At 30,893 square kilometers, the vast Nyerere National Park is Africa's largest stand alone National Park and one of the largest in the world. The park is located in south Eastern Tanzania, roughly 230 kilometers by road from Dar es Salaam, and was carved out from the Selous Game reserve, a huge wilderness area and safari destination in Southern Tanzania. A Game Reserve is similar to a National Park except that the latter is administered by a different organization within TANAPA, and is therefore subject to closer and highly professional management. The name of the Park is in recognition and in honor of the memory of Tanzania's founding father, the late Julius Nyerere.
Nyerere Park offers a rich collection of wildlife that is abundant and diverse. The fact that this park is new and largely less frequented by tourists means that the animals here tend to be less exposed to humans. Good numbers of Big Cats such as Lion, Leopard, Cheetah are to be found here along with other large Game animals such as Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Giraffe, Eland, Zebra, Wildebeest and other wildlife. With the new establishment of this park by the Tanzania Government and TANAPA ( Tanzania National Parks Authority ) in late 2019, it is expected that the park will be developed further and managed more professionally for a better tourism experience.
July 23, Wednesday. Nyerere National park in Tanzania
A game drive. An early morning start with breakfast by soon after 6 am for a 7 am start. Then a 4+ hour game drive in Nyerere National park. We have been told not to be over hopeful on what we would see, but in fact it proved to be a really fruitful drive. There were seven of us in our game wagon, including a Swiss lady with two of her children. From our backseat position where we could stand up and stand on the chairs to see even better we saw several lions and lionesses, giraffe, loads of hippos, Impala and some monkeys
At around 10 we stopped under a pavilion and the train's crew had set up a bar where we chose a cold ginger beer, and of course many other things were on offer. We enjoyed these and then went for a very short walk to the nearby lake where there were two groups of hippos and a crocodile.
We were back at the train soon after noon. A good lunch, lasting as usual at least 90 minutes, and then we proceeded to the observation car which was still right at the front of the train at the moment. The train was "back to front" for the first few days (you cannot turn a whole train just anywhere). So the view from the Observation Car was just a diesel tanker and then the engines. The train will turn round in two days time and then the Observation lounge will be correctly at the back of the train.
It is a long walk from our cabin, passing at least 12 carriages en route. We stayed there till past 4 pm and then made away to the other lounge where Nicholas gave his talk on Tanzania for 90 minutes. Then we had a Rum and Coke and a Gin and Tonic in the lounge as there was no official bar here to make cocktails.
Once again, dinner was a very nice occasion, even though I still had a runny cold and was using a tissues by the dozen. Each meal consisted of four courses accompanied by two wines plus a glass of sweet wine at the end . The train continued for another couple of hours before stopping for the night and will resume its journey at 5 am tomorrow.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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