Saadani National Park
Overview
Saadani National Park is situated on the north coast of Tanzania, approximately 100km North West of Dar es Salaam. This is a place where the bush meets the ocean, the only wildlife sanctuary in East Africa bordering the sea with romantic palm trees, beautiful white sandy beaches and spectacular views of the blue waters of the Indian Ocean.
The park is home to an amazingly wide variety of plains game and primates, in addition to general game. Boat trips on the Wami River offer exciting wildlife viewing as well as fantastic bird watching, while the beaches offer one of the last major green turtle breeding sites on mainland Tanzania. A site so typical of this area is the Swahili fishermen casting their nets with a magical African sunset in the background.
The reserve is a mere boat ride from the island of Zanzibar, which is a beach-goer’s paradise. Saadani is wonderfully located between island relaxation and safari excitement.
Game Viewing + Activities
In the dry season, the Kutuma River shrinks to a narrow stream, with pools that become the extremely cramped quarters of hundreds of hippos and crocodiles. In fact, it is said that Katavi is home to the highest density of hippos and the largest crocodiles in Tanzania, and the dry winter makes for excellent viewing of these wallowing animals.
Katavi’s vast ecosystem means that the lush floodplains attract a very large biomass and huge herds of wildlife. It is not uncommon to see herds of over 1000 buffalo at a time, along with large herds of topi and zebra, all grazing the plains during the day when they are less vulnerable to predators, while they prefer to return to the relative safety of the woodland at night.
The abundance of prey means that predators are a planty. Katavi is home to lion, leopard, spotted hyena, cheetah, wild dog, wild cat, serval and caracal. There are over 400 bird species, giving it equal credit to bird-watchers too.