SOUTHERN TANZANIA | Rubondo National Park

Size: 240 sq km (93 sq miles).

Location Northwest Tanzania, 150 km (95 miles) west ofMwanza.

Getting there
scheduled flight from Arusha, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Mwanza in peak season, charter flight only in low season. By road from Mwanza and then boat transfer, Contact the park for transport details

To do
Walking safari, boat excursions, sport fishing chimpanzee treks, plans for canoe trips,

Best time
Dry season, June-August. Wildflowers and butterflies, west season November-March. December-February best for migratory birds

Accommodation
One luxury tented camp,park bandas and campsite.

Rubondo Island it trucked in the southwest corner of lake Victoria, the worlds second-largest lake, an inland sea sprawling between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. With nine smaller islands under its wing, Rubondo protects precious fish breeding grounds. Tasty tilapia form the staple diet of the yellow-stopped otters that frolic in the island’s rocky covers, while rapacious Nile perch, some weighing more than 100kg, tempt recreational game fishermen seeking world record catches.

Rubondo is more than a water wonderland. Deserted sandy beaches nestle against a cloak of virgin forest, where dappled bushbuck move fleet yet silent through a maze of tamarinds, wild palms, ands sycamore figs strung with a cage of trailing taproots. The shaggy-coated aquatic sitatunga, elsewhere the most elusive of antelopes, is remarkably easily observed, not only in the papyrus swamps it normally inhabits, but also in the forest interior.

Birds are everywhere. Flocks of African grey parrots-released onto the island after they were confiscated from illegal exporters-screech in comic discord as they flap furiously between the trees. The azure brilliance of a malachite kingfisher perched low on the reeds competes with the glamorous, flowing tail of a paradise flycatcher as it flits through the lakeshore forest. Herons, storks and spoonbills proliferate in the swampy like fingers, supplemented by thousands of Erasian migrants during the northern winter. Scents of wild jasmine, 40 different orchids and a smorgasbord of sweet, indefinable smells emanate from the forest.

Ninety percent at the park is humid forest; the remainder rangers from open grassland to lakeside papyrus beds. A number of indigenous mammals species hippo, verves monkey, genet and mongoose-share their protected habitant with introduced species such as chimpanzee, black-and-white colobus, elephant and giraffe, all of which benefit from Rubondo's inaccessibility.

	Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti (4 days / 3 nights)
	Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro (5 days / 4 nights)
	Arusha National Park, Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro (6 days / 5 nights)
	Ruaha/Mikumi (6 days/ 5 nights)
	Arusha National Park, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro (7days / 6nights)
	Ruaha/Mikumi/Selous ( 7 days, 6 nights)
	Ngorongoro Highlands to Lake Natron( 7 days/ 6 nights)
	Ruaha/Udzungwa/Mikumi/Selous ( 8 days, 7 nights)
	2 days safari add-on

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