7 Days Ruaha & Katavi Safari

Your driver-guide meets you in Iringa and heads west to Ruaha, Tanzania’s largest national park. After lunch at camp, your first afternoon drive follows the Great Ruaha River, where elephant herds, giraffe and buffalo come down to drink and lion prides stir as the day cools. Dinner and overnight at camp.

A full day exploring Ruaha’s river circuits with a picnic lunch in the bush. Ruaha holds some of the largest lion prides in Africa and one of East Africa’s biggest elephant populations, and the sand rivers draw wildlife from across the valley in the dry season. Your guide reads tracks and alarm calls to find the action, with plenty of time at sightings for photography.

Experience Ruaha on foot with a morning walking safari led by an armed park ranger – reading tracks, learning the plants of the Miombo and feeling the scale of the bush at ground level. After lunch and a rest, the afternoon drive explores the Mwagusi Sand River and the baobab ridges above it, prime country for wild dog, kudu and sable antelope.

Your last full day in Ruaha starts before dawn, when leopard and lion are most active and the valley glows in the early light. Return to camp for brunch and a rest through the heat of the day, then head out again for a final sunset drive and sundowners overlooking the river.

After breakfast, transfer to the airstrip for a scenic light-aircraft flight west to Katavi, one of Tanzania’s most remote and least-visited parks. Your Katavi guide meets you at the airstrip, and after lunch at camp you set out across the Katisunga Plains, where buffalo herds hundreds strong graze alongside giraffe, zebra and topi. A full-day road transfer through the southern highlands can replace the flight on request.

A full day in Katavi with a picnic lunch. In the dry season the Katuma River shrinks into muddy pools packed with hundreds of hippos and large crocodiles – one of the most remarkable wildlife spectacles in Africa. Lion prides follow the buffalo herds across the floodplain, and elephant, eland, roan antelope and puku are all seen here, often with no other vehicles in sight.

Enjoy a final early-morning drive on the Katavi floodplain before breakfast at camp. Transfer to the airstrip for your flight back to Dar es Salaam or Arusha to connect with international flights, Zanzibar or another Wild Gaze itinerary.