TZ Trip Report, Part 1: Mikumi & Ruaha
Jan 15th, 2010, 01:19 PM
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TZ Trip Report, Part 1: Mikumi & Ruaha
This trip was organized by ShayTay and also included Sundowner and two of ShayTay’s friends, so there were five of us travelling together. The itinerary included the big parks in southern & western Tanzania: Mikumi, Ruaha, Katavi, and Mahale. Accommodation & ground arrangements were put together by Authentic Tanzania (http://www.authentictanzania.com/ ). Dates for this itinerary were 9 Sep to 26 Sep 2009. (ShayTay & Sundowner continued on to the Mara while I, unfortunately, did not).
This report is in two parts: Part 1, Mikumi & Ruaha; and Part 2, Katavi & Mahale (will be posted separately).
Part 1, Mikumi & Ruaha
Photo Link: http://tinyurl.com/yl6mu6x
The flight to DAR was on Emirates. I hadn’t flown with them before, but they really did a nice job even in economy. Very attentive and pleasant flight attendants and I enjoyed the meals (I had requested a fruit platter on each of the 4 legs offering meal service). Pre-flight announcements included a recitation of the various languages spoken by the flight attendants – easily 8 or 10 on each leg. I’d definitely fly them again. One of the little touches was a universe of pin-prick light-hole “stars” across the ceilings above the aisles when the lights went out.
Arriving at DAR in the late afternoon, overnight accommodation had been booked at the Mediterraneo hotel. 45-minutes from the airport by taxi through the congestion of the city, it offered a clean, comfortable room for a modest price (I think it was ~$80). The hotel also has an outdoor bar, full-service restaurant, and pool, all overlooking a narrow beach and the Indian Ocean.
The rest of the travelling party arrived late that night or early the following morning. We all met up in the restaurant for breakfast and a briefing from the owner of Authentic Tanzania, then it was off on the road for the drive to Mikumi.
I should say that my pocket notebook was pretty much destroyed by rain on a chimp trek at the end of our trip – turned into page after page of Rorschak inkblots... Consequently, many of the finer details – such as the drive & flight times between camps, the names of some of the guides and camp staff, which eagle is which, and which of the chimps is Pim and which is Primus (or Christmas, or any of the others), are lost to me.
Mikumi National Park
The drive from Dar qato Mikumi was several hours along a generally very good road (the Tanzania-Zambia Highway), and offered a window into local life outside of Dar, with busy villages along the way with lots of streetlife and roadside stands selling everything from produce to charcoal, to basketry, and just about everything else.
At Mikumi, we were supposed to be two nights in tents at an isolated private campsite in the park, but had been told earlier that some kind of foul-up (or bribed official, perhaps) had given the site to another safari operator for the season. As a result, we stayed at the Vuma Hill Lodge (VHL) instead. VHL has about 16 tents on platforms with wood verandas, all set onto the steep slope of a hill. Nice enough, and decent food, but it had a sort of commercial (due to its size) and not-quite-in-the-wild feel to it. Mikumi itself felt a bit like that. After all, it’s got a main highway (the TanZam) that runs right through the middle of it and is the route for entry to the park. Indeed, as sound travels so well at night, it was possible to hear the occasional heavy truck passing far off in the distance. Road kill is a problem and is dealt with using speed bumps and a lowered speed limit on the highway, but the little “museum” at the entrance gate displays a number of dreadful pictures of roadkill animals (particularly the nocturnal predators, lion and leopard). Heavy fines for collisions are advertised on highway signs.
Mikumi seemed to have lots of giraffe. These are Southern Masai giraffe; they’re smaller and darker in color than the giraffe I’ve seen in southern Africa. They’ve also got a very different-looking type of “spots.” Zebra and elephant were also plentiful and we had good viewing of these, including many families with young. There was plenty of other general game as well. Wildebeest running around and pronking are always fun to watch. In the two days we were at Mikumi, the only cat we saw was just a single lioness, resting in tall grass. She looked either well fed or, perhaps, pregnant.
We spent the better part of an afternoon at a great little waterhole that saw a constant stream of animal visitors, along with the resident crocs and hippos. Here, several elephant families came and went, while a pair of male impala sparred back and forth.
