Nyerere National Park was gazetted in 2019 from the northern reaches of the Selous Game Reserve — a UNESCO World Heritage wilderness that ranks among the oldest and largest protected areas in Africa. At nearly 31,000 square kilometres it is a landscape on a scale that is hard to grasp: open savannah, borassus palm stands, groundwater forest and, threading through all of it, the mighty Rufiji River. The Rufiji is what sets this park apart. It fans out into a maze of channels, sandbanks and lakes — Tagalala, Manze, Nzerakera — that support crocodiles and hippo in extraordinary density and turn the safari into something rare in East Africa: a boat safari, drifting past drinking elephant and thousands of waterbirds as the sun sinks over the water. On land the park holds big herds of elephant and buffalo, good numbers of lion and leopard, greater kudu and sable, and one of the continent's most important strongholds for the endangered African wild dog. Because access is by light aircraft and camps are few, the wilderness feels enormous and almost private. Walking safaris, fly-camping and river cruises combine here into a slower, wilder, more sensory kind of safari — the antidote to the busy north.
Ultra-Luxury8 Days
