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Tanzania National
Parks
Arusha National Park
This park has three distinct zones:
Ngurdoto Crater (often called the 'mini-Ngorongoro'); the shallow
alkaline Momella Lakes fed by underground streams (upon which rest
thousands of lesser and greater flamingoes, and many migrant birds can
be seen between May and October); and the densely forested slopes of
Mount Meru (one of the rewarding mountains to climb in Africa and where,
among other animal species, live blue monkeys and beautiful black and
white colobus monkeys). Other attractions in the park include the
elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, hippo, various antelopes, leopard and
hyena. The park is 21 km from Arusha on the main Arusha to Moshi road. A
network of gravel roads and tracks navigable by two wheel-drive vehicle
link the park's main features and viewing points. Nevertheless, a few
roads require 4WD vehicles. [IPS]
Gombe Stream National Park
Located a few kilometers north of Kigoma
, on the western part of Tanzania, is the smallest but one of the best
known of Tanzania's National Park’s made famous for its primates and the
research center of world renowned Dr. Jane Goodall. Gombe Stream
consists of a narrow mountainous strip of country stretching along the
eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika and running inland about 5 km to the
peaks of the mountain range forming the rift escarpment. The thick
gallery forests of the valley and lower slopes, and the open deciduous
woodland on the upper slopes.are the few places where chimpanzees can
still be found in their natural habitat. Since 1960, Dr. Jane Goodall
and colleagues have studied the primates here. Other primates which may
be seen in the park include: Baboon, Red Colobus Monkey, and Blue
Monkey. and the birdlife include the African and the trumpeter
hornbills, Ross's turaco, pied and giant kingfishers, and the crowned
eagle. Access to the park is only by water vessel from either Kigoma or
Ujiji. [IPS]
Katavi National Park
This remote and difficult park to reach
(strictly recommended for those of an adventurous spirit) lies on a high
flood plain surrounding Lake Kitavi, to the south of the Mahale
Mountains. The main vegetation found here is the Miombo woodland. It has
a wide variety of wildlife (crocodile, hippo, leopard, lion, roan and
sable antelopes, southern reedbuck, topi, eland, elephant, and one of
the largest herds of buffalo, with as many as 1,600 animals) and offers
excellent game viewing with a real wilderness atmosphere. The diverse
woodland, acacia bush, lakes and swamps have attracted over 400 species
of birds, including large flocks of pelicans. Other attractions are
Lakes Katavi and Chada, which are joined by the River Katuma. The best
months to visit are July to October. [IPS]
Lake Manyara National Park
This relatively small park is divided
into five distinct vegetation zones: ground-water forest, marshland and
reed beds, open grasslands and acacia woodland. In a single day, a
visitor may see elephant, buffalo, zebra, hippo and the curious lions
which have a habit of resting in trees. Sheltering under the massive
escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, and covering an area of 325 sq. km,
this park is a flash of green amid an otherwise parched landscape. A
line of springs support the lush vegetation of a groundwater forest,
where blue monkeys, baboons and the curious-looking silvery-cheeked
hornbill live, among the more than 350 bird species, the most profuse
being the flamingo. [IPS]
Lake Nyasa
Also known as Lake Malawi, Lake Nyasa is
the most southerly of the Rift Valley lakes and is also, biologically,
the most diverse. For example, the lake contains 30 per cent of the
world's cichild species - colorful fish easily observed in the clear
water.
Lake Tanganyika
The lake is the longest fresh water lake
in the world (677km), and the second deepest (1433m), with over 250
species of fish. Its great age, isolation and stability have made it a
marvelous evolutionary storehouse. Nearly all of the lake's cichlids are
unique as are some species of crabs, mollusks and crustaceans. All these
make it a truly remarkable biological habitat.
Lake Victoria
Africa's largest and the world's second
largest freshwater lake, this lake supports fishing communities along
its shores as well as commercial operations. [IPS]
Mahale Mountains National Park
Located at Ujiji on the shores of Lake
Tanganyika, where Stanley is reputed to have met Livingstone and given
the famous greeting "Dr. Livingstone, I presume". The Mahale Mountains,
like Gombe, are one of the last natural home to chimpanzees and are rich
in birdlife. The park is a unique ecological zone with lowland forest,
Miombo and open woodlands, moist and dry Savannah grasslands. Wildlife
in the park includes primates, kudu, eland, roan and sable antelopes,
giraffe, buffalo, elephant, lion and leopard. Access is by boat or
plane, both of which are available for charter. There are no roads and
all game viewing is done on foot. It is virtually the only Tanzanian
park where you can walk around. [IPS]
Mikumi National Park
Located astride the main Dar to Mbeya
highway, to the north of Selous Game Reserve and only 283 km from Dar-es-Salaam,
the park is an important educational center for students of ecology and
conservation, having been established to protect the environment and
resident animals. The Mikumi flood plain is the main feature of the park
along with the bordering mountain ranges. It has a landing strip and is
home to, among others, the buffalo, zebra, giraffe, lion, wild dogs,
python, monitor lizard, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephant hippo, impala,
warthog, eland and antelope. Birds include the hammerkop, saddle-bill
stork, and the malachite kingfisher. The vegetation is made up of
woodland, grassland and swamp. There are two water holes, Mkata and
Chamgore.
