembe airstrip. On its final approach the plane banks sharply, revealing a range of broken hills.
Below the wingtips zebras stampede across a yellow plain. Farther off I can see a mighty sand river bordered by flat-topped acacias, and solemn giraffes standing like markers measuring the yawning distance.