8-Day Southern Tanzania Safari through Nyerere, Ruaha and Mikumi

Depart in the morning for Nyerere National Park with a picnic lunch. The journey takes about 5 hours. In the late afternoon, enjoy a boat safari along the mighty Rufiji River, bringing you into close contact with hippos, crocodiles, and fantastic birdlife. Crocodiles glide into the water as your boat approaches, and hippos appear in frightening proximity, grunting and blowing steam. Dinner and overnight will be at the lodge.

You will spend a full day exploring Nyerere National Park by 4-wheel-drive vehicle, allowing good photographic opportunities and the chance to discover different sections of this vast park. Nyerere National Park is the largest in Africa, covering 54,600 square kilometers. It is famous for its elephants, and commonly seen wildlife includes lions, wild dogs, buffaloes, bushbuck, impalas, elands, baboons, zebras, and greater kudus. Dinner and overnight will be at the lodge.

Meals plan: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

After breakfast, set out on a 2-hour wilderness walking safari with the guidance of an armed ranger. A walking safari gives you a particularly intimate feel for the African wilds and starts in the morning.

After the walk, meet your vehicle and continue with game viewing en route to the outskirts of Mikumi. This journey passes through some of the most amazing, truly wild, and untouched areas of Tanzania. The drive takes you up into the Uluguru Mountains, across rivers, and past small local villages and farms. Although the drive is tiring, it is possibly the most rewarding and adventurous route on the Southern Circuit. Dinner and overnight will be at the lodge.

After breakfast, transfer to Ruaha National Park, with a stop in Iringa Town for lunch. After lunch, continue to the park for a short game drive until sunset.

Look for roan and sable antelope, hippos, crocodiles, waterbuck, reedbuck, and buffalo as they venture to the river's edge to drink, attracting the attention of lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, and jackals. The park is also home to many birds, including Eurasian migrants that visit twice a year. Dinner and overnight will be at the accommodation as specified.

After breakfast, enjoy a full day game-viewing drive in Ruaha National Park. A fine network of game-viewing roads follows the Great Ruaha River and its seasonal tributaries, where, during the dry season, impala, waterbuck, and other antelopes risk their lives for a sip of life-sustaining water.

The risk is considerable: not only from prides of more than 20 lions that rule the savannah, but also from cheetahs stalking the open grassland and leopards lurking in tangled riverine thickets. This impressive array of large predators is further boosted by both striped and spotted hyena, as well as several conspicuous packs of the highly endangered African wild dog. Dinner and overnight will be at the type of accommodation as specified.

After breakfast, continue with a game-viewing drive en route to Mikumi National Park. Mikumi was gazetted as a national park in 1964 and is named after the spindle-shaped Borassus palm trees.

The Mkata Plain supports vast herds of plains game such as wildebeest, impala, zebra, and giraffe, hunted by their associated predators. In the surrounding less fertile hills, you are more likely to find Lichtenstein's hartebeest, greater kudu, roan, and sable antelope. Although game sightings can never be guaranteed, there are many sightings of the African wild dog hunting the plains in packs. Dinner and overnight will be at the camp/lodge.

Today you will enjoy a full day of game-viewing drives around Mikumi National Park. There is a rich variety of bird species, as well as large numbers of giraffes, buffaloes, and elephants close to the waterholes, along with lions, leopards, and hippos.

You may also see zebras, wild dogs, pythons, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephants, impala, warthog, eland, and other antelopes. Several observation towers allow you to view the park in its entirety. Mikumi National Park is mostly miombo woodland with gently rolling hills. Dinner and overnight will be at the lodge as specified.

After breakfast, continue with your safari activities in Mikumi before returning to Dar es Salaam, arriving in the late afternoon or early evening. Transfer back to the hotel in Dar es Salaam.

Meals plan: Breakfast and lunch included on this day.

Departure dates

The departure dates for all our Africa safaris, tours, holidays, and travel packages are totally flexible according to your own personal needs. Please contact us for further and more detailed information, as well as information on our Africa safaris, tours, holidays, and travel packages into Tanzania.