Does anyone know how Ruaha NP is nowadays latish in the dry season - in terms of environment and game viewing? I'm wondering about the problems they were having with the river drying up early due to irrigation upstream.

We'll be there for 5 days September, at Mdonya Old River Camp (which is quite far from the main river) and just wondered from the point of view of 'being prepared'. I know it is going to be dry but is it going to be a real dust bowl, with animals walking 30 miles a day between dwindling food sources and muddy little pools of water packed with sunburned hippo and surrounded by every animal in the park ..... okay, I've been watching those documentaries again! I just wonder if anyone knows how extreme Ruaha gets?

I stayed at Ruaha River Lodge in late October last year. I was told that the river had stopped flowing around a month earlier (so late September or so). There were still a good number of pools in the river beds so I certainly didn't get the impression that all the wildlife was concentrated into a small area.

I remember some extreme tsetse attacks... the only time I ever fled the vehicle.

Thanks for the tsetse alert Nyama. We'll look forward to that!

Thank you Mostly. If the river was still flowing in September and the plenty of pools in October, then I guess it is not going to be that extreme. The guys at Mdonya Old River Camp said it wasn't (although they confirmed that the afternoon waterfall swim was unlikely to be an option ) but it's nice to get travelers' opinions.

Was last year a particularly wet year in Tanzania, though?

Kimburu,
I was flycamping in Ruaha in September of 2007. I am not exactly sure what your question is. I will say that, of a 4 week trip to the Masai Mara, Ruaha, Katavi and Mahale, that Ruaha was our favorite park by a longshot. The place is absolutely beautiful, with constantly changing vistas and topographies. That said, it is challenging and rugged. It is very hot and dusty(though nothing like Katavi), and finding the animals is certainly more work than in the migration areas. However, there was SO MUCH game to see, and it was so special when we stumbled upon it, and it was always just us at the sightings!! Everywhere else we would see 1 or 2 or 3 lions, in Ruaha, it would be 10-15 at a time, same with the elephants and giraffe. We saw cheetah, leopard, everything except wild dog and rhino. The sunsets were spectacular. If you have any questions, or want to see my photos of Ruaha, leave me your email and I will get in touch.
bg

That was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know jenack. Nothing really specific. Just so we pack the right gear and have realisitic expectations. Actually I have found your photos and very nice trip report now - I missed it because it was posted while I was 'away' from teh forum. But if you don't mind I'd maybe like to ask a couple of questions at some point. My email address is seven letters and two numbers at hotmail and at the bottom of this post.

By the way, I guess that Ruaha and Katavi begin at photo 106, and spotting the move to Mahale is fairly easy, but where does Ruaha end and Katavi begin? And you really saw some stuff, didn't you?

Paulcharliepaulthomasmarkalanrobert21-hotmail

Looks like #125, of the small blue bird landing is the last Ruaha shot that I put on that album, guess I did not put that many Ruaha shots, though I have many, many good ones from Ruaha(did not want to overload people!!)

We saw an incredible amount on our trip, having a lot of time at each place helped that, I think. If you come up with any questions, feel free to ask...you have a great trip coming!!

Hi Kimburu

I'll be leaving for southern TZ at the end of July (7 nights Selous + 8 nights Ruaha). In Ruaha, I'll also be staying at Mdonya as well as Mwagusi.

Hi Gaurang,

Sounds like a superb itinerary!!!

Cheers
Hari

7 days and 8 days - That's the way to do it!

Despite additonal funds being made available, Mwagusi was out of our budget this time because we upped the whole trip to 22 days... It'll be really interesting to hear a comparison of the two, though. And could I ask you to get some Ruaha cheetah-spotting tips - for both Hari and me.

I like to settle down in one place for as long as possible and explore the area. If anyone can find cheetah in Ruaha, then it's Chris Fox at Mwagusi. I'll see what tips I can get from him. This will be a challenging trip for me - I'm taking 5 nephews/nieces with me ranging from age 11-19, as well as their parents. They are all first-time safari-goers, so it should be fun .

You are just so lucky, I stayed in Old Mdonya River Camp in 2003 and even though it had just opened, it was great! And with 5 years more experience (and the animals more habituated to people) the camp must just be awesome now. At that time the manager was Malcolm Ryen, but I think he is the overall manager for all adventure camps now. He was great too and the staff was friendly and they had a guide at that time called Radar, who had an amazing eyesight. My stay in Ruaha was one of my highlights during a 4 month trip to Africa. We visited Ruaha in early august and it was dry, but not a dustbowl. Saw a lot of game, so you won´t be disappointed. And in 5 days we only saw one other car in the park....