Reviews of Mikumi (From 5 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Dry season

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

10 people found this review helpful.

An Underrated Gem

Overall rating

4/5

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Little-known Mikumi, an extension of the vast Selous ecosystem, is the country’s fifth-largest national park, and a popular goal for weekend breaks out of the port city Dar es Salaam, or as an initial pit stop on a more extensive safari through southern Tanzania. However, because it is bisected by the surfaced main road connecting Dar es Salaam to Zambia, it has less of a wilderness feel than some other reserves in Tanzania, and it is often seen as a slightly second-rate option. This, in my view, is grossly unfair: away from that single ribbon of asphalt, Mikumi supports some impressive volumes of wildlife, particularly on the Mkata floodplain, which recalls the Serengeti in scenic feel, and often hosts large herds of giraffe, elephant, buffalo, zebra, eland and other antelope. Predator sightings are less frequent than in some parks, but lions are often seen lazing below shady acacias (on our most recent visit we actually found two different pairs mating less than 1km/0.6mi apart) and spotted hyenas are vociferous by night. Endangered African wild dogs occasionally range across to Mikumi from the Selous, but less regularly than they did a few years back. All in all, it is a great little reserve, offering some good wildlife viewing and – away from the road – an untrammelled feel bolstered by the very low tourist traffic.

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Mary Fitzpatrick –

US

Visited: Multiple times

Mary is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many Lonely Planet guidebooks, including South Africa, Tanzania, East Africa and Africa.

3 people found this review helpful.

Wildlife Watching Just off the Highway

Overall rating

3/5

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Mikumi's highlights are its ease of access (it's an easy four-hour drive from Dar es Salaam along the main highway), its reasonably-priced lodges and the chance it offers to see a good array of wildlife within a short amount of time. Every time I've visited the park, I've been lucky enough to see elephants, zebras, giraffe, buffalo and plenty of baboons, plus some more elusive nocturnals, including the honey badger. The down sides are the lack of a wilderness feel (due to the location bisected by the highway), and the relative 'ordinariness' of the safari experience in comparison with Tanzania's other protected areas. I don't recommend Mikumi as a destination in itself, especially for first-time safari goers. However, it makes an enjoyable destination as a stopover if you are travelling along the Tanzam highway, or as an easy weekend getaway from Dar es Salaam.

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Kim Wildman –

AU

Visited: June

Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.

4 people found this review helpful.

A road runs through it

Overall rating

3/5

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Mikumi’s relative proximity to Dar es Salaam makes the park the perfect weekend getaway, so you'll generally find a few more tourists here than in the Southern Circuit’s more remote Ruaha National Park. With the Tanzam Highway running straight through the centre of the park, it doesn’t have the same wilderness feel as Ruaha. It’s certainly a little disconcerting hearing trucks race along a highway when you’re tucked away in your campsite or when you’re quietly trying to watch the animals. On the positive side, you don't even need to enter it to start your game viewing. After spending two days driving around the park hoping to spy a lion, we finally found one casually crossing the main highway just as we'd given up and left. While only a small section of the park has been developed for tourism, a typical game drive will reveal elephant, hippo, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, warthog, wildebeest and impala all in impressive numbers. We certainly saw an abundance of wildlife during our short stay – watching hippos lurch and snap at each other as the sunset over the dam was a highlight – which overall made it a worthy stop on way to Ruaha.

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Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

3 people found this review helpful.

A stretch of typical savannah with unexpected game-viewing on Tanzania’s Great North Road

Overall rating

2/5

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Straddling the Morogoro-Iringa highway, Mikumi has typical woodland and grassy plains, and the lush vegetation of the Mkata River floodplain attracts a fair variety of animals and birds throughout the year. I’ve passed through en route between Tanzania and Malawi, and game-viewing is as simple as slowing down to the prescribed speed limit. It’s quite an odd experience to drive through a village, then a pristine wildlife area, then immediately back to farmland and villages on the other side. But just on the 50-kilometre drive through, I’ve seen plains game, elephant, and lion and they seem quite accustomed to the vehicles that rumble past. While I wouldn’t make a special effort to get just here as it’s a fairly long drive from Dar es Salaam, there is a good choice of accommodation and it can be combined with other parks in southern Tanzania.

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Expert

Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

6 people found this review helpful.

Ideal Stopover on the Tanzam Highway

Overall rating

2/5

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With the Tanzania–Zambia highway bisecting the park, Mikumi National Park lacks the wilderness appeal for which other reserves in southern Tanzania are known. But for me, Mikumi is perfect to break up the trip from Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Park. I’ve always found the game viewing very good. There are good numbers of elephant, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest. The main waterhole is a magnet for thirsty animals and on my last visit huge herds of buffalo were a constant presence here. We saw a good variety of antelope, including impala, reedbuck, eland and greater kudu. The game-drive circuit is quite small, so a one- or two-night stay is all you need.

The park is often visited by noisy crowds from Dar es Salaam, which can spoil the experience at crucial points such as the waterhole and picnic sites. Therefore, weekends are not the best time to visit.

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