Mount Kilimanjaro
The snow-covered splendor of the highest
mountain in Africa is visible on a clear day from more than 250 kms
away. Kilimanjaro rises from the vast open plains. First mentioned by
Ptolemeus (a 2nd Century Greek philosopher and geographer), the largest
mountain in Africa and highest free standing mountain in the world, has
proved a magnet to climbers, naturalists, travelers and explorers over
the centuries. Only three degrees from the equator, the Victorians
believed Kilimanjaro's snow to be a flight of fancy for many years.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and stands at 5,895
meters, three degrees south of the equator. The mountain, a dormant
volcano, has two peaks - Kibo and Mawezi, which are surrounded by dense
forests full of dazzling variety of flora and fauna. [IPS]
Ngorongoro Crater / Ngorongoro Conservation Area
This vast protected area stretches from
Lake Natron (the breeding ground for East Africa's flamingos) in the
northeast, to Lake Enyasi in the south, and Lake Manyara to the east.
Eight million years ago, the Ngorongoro Crater was an active volcano but
its cone collapsed, forming the crater that is 610 meters deep, 20
kilometers in diameter, and covers an area of 311 sq. km. Spectacular as
it is, the crater accounts for just a tenth of the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area. The crater is home to many species of wild game and
birds. With the exception of impala and topi (due to fierce competition
with the wildebeest) and the giraffe (because there is not much to eat
at tree level), almost every species of African plains mammal lives in
the crater, including the endangered black rhino, and the densest
population of predators in Africa. A strange thing is that the crater
elephants are mainly bulls. The birdlife, which includes the flamingo,
is mainly seasonal, and is also affected by the ratio of soda to fresh
water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor. Views from the rim of the
crater are sensational. On the crater floor, grassland blends into
swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains. You can descend to the
floor of the crater in a four-wheel drive vehicle. Only 4WD vehicles are
allowed into the crater and game rangers are compulsory for all. [IPS]
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai, more accurately called Oldupai
after the wild sisal in the area, is situated near the Ngorongoro Crater
and is the site of some of the most important finds of early hominid
fossils of all time (made famous by the work of the Leakey family) - The
"Nutcracker Man" or Australophithecus boisei who lived 1.8 million years
ago. There is a small informative museum located at the visitor center.
The gorge is a treasure trove of archeological sites filled with
fossils, settlement remains and stone artefacts. Lecture tours are
offered. [IPS]
Ruaha National Park
At 13,000 sq. km, it is the second
largest Tanzanian park and the world's largest elephant sanctuary. The
park represents a transition zone where eastern and southern African
species of fauna and flora overlap. It is the northernmost example of
Miombo woodland, common in central Africa, and the most southerly
protected area in which Grant's gazelle, lesser kudu and striped hyena
are found. To be able to see both greater and lesser kudu and roan and
sable antelope in the same park is one of the special attractions of
Ruaha. In the dry season, the river is an excellent place for observing
large numbers of game including lions, leopards, hunting dogs, giraffe,
waterbuck, eland and warthogs. Thousands of birds flock to Ruaha on
their annual migration from Europe to Asia, and 465 bird species have
been sighted in the park. The park's residents include kingfishers,
plovers, hornbills, green wood hoopoes, bee-eaters, sunbirds and egrets.
[IPS]
Selous Game Reserve
The pristine reserve, a World Heritage
Site since 1982, comprises an area of 55,000 sq. km, covering about six
per cent of Tanzania's land surface. Larger than Switzerland, it is the
world's largest game reserve and second only to the Serengeti in its
concentration of wildlife. It is also the sanctuary of the biggest
elephant herd in the world, about 32,000 elephants live in the reserve -
70 per cent of those in Tanzania. The reserve is difficult to describe
without the use of superlatives.
