“The Savanna of Light”
Mikumi National Park abuts the northern border of Africa’s biggest game reserve – the Selous – and is transected by the surface road between Dar es Salaam and Iringa. Mikumi is thus the most accessible part of a 75,000 square kilometre (47,000 square mile) tract of wilderness that stretches east almost as far as the Indian Ocean.
The main feature of Mikumi National Park is the Mkata Floodplain which perhaps is the most reliable place in Tanzania for sightings of the powerful eland, the world’s largest, stable and still roaming antelope. The Mikumi Antelope is famous known by haunting the Miombo-covered foothills of the mountains that rise from the park’s borders. The flood plain of Mikumi provides a habitat for a diverse bird fauna, with both resident species and number of migrants that fly here to escape from the Eurasians winter.
Enriched by mountain ranges of ever changing skies and light, Mikumi National Park has a prolific wildlife in which a huge herds such as Lions survey their grassy kingdom while others like zebra, wildebeest, impala and buffalo herds migrate across it – from the flattened tops of termite mounds, or sometimes, during the rains, from perches high in the trees. Giraffes forage in the isolated acacia stands that fringe the Mkata River, islets of shade favoured also by Mikumi’s elephants.
Mikumi Tour will expose visitors ton more than 400 bird species have been recorded, with such colourful common residents as the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-throated longclaw and bateleur eagle joined by a host of European migrants during the rainy season. Hippos are the star attraction of the pair of pools situated 5km north of the main entrance gate, supported by an ever-changing cast of waterbirds.
Basic Facts about Mikumi National Park
Size:
3,230 sq km (1,250 sq miles), the fourth-largest park in Tanzania, and part of a much larger ecosystem centred on the uniquely vast Selous Game Reserve.
Location:
283 km (175 miles) west of Dar es Salaam, north of Selous, and en route to Ruaha, Udzungwa and (for the intrepid) Katavi. .
How to get there
By Road: A good surfaced tarmac road connects Mikumi to Dar es Salaam via Morogoro, a roughly 4 hour drive from Dar es salaam. There also road connections to Udzungwa, Ruaha and (dry season only) Selous. Local buses run from Dar es salaam to park Headquarters where game drives can be arranged.
By Air: Scheduled Charter flights from Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Selous are also available to an air strip at Kikoboga.
What to do
Why and when to go
- Spectacular concentration of mammals that are essential to the plains of East Africa
- Superbly scenic plains with mighty baobabs
- A popular and accessible Park year round by road, air and train
Accommodation
Three lodges, three luxury tented camps, three campsites.
Guest houses in Mikumi town on the park border. One lodge is proposed at Mahondo and one permanent tented camp at Lumaaga
