Ruaha National Park


Day 19 & 20 – 27th & 28th June 2019

Our first taste of a Tanzanian National Park:


We weren’t expecting to see much game with Ruaha being the biggest Park in Tanzania, but were proven wrong!  











We saw all the usual animals, including Thompson’s gazelle and the Waterbuck without the ring around its bum (we don’t know the name of it) – both which were firsts for us – and a pride of lion who had just finished devouring their morning meal and had given it over to the Lappet-faced Vultures.  There was also a large concentration of giraffe, which certainly look different to the giraffe we get back home.


Giraffe

Thompson's Gazelle
The bird life was much more prolific than in Zambia and we got to see 4 newbies -Tanzanian Red-Billed Hornbill, Superb Starling, White Crowned Lapwing and the Bare-faced Go Away bird.  
Bare-Faced Go-Away-Bird
Tanzanian Red-Billed Hornbill 
Superb Starling

















We had also never seen such an intensity of Saddle-Billed Storks, many of which were chasing Fish Eagles who were trying to steal their catch.  

 All camping is wild camping (unfenced) in the Tanzanian national parks and we were the only campers in the park’s public campsite, situated on the banks of the Great Ruaha River.  We fell asleep at night to the calls of hyena and snorting hippos. Absolute bliss!

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