Named after British hunter and writer Frederick Courteney Selous who was
killed during the First World War in the Beho Beho region (of the
reserve), the reserve is part of the 75,000 square kilometer Selous
ecosystem, which includes Mikumi National Park, the Kilombero Game
Controlled Areas . Nature experiences include a boat safari on the
mighty Rufiji, walk on the wild side and ornithology (over 350 species).
[IPS]
Serengeti National Park
Covering an area of 14,763 square
kilometers, equal in size to Northern Ireland, the world famous
Serengeti National Park is Tanzania's oldest park, and one of the
world's last great wildlife refuges. It is contiguous with Kenya's Masai
Mara Game Reserve and stretches as far as Lake Victoria to the West. Its
name comes from the Masai word Siringet, meaning 'endless plains'. The
Serengeti ecosystem supports the greatest remaining concentration of
plains game in Africa, including more than three million large mammals.
It is the sanctuary of an estimated four million different animals and
birds. The animals roam the park freely and in the spectacular
migrations, huge herds of wild animals move to other areas of the park
in search of greener grazing grounds (requiring over 4,000 tons of grass
each day) and water. [IPS]
Tarangire National Park
The park's permanent water supply ensures
a huge and varied animal population, especially during the dry season
when it rivals that of the Serengeti. The animals include large herds of
elephants, rhino, buffalo, zebra, lesser and greater kudu, eland,
wildebeest, hartebeest, Gerenuk, impala and fringe-eared oryx. This
attractive park, with its statuesque baobab trees, is the main refuge
for wildlife from the surrounding part of the Great Rift Valley during
the dry season. It is also an excellent place for birdwatching. The best
birdwatching months are October to May. [IPS]
Udzungwa Mountains National Park
Udzungwa is one of Tanzania's largest
park's but accessibility is severely limited-game drives are not
possible, and therefore only trekking expeditions can be organized into
the wilderness.
The park hosts six species of primate, two of them are of endemic forms
- the Red Colobus Monkey and the Sanje Crested Mangabey, discovered in
1979. The large resident populations of Elephant, Buffalo, Lion,
Leopard, Wild Dog and Sable Antelope reside primarily on the side of the
mountain range which is presently inaccessible. Other attractions of
this park include the spectacular mountain scenery with rain forest,
wooded grasslands, rock faces, rivers and waterfalls; the falls on the
Sanje River which drops some 170 m through the forest and into the
valley below; and the mountain plateau with views of over 100 km, much
of it across a mosaic of mountain forest and grassland. [IPS]
Zanzibar Island ("Unguja")
Zanzibar is located about 35 kilometers
off the coast of Tanzania. It comprises the 1,464 square kilometer main
island of Unguja (also known as Zanzibar); the island of Pemba (868 -
square kilometers), which is located about 50 kilometers north of Unguja
and famed for its deep-sea fishing and scuba-diving; and a number of
smaller islands. Set as a jewel in the Indian Ocean just off the coast
of Tanzania, Zanzibar has evoked the magic of "A Thousand and One
Nights" for over two centuries. This exotic spice island combines
mesmerizing beauty with the outstanding hospitality of its colorful
people. The generally laid-back pace of this island has ensured that its
rich tradition of spice trading is still evident, as is the historical
structures, ancient ruins and crumbled palaces of past Sultans.
Kiswahili is the main language and more than 90 percent of the
population is Muslim. Visitors are advised to dress modestly in public
places. [IPS]
Zanzibar is warm almost all the year round with heavy rains from March
to May and lesser rains during October and November. February is the
hottest month with a maximum average temperature of 29 degrees Celsius,
while in August the temperature falls to 21 degrees Celsius.
The city of Zanzibar consists of two distinct areas - Stone Town and
Ngambo. In Stone Town shadows play with shafts of sunlight. Here and
there, one will catch a glimpse of ornate latticework on a balcony or
admire the intricacy of a carved door in sun warmed wood. A narrow
staircase winds its way into a cool interior, children's voices echo in
a hidden courtyard, old men chat next to the colored, crumbling stone
walls and tantalizing scents of spices wreathe doorways and dark
corners. A walk through the narrow, twisting streets of stone town
plunges you into the past. The houses are over 150 years old and are
constructed from the island's coral stone. Built by Arab and Indian
merchants, in the 19th century, this is the only functioning historical
city in East Africa.
A spice tour is a specialty of Zanzibar and involves a walk in the
western and central regions of the island through plantations, private
gardens and forests. There are more than 50 different spices and fruit -
cinnamon, pepper, ginger, tamarind, coffee, ylang-ylang, coco, and
sugarcane. Coconuts are another main produce of the archipelago. [IPS]
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