At 12 950km², Ruaha is only marginally smaller than the Serengeti, and is pristine and untouched Africa, unsullied by minibus tourism and large lodges with electric lights, discotheques and glitzy curio shops.

 

Infested with tsetse fly, Ruaha is bordered in the north by the Kizigio and Rungwa River Game Reserves, and together they form a 26 500km² conservancy, one of the biggest in East Africa. By road, it is a five hour journey from Iringa, but there is also an airstrip at Msembe for fly-in safaris. The best months to visit are from July to November when the animals congregate around the water holes, but the park is stunning all year round.

 

Ruaha is visually a treat, with rocky outcrops and mountain ranges giving it a topography that ranges from 750m to 1 900m on the peak of Ikungu Mountain, and the focal point of the reserve is the Great Ruaha River, with its deep gorges, swirling rapids – and excellent fishing. With over 10 000 elephant, 30 000 buffalo, 20 000 zebra and huge populations of lion and leopard (not to mention more than 400 bird species) Ruaha is a naturalist's paradise.

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This is the ultimate African wilderness experience, a vast region of largely unexplored bush, teeming with wildlife, and with almost no roads into the hidden interior. Selous is a bird-watchers paradise with over 350 species of bird, walking is permitted (with an armed ranger). More than 2,000 plant species make this a most diverse sanctuary to explore. Bisected by the mysterious Rufiji River, the Selous is one of the most remote and least visited parks in Africa and, at 55 000km², is the second biggest conservation area in Africa, and the largest game reserve on the continent, and a proclaimed world heritage site. To give scale to these figures, the reserve covers an area more than twice the size of Denmark, is bigger than Switzerland and is nearly four times the size of the Serengeti.

The Selous is a grand African experience. Once home to the biggest concentration of elephant on the continent (over 110 000) the “Ivory Wars” of the late 70s and early 80s had a devastating effect on the herds, reducing numbers to an estimated 30 000 to 50 000 today. The black rhino population was similarly laid waste, and today there are perhaps 150 to 200 left out of a population of 3 000 in the early 70s. It would be easy to reduce the Selous to just a set of numbers - 120 000 buffalo, 150 000 wildebeest, 50 000 zebra, an estimated half the African population of wild dog, some 4 000, 350 bird species, 50 000 impala, and a mere 2 000 visitors a year – but that would be doing it an injustice.

The defining feature of the Selous is the great Rufiji River, which naturally splits the ecosystem into two distinct parts. Stiegler's Gorge, 100m deep and 100m wide, is a magnificent natural feature with a rickety and gut-wrenching cable car that ferries safari vehicles across the river – not for the faint-hearted. While the bulk of the reserve is miombo (brachystegia) woodland, there are sections of magnificent grass plains, wetlands and swamps and areas of dense canopy forest.

Perhaps the most sublime way of exploring the reserve is by boat, meandering through channels and swamps, and exploring hidden lagoons where elephant often come to bathe. Angling in the river for tiger fish and the giant catfish (vundu) which can reach up to 50kg, can be an exciting way to pass an evening, keeping a wary eye open for crocodiles, hippo and lion. Other national parks include Katavi, Mahale Mountains, Rubondo and Udzungura Mountains. .

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