We got pretty good views of secretary birds a couple of times, though they always seem to be walking away from you. On the path to the dining area one night, I had a pearl-spotted owl fly across in front of me and alight on a low branch; I had a nice long look at him in the beam of my flashlight.
Ruaha National Park
From Mikumi, it was back onto the TanZam for the drive to Iringa (about 4.5 hrs) where we stopped for lunch. Once again, the drive offered a view of daily life as we passed through the towns along the way. Iringa is a good-size city and here I was able to get a pocket full of shillings from a bank ATM. We also visited a local crafts market, where I spent most of those shillings... Ruaha was a further 2 hours on a secondary road through a largely unsettled area. Along the way, I began to notice baobab trees in numbers. In southern Africa, the only baobabs I have seen were solitary and isolated individuals. Here, however, they were occurring in numbers. Ruaha itself seemed to have, if not forests, then groves of baobabs with many individuals. These were pretty cool and otherworldly looking.
The camp was located on the banks of a dry river with the very steep slope of a large hill opposite. This was a very secluded “public” campsite that had been secured by the operator for the season, and it was a really lovely spot. The dining area was set up beneath an enormous baobab. The five large tents seemed virtually brand new and each had an attached loo with chemical toilet and bucket shower. Water for washing and cooking was drawn from a hole dug in the riverbed, groundwater being just two or three feet below the surface. The call and response of lions were heard in the late night most every night here, and on two occasions I heard leopard coughing in the pre-dawn. Despite this, we never did see leopard, neither at Ruaha nor elsewhere on this trip.
Dumbfoundingly, there was no beer, wine, gin, or tonic in camp! As W.C. Fields once said, “we had to survive on just food and water.” To rectify this sad situation, camp staff had to be sent to the camp store at the park HQ the following day to procure the essentials at very high prices... In general, camp operations were a bit unorganized, evening showers were always late, and we concluded that there was simply no one “in charge” of seeing things done. Food was simple, as to be expected, but tasty and plentiful.
Once again, lots of the southern Masai giraffe and zebra. Somehow, giraffe always seemed to be the first animal encountered on any given day. We parked ourselves in a shady grove alongside the Ruaha River and watched fairly steady traffic by giraffe and zebra coming to drink and/or to cross the water. Early one morning, we were entertained by baboons, banded mongoose, and rock hyrax in beautiful light. A new antelope species for me was the tiny dik dik. We saw a single female in dense roadside brush one afternoon. Passing the same spot the following day, we spotted four of the animals. Two other dik dik were also seen at one other location during our stay. Kudu also always seemed to be obscured in thick brush, though we did get at least one occasion of kudu with a clear view.
Lions had been reported in the area of a bridge over the Ruaha River but, when we arrived, they were nowhere to be seen. We briefly (if illegally) went off-road along the river to look for them and soon found a lioness with six cubs – once again, obscured by thick brush. Not staying with them long, we returned to the bridge and soon saw the adult crossing the river, followed in turn by the cubs by ones and twos. Also from the bridge we were looking down – an interesting perspective -- on a giraffe preparing to drink from the river.
We crossed the bridge and followed the riverside road to a point where we judged the lioness and cubs might have emerged. Sure enough, there were five of the cubs laying about in the shade; the sixth cub and lioness were well hidden in an adjacent thicket. These guys were fun to watch even though, as lions are prone to do, they were mostly just lazing about.
Spotting a large group of elephant drinking water from a pool, we stopped to watch, and they were cooperative enough to approach us quite closely as they moved from the water and grazed their way up to the road. We also saw a colony of dwarf mongoose (or slender? I can’t recall...) occupying an old termite mound. Watching them was like watching whack-a-mole, as they popped up from their many holes and then disappeared again. Something a bit unusual, I thought, and also a first for me was a large and very active bee hive hanging from a branch alongside the road. Brrr....
