Tanzania 2023 - The Mdonya Safaris

The Mdonya Safaris

Fred has arranged everything so we can be picked up at Tandala by the staff from Mdonya Old River Camp which is situated within the park, almost 40km to the west of the main gate. Our pick-up is promptly at 11am, followed by a leisurely drive through the park for lunch then on to the new accommodation in good time to settle in before dinner.

Well, that is the plan until we get inside the park, when another vehicle tips us off to the pair of cheetahs being out in the open, but quite a long way from the gate – maybe 30km. Our driver and guide ask us if we want to try for them or not and we readily agree. So, once again, we are on a break-neck high-speed run through the park in an open truck, racing in the hope that we will get there in time to see them. Eventually, we drive right out to where we met the elephants playing in the water the day before.

In the end, our timing couldn’t possibly be better. Only the other vehicle from our new camp is there with a single occupant. Just as we are approaching, the two brothers stand up and start to walk away. We are able to change position a couple of times and get excellent views of them walking alongside and towards us. They might be the best moving views of cheetahs I’ve ever seen in the wild and the photos hopefully do these magnificent animals justice.

They are perhaps still my favourite of the big cats. I love their elegance and poise. That undefined something that cats seem to have becomes amplified and personified in the cheetah. Lions have presence, leopards have power and cheetahs have gracefulness. I haven’t seen one in the wild since my last visit to Tanzania and it is wonderful to get a good sighting that isn’t surrounded by other visitors. They are only walking along, but even this is done with a certain grace that is unique to them and mesmerising.

Lunch is excellent, but the rest of the day, after such a good chase and capture, is a little anti-climactic. We do see plenty more wildlife, even some distant sleeping lions, but it all seems a bit like a side-show to the day’s main event.

The camp is pleasant enough, running water and mixed electricity – I mean, there’s power for a fan, but no power for anything else apart from charging at the main office. They are running primarily on solar, so no lights or sockets probably prevents people trying to use a hair-dryer or portable air-conditioner on the sly. Still, the solar-heated shower is excellent and the toilet has an unbroken seat, so everything is good enough. As a plus, the tent is pleasantly cool in the evenings and there are few mozzies! The biggest negative is the incessant swarms of tzetze that you encounter on the road to camp. They really are one of the banes of my life. I get bitten by everything, but tzetze are particularly fond of me.

Once again, we have four nights here, so probably three more long-format game drives before we catch the plane from within the park over to The Selous.

Safari Day One

We decide on a reasonable-length day, so our start is at about eight. It does, however, take us about two hours to do the 25km or so down to the main part of the park, as we are interrupted on our journey by a family of dwarf mongooses who just won’t stop playing in the road in front of us and begging for their photos to be taken.

We actually stopped for a couple of elephants, but the mongooses soon take over our interest and time passes quickly.

Apart from that, the day is a hot and quiet one. We have a couple of very nice elephant encounters, but there’s not much else to be seen, even though we travel into sections of the park we haven’t visited before in search of excitement.

Safari Day Two

For our second day at Mdonya, we opt for an early start with breakfast in the park. This needs a bit more endurance, as we rise before six in time to be on the road by 6:30. Even at this early hour, the tzetze are already active and the anti-tzetze system is needed right from the start.

First encountered in Zambia, this consists of a tin can strapped to the back of the truck with some smouldering dried elephant dung in it. This isn’t anywhere near as bad as it sounds, and the smoke does do a good job of keeping the dreaded fly at bay as we drive along. Sadly, you can tell as soon as the current fuel burns out, as you are swarmed by the nasty biting things the first chance they get.

Today soon turns out to be one of elephant encounters – fantastic and thrilling elephant encounters. Our first family is interested, either smelling us or the smoke and being unsure how to react, we get a mixture of mock-aggression and indifference.

Our second encounter is a lone bull and he is much more belligerent. As soon as he becomes aware of our presence – from about 100m away to our left – he moves in our direction at speed and mock-charges to within less than 10m of the vehicle. A big bull elephant coming at you at more than 20kph to stop that close is, to say the least, exciting.

You have to know to hold your ground – at least the first couple of times. I think we just ruined his early morning constitutional, as I can’t see that we did anything that might annoy him, other than just being there.

