Southern Tanzania
 

Is there safari trips in the southern portion of Tanzania, near Dar?
I'll be voulnteering around Dar and wonder if I could do weekend trips, etc?

Well....Dar es salaam, is the safari capital of the southern parks.....like the selous, ruaha etc etc., you should be able to find some good operators around there......it is not recommended during the rainy season, from what i read...

I concurr with Hari... better to go in the dry season from july to oct. The southern parks are great as they are large and donnot have many camps or tourists, so u have a better wilderness experience Sonali.

This should give you some ideas.

www.selous-mbega-camp.com
They go to Ruaha, Selous, and Kilwa. Seems to include some interesting stuff which comparably is on the budget side.

Mikumi and Kilwa are fairly close for weekends. To the North is Saadani N.P.
where you can camp or possibly get a hut on the beach.

There are also a couple places across the bay where you can hangout at the beach on the weekends. Just take the ferry from the fish market area with the local traffic.

Suggest search on Mikumi or Ruaha. And if you check around on this board you will finds reports on parks/reserves in southern Tanzania. Do search on my name and should get photos and pics from 2005 trip.

Luangwablondes,

Have you visited Mbega Camp? They’re on my list of interesting places because of the information on their website that they have a “special offer” for people who arrive in Mloka by bus. I’ve managed to get that kind of offer in Tsavo East and I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, in Samburu. Do you know how special the offer is at Mbega?

Nyamera
No. Never been there. I came into the park from the North and crossed the Rufuji River by ferry into the hunting concessions. It was a 4x4 trip.

So, if you can get to the Selous@their camp, by public transportation as it indicates and do a safari at their posted prices, its a pretty good deal.The Selous is not as easy to get to as the Northern Circuit and for that matter Ruaha and Mikumi which has the main highway run through the middle of it. OR Better yet-whatever this offer maybe...... Email them.
http://www.selous-mbega-camp.com/Get...Info_Mbega.pdf
But I would make reservations from Dar b4 going. The Selous seems to be more popular recently. If I was a backbacker, this would be one of the best places to go on your own to in East Africa without hordes of other tourists, with plenty things to do there (and along the way) and still in an excellent game viewing park.

Nyamera, you should go and then report back to the board.

Kwankew, if you go, please report back about your experiences. And good luck with your volunteering.

Luangwablondes and Leely,

I can’t read the backpacker bus info pdf because of some embedded font that can’t be extracted (whatever that means). If I email them I’ll feel like a timewaster. The “reply” is always “When are you coming?” and my answer is “as I don’t believe in reincarnation I hope to be able to in this lifetime”. Do you need a backpack to get a backpacker offer, or is it sufficient to travel by bus with a nice ice hockey bag? I hope you don’t need to have dirty hair and that you’re allowed to wear lip-gloss.

I had another look in the Lonely Planet Tanzania guide where I first read about Mbega Camp and the backpacker price for full board is there - $ 70 for a single and $ 100 for a double. With 2 activities @ $ 35 per day and the park fee @ $ 30 that’d be $ 170 per day. In Tsavo East 2004 I got a much better price for a very nice camp inside the park, but compared to what most people seem to pay without batting an eyelid it’s an incredible offer. I would like to know if there is a backpacker discount on the activities.

“Akida and Mwera bus lines have buses daily between Dar es Salaam’s Temeke bus stand (departing from the Sudan Market area) and Mloka village, about 10km east of Mtemere Gate (Tsh 4000, seven to nine hours). Departures in both directions are at 5am.” (LP Tanzania)

Mbega Camp pick you up in Mloka. Selous and Mbega Camp is nº 2 on my list after returning to the Mara and going to Aberdares in search of the terrible giant forest hog. Returning to Tsavo East and going to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro share the nº 2 position with Selous. My problem is that I have almost no income at all. I should start a thread called “How do you earn money?”

Kwankew, go to Mbega Camp!

Nyamera,
Believe me, I'm batting my eyelids all the time. Bat, bat, bat.

Nyamera
Email them with some dates. I just checked their prices and they eliminated(changed) some of the lower cost accomodation options since I looked a couple months ago. So, that must be their backpacker specials. Could be everyone was pitching up, probably driving in and demanding the low cost options.