A highlight: duma! Resting in the shade of a bush after taking down an impala on a very flat, grassy plain called Little Serengeti. We must have just missed the chase and the take-down, as he was breathing hard and rested for quite a while before getting up and dragging the impala back to the shade of the bush. He wasn’t much ready to eat, apparently, as he took just a few bites of the hindquarters and went back to resting. There’s a short video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0pf_CEmvhI
We drove off and found simba in the shade right next to the road. Across the road were the remains of a days-old giraffe carcass. A bit further away, in the shade of a bush, was a second lion, a female (can you find it in the photo that shows the two vehicles?). The heat was hot and the lion by the road was panting heavily, but he didn’t get too disturbed when we slowly drove past him, practically within reach-out-and-touch distance. We returned to the cheetah. Curiously, he had not eaten any more of the impala, even though at least an hour had passed.
One evening, as we were sitting around the fire in the dark, having a drink and awaiting dinner, something moving very fast suddenly came up from the dry river bed, crashing through the bush, and ran right through the campfire area, practically causing everyone to fall out of their seats! It was a jackal, offering us a little pre-dinner entertainment, and certainly waking everybody up...
There’s a large compound near the Ruaha airstrip that houses the Ranger Station, housing for the Rangers and their families, a school for their children, and a medical clinic. A nice example of tourist income from park and bed fees providing direct benefits to local people. Here we arranged for and picked up Edwin – a Ranger to guide a morning walk along the Ruaha River. Edwin had worked at Ruaha for 12 years (if I remember right) and was an excellent guide and naturalist. Evidently, it is normal for a Ranger to spend his career at a single posting rather than rotating around to new posts every few years. The walk along the river was well done and very enjoyable. Lots of animal and bird life, with crocs and hippos being featured.
Part 2, Katavi & Mahale, coming soon...
This report is in two parts: Part 1, Mikumi & Ruaha; and Part 2, Katavi & Mahale (will be posted separately).
Part 1, Mikumi & Ruaha
Photo Link: http://tinyurl.com/yl6mu6x
The flight to DAR was on Emirates. I hadn’t flown with them before, but they really did a nice job even in economy. Very attentive and pleasant flight attendants and I enjoyed the meals (I had requested a fruit platter on each of the 4 legs offering meal service). Pre-flight announcements included a recitation of the various languages spoken by the flight attendants – easily 8 or 10 on each leg. I’d definitely fly them again. One of the little touches was a universe of pin-prick light-hole “stars” across the ceilings above the aisles when the lights went out.
Arriving at DAR in the late afternoon, overnight accommodation had been booked at the Mediterraneo hotel. 45-minutes from the airport by taxi through the congestion of the city, it offered a clean, comfortable room for a modest price (I think it was ~$80). The hotel also has an outdoor bar, full-service restaurant, and pool, all overlooking a narrow beach and the Indian Ocean.
The rest of the travelling party arrived late that night or early the following morning. We all met up in the restaurant for breakfast and a briefing from the owner of Authentic Tanzania, then it was off on the road for the drive to Mikumi.
I should say that my pocket notebook was pretty much destroyed by rain on a chimp trek at the end of our trip – turned into page after page of Rorschak inkblots... Consequently, many of the finer details – such as the drive & flight times between camps, the names of some of the guides and camp staff, which eagle is which, and which of the chimps is Pim and which is Primus (or Christmas, or any of the others), are lost to me.
Mikumi National Park
The drive from Dar qato Mikumi was several hours along a generally very good road (the Tanzania-Zambia Highway), and offered a window into local life outside of Dar, with busy villages along the way with lots of streetlife and roadside stands selling everything from produce to charcoal, to basketry, and just about everything else.
At Mikumi, we were supposed to be two nights in tents at an isolated private campsite in the park, but had been told earlier that some kind of foul-up (or bribed official, perhaps) had given the site to another safari operator for the season. As a result, we stayed at the Vuma Hill Lodge (VHL) instead. VHL has about 16 tents on platforms with wood verandas, all set onto the steep slope of a hill. Nice enough, and decent food, but it had a sort of commercial (due to its size) and not-quite-in-the-wild feel to it. Mikumi itself felt a bit like that. After all, it’s got a main highway (the TanZam) that runs right through the middle of it and is the route for entry to the park. Indeed, as sound travels so well at night, it was possible to hear the occasional heavy truck passing far off in the distance. Road kill is a problem and is dealt with using speed bumps and a lowered speed limit on the highway, but the little “museum” at the entrance gate displays a number of dreadful pictures of roadkill animals (particularly the nocturnal predators, lion and leopard). Heavy fines for collisions are advertised on highway signs.