He stomps and shuffles a bit, backing off a little before trumpeting and charging again, this time possibly even closer before turning away at the last moment. Finally satisfied that we have been shown who is the boss, he walks slowly across the road behind us and continues his journey. I’ve tried my best to capture the moments with the camera, but 150mm at the short end of the new super-zoom is way too much for this stuff and juggling the small camera for the wide-angle shots can be tricky at times.

We turn off the Mdonya road and head northwards – the same track across the dry riverbed that we returned along on the previous evening. This part of the park seems little-used. It’s probably just too far away from the gate for people coming in from the east. It feels like we have the park to ourselves – maybe we do, it is very quiet as the rainy season begins – and we only see one TANAPA vehicle all day.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a common duiker before – I don’t remember ever having done so – but they are bigger than I expected and really very pretty, slender antelopes. They usually run, apparently, but this one stands long enough for us to get a couple of good portraits.

After a few more kilometres, the park opens out onto a grassy plain with plenty of large acacia and baobab trees and shrubs for cover. We see a few giraffes and zebras, as well as the ubiquitous impalas. This is where we decide to stop for breakfast and the crew break out the table and chairs under a large baobab tree and we step down to relax for a few minutes.

While we eat, a family of elephants wander through the scene in the distance, completely ignoring our presence as we watch them progress. We are getting ready to pack things away and proceed when three more elephants appear – a bachelor group with the biggest of them being frankly huge. At first, they appear to be heading in the same direction as the others, but it soon becomes apparent that they are coming closer – probably heading for the swamp/waterhole behind us.

They do that thing that slow-walking elephants have a habit of doing. They are moving slowly in the distance one moment, then they pass behind some bushes. When they re-appear on the other side of the bush, they are suddenly very much closer and, before you know it, they can be right on top of you – literally, which would be bad in this situation!

Sadly, they disappear from view behind more bushes before they get really close and we are already mounting up ready to depart. It’s still another elephant encounter for the day.

Down by one of the dried-up riverbeds we find another large group of elephants, digging for water in the sand and slowly making their way across to our side of the river. We follow along for a short distance and then stop in the shade of a very large tree to see what they plan to do. Apparently, we have stopped right in their preferred destination and this makes them unsure how to react. A few climb the riverbank and walk on past, but others stop in the bed of the river and seem uncertain how to proceed. One or two climb up under the tree near to us and try – obviously without success – to intimidate us into moving away from their shady spot. There’s much lifting of trunks and flapping of ears, but eventually they all move off, apparently having given up the shade to us.

It is now after noon and the temperatures are climbing high into the thirties with a near-cloudless sky. It’s time to head back in the direction of camp – after refuelling the anti-tzetze device from the roadside fuel source – I’m glad it’s not my job!

There is still time for one more elephant encounter, another lone bull by the side of the road in a quite densely wooded area. He really isn’t very pleased to see us. He’s very close to start with, but still makes to charge us three times – not coming much closer, but still clearly wanting us to leave. He’s quite a youngster and, having failed to make us back off, decides to leave us alone and vanish into the bush.

The rest of the day is so hot – probably high thirties – that even lying on the bed with the fan blowing over you doesn’t really seem to do anything to lessen the stifling heat. I’m glad we decided to stay in for the rest of the day, as being out in heat like that would be draining.

Safari Day Three

For our final full day of safari in Ruaha, we opt to return to our normal starting time of around 8am. There was little to be seen by going earlier and it’s nice to have time to prepare for departure and have breakfast if you are so inclined.

The drive down from Mdonya is very quiet, the tzetze are well under control, but we have little reason to stop until we get to the more frequented part of the park. We first join several other vehicles – a novelty for us recently – to allegedly see some lions. They are down in the riverbed again and so far, that I can’t even see one, let alone take pictures. They are, once more, deeply asleep anyway and not worth the effort, although many of the other visitors seem to think they should hang around.

When our crew suggest we try for a leopard – they have had a tip-off again – we all readily agree and once more hurtle off down the dirt roads of the park. Let’s face it, a leopard is worth ten lions any day!

The break-neck drive takes about ten minutes and we soon arrive at a large baobab tree, some metres off the road and surrounded by about half a dozen other vehicles. The leopard is resting on a horizontal branch about five metres off the ground, awake and seemingly undisturbed by the commotion around it. We are at the perfect distance for photos. I’m now blessing the 150-450mm lens for the superb instrument that it is showing itself to be.

