Urusha & Urusha National Park


Day 28 & 29 – 6th & 7th Jully 2019

We left Same (the town just outside Mkomazi NP) early morning for Urusha.  We planned to make our bookings for Serengeti at the TANAPA Head Office and to do some shopping in this up-market supermarket other travellers had told us about.   It was a Saturday and we thought that the TANAPA Head Office would close at 13h00 - no such luck, they only operate from Mondays to Fridays.  As they say in Tanzania, “Hakuna Matata”.  We were told that we don’t have to book Serengeti, be it for public or special campsites, at the offices as one could now do it at the gate. (Wrong!)

The traffic in Arusha was horrendous.  Motorbikes are a law unto themselves and the taxi’s don’t differ much from those back home in terms of road rules! We eventually arrived at the supermarket, stocked up on fresh veg and some meat, and enjoyed a 500ml tub of Dairymaid ice cream on route to Meru Mbega Lodge, our digs for the next two nights.

Meru Mbega Lodge is a mere kilometre from the Arusha National Park entrance.


Arusha is one of Tanzania’s smallest parks, but is renown for its beauty.  From the stunning montane forests, lakes and mountains, it is one of the prettiest parks we have ever seen.  At the outset we wondered whether we should bother going into the park as it was overcast and very hazy, and we thought that it would be a waste of money, but when it looked as though the sky was clearing, we decided to bite the bullet.  Afterall, we were there to see Mt Kilimanjaro from Mt Meru!  We firstly traversed the Ngurdoto Crater, then the lakes and made out way up Mt Meru to the Kilimanjaro View Point.  This was the best sighting we had of Kilimanjaro in the overcast weather:



Just a half of a kilometre from the view point is the Old Fig Tree, really a sight worth seeing (and driving through 😊).

We were thrilled to find some Black Colobus Monkeys, Blue Monkeys, and loads of Water Buck, necking Giraffe (who we think were courting), Zebra and Buffalo. 

Blue Monkey
Necking giraffe

Black Colobus Monkey
The cherry on the top was that when we got back to Meru Mbega we climbed what they call the tower – a beautiful deck about three stories off the ground – and got our sighting of Kilimanjaro, albeit a hazy one.

Mt Kilimanjaro in the background

Our next stop is Tarangire National Park.

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