Mikumi seemed to have lots of giraffe. These are Southern Masai giraffe; they’re smaller and darker in color than the giraffe I’ve seen in southern Africa. They’ve also got a very different-looking type of “spots.” Zebra and elephant were also plentiful and we had good viewing of these, including many families with young. There was plenty of other general game as well. Wildebeest running around and pronking are always fun to watch. In the two days we were at Mikumi, the only cat we saw was just a single lioness, resting in tall grass. She looked either well fed or, perhaps, pregnant.
We spent the better part of an afternoon at a great little waterhole that saw a constant stream of animal visitors, along with the resident crocs and hippos. Here, several elephant families came and went, while a pair of male impala sparred back and forth.
We got pretty good views of secretary birds a couple of times, though they always seem to be walking away from you. On the path to the dining area one night, I had a pearl-spotted owl fly across in front of me and alight on a low branch; I had a nice long look at him in the beam of my flashlight.
Ruaha National Park
From Mikumi, it was back onto the TanZam for the drive to Iringa (about 4.5 hrs) where we stopped for lunch. Once again, the drive offered a view of daily life as we passed through the towns along the way. Iringa is a good-size city and here I was able to get a pocket full of shillings from a bank ATM. We also visited a local crafts market, where I spent most of those shillings... Ruaha was a further 2 hours on a secondary road through a largely unsettled area. Along the way, I began to notice baobab trees in numbers. In southern Africa, the only baobabs I have seen were solitary and isolated individuals. Here, however, they were occurring in numbers. Ruaha itself seemed to have, if not forests, then groves of baobabs with many individuals. These were pretty cool and otherworldly looking.
The camp was located on the banks of a dry river with the very steep slope of a large hill opposite. This was a very secluded “public” campsite that had been secured by the operator for the season, and it was a really lovely spot. The dining area was set up beneath an enormous baobab. The five large tents seemed virtually brand new and each had an attached loo with chemical toilet and bucket shower. Water for washing and cooking was drawn from a hole dug in the riverbed, groundwater being just two or three feet below the surface. The call and response of lions were heard in the late night most every night here, and on two occasions I heard leopard coughing in the pre-dawn. Despite this, we never did see leopard, neither at Ruaha nor elsewhere on this trip.
Dumbfoundingly, there was no beer, wine, gin, or tonic in camp! As W.C. Fields once said, “we had to survive on just food and water.” To rectify this sad situation, camp staff had to be sent to the camp store at the park HQ the following day to procure the essentials at very high prices... In general, camp operations were a bit unorganized, evening showers were always late, and we concluded that there was simply no one “in charge” of seeing things done. Food was simple, as to be expected, but tasty and plentiful.
Once again, lots of the southern Masai giraffe and zebra. Somehow, giraffe always seemed to be the first animal encountered on any given day. We parked ourselves in a shady grove alongside the Ruaha River and watched fairly steady traffic by giraffe and zebra coming to drink and/or to cross the water. Early one morning, we were entertained by baboons, banded mongoose, and rock hyrax in beautiful light. A new antelope species for me was the tiny dik dik. We saw a single female in dense roadside brush one afternoon. Passing the same spot the following day, we spotted four of the animals. Two other dik dik were also seen at one other location during our stay. Kudu also always seemed to be obscured in thick brush, though we did get at least one occasion of kudu with a clear view.
Lions had been reported in the area of a bridge over the Ruaha River but, when we arrived, they were nowhere to be seen. We briefly (if illegally) went off-road along the river to look for them and soon found a lioness with six cubs – once again, obscured by thick brush. Not staying with them long, we returned to the bridge and soon saw the adult crossing the river, followed in turn by the cubs by ones and twos. Also from the bridge we were looking down – an interesting perspective -- on a giraffe preparing to drink from the river.
We crossed the bridge and followed the riverside road to a point where we judged the lioness and cubs might have emerged. Sure enough, there were five of the cubs laying about in the shade; the sixth cub and lioness were well hidden in an adjacent thicket. These guys were fun to watch even though, as lions are prone to do, they were mostly just lazing about.