When the leopard stands, and then moves around to another branch, we all manage to keep it in view, cars slipping into positions without blocking each-other smoothly and quickly. My extra lens reach serves me well here as we’re happy to look over the top of one or two other trucks and still get the best shots.

And, what shots they are! I’ve been fortunate enough to see plenty of leopards now, but never have we stayed with one for so long and followed when they get out of the tree. The camera is a dream, focussing even through long grass and snapping back on the rare occasions it loses track. I don’t think I’ve quite nailed the climbing down the tree part, but the rest are perfect. I also don’t think I’ve ever been so close to a leopard that I was concerned I would be running out of focal length on the narrow end, but this is a close thing here. 150mm is bordering too close at some points, as the leopard comes within 5 metres of the car to the sides and so close across the front that I can’t see it because my view is blocked by the bonnet, despite my high seating position. The driver is taking leopard photos with his phone.

Best leopard encounter ever!

Eventually, the leopard becomes a bit bored with walking away from us and walks directly into some undergrowth and, as leopards are wont and able to do – vanishes completely.

We retire with grace and head north across the causeway and follow the dry riverbed north for some kilometres. It’s quiet, but the scenery is varied, green and beautiful. We eventually spot the first of many groups of elephants seeking water on the sand of the riverbed and meeting and greeting each-other. There are probably well over 100 in just a couple of kilometres. Sometimes small groups of just seven or eight, but at other times as many as thirty or more in a single location or in a line crossing the river.

With every group there are tiny infants underfoot, the population seeming to bounce back well from a spate of poaching in the early part of this century which saw as many as 10,000 elephants lost in Ruaha. Protections are better now and China’s “ban” on the import or sale of ivory does seem to be working to some degree. Despite their apparent slow reproductive rate, elephants seem to have a remarkable ability to bounce back if given the safety from mankind that they need. Here in Ruaha there is now a tendency to smaller tusks, or no tusks at all, a sad demonstration of un-natural selection forced by man.

After an excellent lunch high on a hilltop overlooking the river, we make our way slowly back to camp with little excitement but a great day under our belts.

As I’m sitting writing this, fresh from a shower and change of clothing, a huge bull elephant walks round the corner to check out the accommodation. He walks calmly by, no more than 20m from my seat, browsing on the long grass in front of our tent. A little further away, another smaller elephant walks through the camp as well. All-in-all a busy day in Ruaha and at Mdonya.

Summing Up Ruaha

All three of our locations around Ruaha were very different to each-other, but fundamentally the only real difference was in the time taken to access the park and the distances involved. Even though Mdonya is inside the park, I’d have to put Tandala at the top here, the drive to see anything from Mdonya is just too great and Ruaha Hilltop is simply too far away from the gate.

I have mixed feelings about the park.

On the positive side, I love the vastness, the emptiness and the fact that, if you choose, you can drive all day and see no-one else. Also, the wildlife is simply stunning. I’ve had my best ever leopard, best ever cheetahs and some pretty amazing elephant encounters. We didn’t see painted dogs, but they are there and we were just unlucky. If you like elephants, and particularly good interactive encounters, then this is one of the best places to see them, anywhere.

On the negative side, the distances are vast and the days are consequently long. You really can’t do a half-day from Mdonya – you’d barely get off the camp road before having breakfast and turning back. Worse for me, though, are the tzetze. It is a truism in much of east and southern Africa that if there are no tzetze then there are no parks and, to an extent, you have to accept that and deal with a few bites. For me, Ruaha was hell on earth. I was probably bitten more than 400 times in ten days and each bite is like a horse-fly back home. Nothing really keeps them totally at bay and, when you stop for a photo opportunity, more often than not, they swarm around you and attack without mercy.

Now, I know that I’m one of those people who gets bitten, and I accept a few more bites than my colleagues, but this is bordering on serious. I swear I have so much histamine running through my system that I itch all over all the time. It will pass but it could be a deal-breaker for some people and indeed it may make me reluctant to return to the place.

I’m still going to recommend it as a destination, but not really one for the person who is new to safari. You really need to be serious and spend more than a couple of days to get the most out of the place. So, I have enjoyed, but I really did have to endure.

Part 7 - Flying to Nyrere National Park