Mikumi National Park

seeing the animals up close is a special feeling, it's the best thing we did during our stay in Tanzania

Great experience

High Peaks Expeditions was a random choice from the internet, after reviewing the comments and notations. Choice was good, for a 2 days Safari at Mikumi starting from our hotel in Zanzibar and returning to International airport for our return to Paris. Mikumi is a fantastic place with very close sights of the fascinating wild life. Issa was an experienced guide and driver, he managed to find the right spots. Park was not crowded during this mid season, it has been a great experience in all aspects. Ally is managing and following at a distance but always present if required

Cool place, enjoyable stay, wildlife and fresh breeze!

Amazing Mikumi

Early Sunday morning 13 November the safari car was ready for our trip to Mikumi. We left the Arc hotel at 5am and arrived at the park borders when daylight broke, the best time of the day t o watch animals. The watching of animals in Mikumi is no doubt facilitated by the fact that the main road from Dar es Salaam towards the (wild?!) west passes right through the park. We watched elephants and other animals crossing this busy road without paying special notice to the huge lorries that use the road at all hours of the day.

After driving an additional 40 or 50 kms we arrived at the main gate. We spent some time getting registered and paying the access fees. The entrance staff first insisted that we use credit card to pay the fees. But in the end we were allowed to even pay in Tanzanian shillings, although we were clearly expected to pay in US$. One may wonder how the Tanzanian citizens manage to get into the park if they do not have a credit card or have bought dollars from their local bank.

One of the reasons we went to Mikumi was to also visit the Genesis Snake Park. We had first understood that it was part of the National Park. But it is in fact a private venture, like a small zoo with snakes and other reptiles like crocodiles and turtles. We enquired with the National Park guide about the snake park. He said it was a shame to have it in the Mikumi neighbourhood. In fact, he suggested that we could buy the snakes and other reptiles and move them all to Morogoro if we could find a good place for them there, for example at SUA or in a private zoo that he also thought would be of interest both for local people in Morogoro and for visitors. He said that he could no doubt get the National Park Service to write a recommendation in this regard.

We then drove off into the Mikumi National Park spending a couple of hours on the ‘game drive’. In addition to the big mammals that we already had seen before going through the gate (elephants, girafs and various antelopes and zebras) we also watched many birds, lizards, and maybe we even saw the tail of a leopard.

The possibility to see more than the tail made the driver bring the car off the road and onto some rather clayish and wet terrain. Even using the full four wheel drive gear it took him quite some time to get us back onto the road. Some of us started suggesting that we get off and help by pushing the car. But he finally made it.

On the way back to the entrance we stayed for a while at the so-called hippo lake. However, this rather small lake or pond was really nothing compared to the Wami river hippos that we watched on trip to the Wami-Mbiki Mkongo camp on 11 November, where we could walk along the river bank both watching and listening to the herd of some 30 or 40 hippos enjoying themselves in the middle of the river while clearly aware of us all along. Sometimes one of them opened its huge mouth towards us, apparently as a warning to us not to come too close or maybe stay too long.

After the game drive we then went to the Genesis snake park lodge where a guide showed us various mainly dangerous venomous snakes like cobras and green mambas. We were not very impressed by the presentation, nor by the conditions the snakes were living under (along with some turtles and crocodiles). The guide tried to impress us by making one of cobras (se photo) attack him by tapping on the thick glass window separating the snake from us.

We had a quick lunch at the snake park restaurant and then went back to Morogoro and the Arc hotel.

An amazing experience

Our 2 day safari was beyond our expectations. We knew that March was not the best time of the year for a safari but we were lucky with the weather and therefore saw all the wildlife. The scenery at Mikumi was outstanding. Our accommodation at Mikumi safari lodge was of a high standard and the staff could not do enough for us. Our guide Rama spoke good english and was a wizz at finding lions.

Awesome time with a lot of beautiful animals

We did the Safari to the Mikumi Nationalpark in three days. One day driving to the Park, one day park and one day going back. We had such a nice driver and also the Guide was super. :) The guest House which was included was super. So all in all it is really Worth it to do it and we really can recommend it to others.

A main road crossing the National Park?!?!

Beautiful, but I don't understand why a main road is crossing the National Park?

I was in Dar Es Saalam on business, and had one day for a safari. I was able to see a large amount of wildlife at Mikumi National Park. My guide was familiar with the park, animal behaviors, and provided many entertaining and educational anecdotes. The ability to get close look at so many large iconic animals was amazing. Amazing number of animals for a smaller park. Well worth the trip.

Sleeping lions, mating lions, tree lions! A gorgeous leopard, and every other animal we could hope to see. Plus, sleeping in the park cabins, and being woken by a giraffe eating the leaves outside our window at 2 am. added to so many memorable moments.