Mikumi National Park: Trip I

We finally got the opportunity to visit Mikumi National Park, a unique park that's often less visited by foreigners due to its location and lower density of wildlife compared to the northern parks. It is, however, widely visited by local Tanzanians as a result of being in relative close proximity to Dar es Salaam and thus the animals are reasonably habituated allowing for easy viewing. It is also unique in that a major highway runs through the park, the TANZAM highway, which means it provides a free opportunity to view wildlife for locals and foreigners alike that drive through the area. It's somewhat overshadowed by other parks in Tanzania since it's not on the northern tourist circuit and lacks the abundance or variety in wildlife but it's still relatively easy to see lions, elephants, buffalo and a variety of other species.

The park is mostly dry miombo woodland and flood-pain grassland so dry season allows for much more accessibility in the northern half of the park. We weren't so much focused on seeing any particular animal but we were more interested in seeing the different areas of the park. As a result we drove to the northeast and looped around to the northwest and back south towards the more touristy areas. It was very different than Ruaha National Parks with multiple coasters and buses full of people but once we got off the main track we did not see any other cars. Although the wildlife density was low, the variety of ungulates was impressive. We saw hippo, warthog, zebra, eland, giraffe, buffalo, bushbuck, suni, natal duiker, bush duiker, Bohor Reedbuck, impala,  and wildebeest.

We realized that we have been unfairly neglecting Mikumi NP and that with its proximity to Iringa (3.5 hours) it's an easy weekend for laid back wildlife viewing. It has several man-made waterholes which make wildlife viewing in the dry season more predictable and the grasslands make viewing much easier. We'll definitely take more trips in the future!