Spotting a large group of elephant drinking water from a pool, we stopped to watch, and they were cooperative enough to approach us quite closely as they moved from the water and grazed their way up to the road. We also saw a colony of dwarf mongoose (or slender? I can’t recall...) occupying an old termite mound. Watching them was like watching whack-a-mole, as they popped up from their many holes and then disappeared again. Something a bit unusual, I thought, and also a first for me was a large and very active bee hive hanging from a branch alongside the road. Brrr....
A highlight: duma! Resting in the shade of a bush after taking down an impala on a very flat, grassy plain called Little Serengeti. We must have just missed the chase and the take-down, as he was breathing hard and rested for quite a while before getting up and dragging the impala back to the shade of the bush. He wasn’t much ready to eat, apparently, as he took just a few bites of the hindquarters and went back to resting. There’s a short video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0pf_CEmvhI
We drove off and found simba in the shade right next to the road. Across the road were the remains of a days-old giraffe carcass. A bit further away, in the shade of a bush, was a second lion, a female (can you find it in the photo that shows the two vehicles?). The heat was hot and the lion by the road was panting heavily, but he didn’t get too disturbed when we slowly drove past him, practically within reach-out-and-touch distance. We returned to the cheetah. Curiously, he had not eaten any more of the impala, even though at least an hour had passed.
One evening, as we were sitting around the fire in the dark, having a drink and awaiting dinner, something moving very fast suddenly came up from the dry river bed, crashing through the bush, and ran right through the campfire area, practically causing everyone to fall out of their seats! It was a jackal, offering us a little pre-dinner entertainment, and certainly waking everybody up...
There’s a large compound near the Ruaha airstrip that houses the Ranger Station, housing for the Rangers and their families, a school for their children, and a medical clinic. A nice example of tourist income from park and bed fees providing direct benefits to local people. Here we arranged for and picked up Edwin – a Ranger to guide a morning walk along the Ruaha River. Edwin had worked at Ruaha for 12 years (if I remember right) and was an excellent guide and naturalist. Evidently, it is normal for a Ranger to spend his career at a single posting rather than rotating around to new posts every few years. The walk along the river was well done and very enjoyable. Lots of animal and bird life, with crocs and hippos being featured.
Part 2, Katavi & Mahale, coming soon...
Jan 15th, 2010, 02:27 PM
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A New Year’s resolution is it? Getting around to the trip report?
Gotta love those little touches of of pin-prick light-hole “stars” across the ceilings on Emirates. Hope I get to see that someday.
Interesting you would note that “…giraffe always seemed to be the first animal encountered on any given day.” Or for some of us, the first animal on a safari.
Your group of 5 must have be an excellent one as all I heard during the duma video was the sound of the impala being dragged and the wind. No idle and distracting chatter. That’s the advantage of traveling with like minded people who have some contact with each other in advance of the departure.
Jackal around the campfire! Cool! I’ve endured less exciting company.
Gotta love those little touches of of pin-prick light-hole “stars” across the ceilings on Emirates. Hope I get to see that someday.
Interesting you would note that “…giraffe always seemed to be the first animal encountered on any given day.” Or for some of us, the first animal on a safari.
Your group of 5 must have be an excellent one as all I heard during the duma video was the sound of the impala being dragged and the wind. No idle and distracting chatter. That’s the advantage of traveling with like minded people who have some contact with each other in advance of the departure.
Jackal around the campfire! Cool! I’ve endured less exciting company.
Jan 15th, 2010, 02:43 PM
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Boy, this brings back memories! I had forgotten about our campfire visitor. I definitely remember the leopard's visit, though. I had been up to use the "facilities" and hadn't gotten back in bed, yet. I heard four footfalls through the grass just outside the porch lantern's light. Then, the leopard let loose; what a thrilling sound! It moved down the river embankment, each call sounding further and further away. In the opposite direction, I heard another leopard answering. That's why I love to stay in tents!
Jan 15th, 2010, 05:40 PM
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Yippee! I've been waiting for this. Looking forward to more.
Would love to know a bit more about the weather and the people employed in the camps (Tanzanians? South Africans? if locals, what tribe? Friendly? Imperious? Etc.). Also, you omitted the name of the Ruaha camp. On purpose?
And for those of us who haven't experienced bucket showers and no runnig water, what's that like?
Would love to know a bit more about the weather and the people employed in the camps (Tanzanians? South Africans? if locals, what tribe? Friendly? Imperious? Etc.). Also, you omitted the name of the Ruaha camp. On purpose?
And for those of us who haven't experienced bucket showers and no runnig water, what's that like?
Jan 15th, 2010, 08:15 PM
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Hi LAleslie,
Weather in September = hot. Easily in the 90s (F) and higher...
For Mikumi & Ruaha, our outfitter was Authentic Tanzania (link given above) and our drivers/guides were "local" Tanzanians. The Vuma Hill Lodge was managed by an ex-pat couple (Brits, maybe, I don't really recall). The Ruaha camp was just a tent camp set up in a permitted spot -- entirely a seasonal thing and, as such, has no meaningful name... Staffed entirely by Tanzanians.
If you have not yet experienced bucket showers and no running water, get thee to a camping experience pronto! It's fine, it's comfortable, it's rustic, and it's a whole lot less expensive than some other options!
Weather in September = hot. Easily in the 90s (F) and higher...
For Mikumi & Ruaha, our outfitter was Authentic Tanzania (link given above) and our drivers/guides were "local" Tanzanians. The Vuma Hill Lodge was managed by an ex-pat couple (Brits, maybe, I don't really recall). The Ruaha camp was just a tent camp set up in a permitted spot -- entirely a seasonal thing and, as such, has no meaningful name... Staffed entirely by Tanzanians.
If you have not yet experienced bucket showers and no running water, get thee to a camping experience pronto! It's fine, it's comfortable, it's rustic, and it's a whole lot less expensive than some other options!
Jan 16th, 2010, 08:54 AM
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The Ruaha camp was AT's private seasonal camp shown on their website. The disorganization we experienced has been addressed according to AT. The lack of a camp manager wasn't the usual situation there. The manager had to be away so there was a lack of direction for the 3 staff guys. They were always eager to be helpful, though, even "babysitting" my batteries being charged at the ranger station one night. The charging system that AT had ordered from SA for the camps hadn't arrivedn yet... first season issues, I think.
Jan 16th, 2010, 12:39 PM
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Thanks Rickmck and Shaytay. Was wondering about the humidity level inland, and what the temps are like in the morning. My husband thinks taking my fleece is overkill, but at some places in higher altitudes, I wonder of it's chilly in the morning.
I'm looking forward to the rustic comfort, actually. But with 4 days in some of these camps I wonder if my princess-ness will rear its ugly head.
I'm looking forward to the rustic comfort, actually. But with 4 days in some of these camps I wonder if my princess-ness will rear its ugly head.
Jan 16th, 2010, 02:29 PM
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It's quite dry, except for Mahale (rain forest next to Lake Tanganyika.) You won't be at altitudes as high as on the northern circuit such as Ngorongoro Crater. Lower altitude = warmer temps. The temps overnight droppd to the mid-50s, but it got up to 100 one afternoon in Ruaha. If you're there earlier in the year, it shouldn't be that hot. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so hot in September, either, but...
If you have a mix of camps or are at permanent tented camps, the princess inside you Laleslie will no doubt be happy.
Vuma Hills Camp even had a swimming pool.
If you have a mix of camps or are at permanent tented camps, the princess inside you Laleslie will no doubt be happy.
Vuma Hills Camp even had a swimming pool.
Jan 16th, 2010, 05:29 PM
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Thanks Shaytay. We'll be there late Aug to mid Sept and our 2nd camp, in Katavi (Chada), will be the most rustic. The last, Beho Beho, should speak to my inner princess, except for the bush camp night. Think I'll take the fleece just in case, so that info's helpful. I was in the Kalahari in Oct/Nov, when it was about 110. I worry more about tse tses than heat. Swimming pools are good since they also attract eles!
Jan 17th, 2010, 05:57 PM
#12
Rick, fantastic! I got chills looking at the cheetah video. Even before I read the comments after your report, I viewed the photos and thought, "Wow, looks hot down there."
I think I'd like this trip, especially the rustic Ruaha camp. I suppose I'd better start traveling with wine, though.
Thanks for posting, really enjoyable to read.
I think I'd like this trip, especially the rustic Ruaha camp. I suppose I'd better start traveling with wine, though.
Thanks for posting, really enjoyable to read.
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