Read about our trips to Mkomazi
December 2012
December 2013
Overview
Mkomazi NP was gazetted in 2008 as a national park after being a game reserve since 1951. The park is bordered by the Pare - Usambara mountain ranges, and varies from 300 - 1600 meters above sea level, which makes for some stunning scenery.
When did we go?
December 2012, during the short rains.
December 2013, short rains.
Getting there
Mkomazi is about 460km from Dar on the main road between Dar and Arusha. Turn off at the town of Same, and the Zange entrance gate is about 6km later. The full drive from Dar to Mkomazi took about 7.5 hours taking the route via Bagamoyo instead of Chalinze, which probably cuts off about an hour because you miss the main Dar traffic.
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| Nubian woodpecker |
Roads in the park
The park roads are pretty good; considering the low volume of traffic, the parks board have made quite an effort at keeping them driveable. However, during the rainy season some of the roads become impassable because they go through the marsh lands.
Accommodation
Inside the park, there is either camping or the only lodge in the park - Babu's Tented Camp, which is about 15km from the entrance gate of Zange. There are 3 public campsites, the main one being about 7km from Zange gate. There are also a number of special campsites in the park, the most popular it seems is the one near Dindera dam.
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| The campsite |
The main campsite is a large area with trees to enjoy the camping experience even if there are other campers, and it's not a problem for rooftents compared to the cramped sites of the more populated parks of the northern circuit. It has a new and clean ablution block with cold showers. Though we didn't see the other public campsites, we believe they are a bit more basic, with longdrop toilets and no water. For the special campsites you need to be fully geared.
Other accommodation
If you don't want to camp and the lodge is a bit pricey, the Elephant Motel is situated 1.5km from Same and probably the best option to stay.
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| Orange bellied parrot |
This is not a park if you're looking for upclose game viewing ;) Up until a few years ago there was a lot of poaching of the animals, so they are understandably skittish. In fact when we saw antelope, it was normally their backsides as they were running away from the car... With villages farming right outside the park, I'm not sure this will change any time soon, especially for those animals near to the entrance gate.
Having said that, we did have some luck seeing wild dogs on the road which was a nice bonus, as well as a couple of nice herds of giraffe, eland and hartebeest.
We also had some really nice bird sightings, including the Orange bellied parrot and the Vulturine guineafowl, maybe because we spent a lot more time birding because there weren't many animals to see ;)
Our plan had been to go up north and camp at Maore campsite, which is on the border with Kenya to see if there were more and less skittish animals but unfortunately we had a couple of problems with the car, and the remoteness of the place was not a chance we wanted to take (if we got stuck I could imagine us not seeing anyone else for days!)
The big drawcard for the park is that they have populations of Gerenuk, the long necked antelope which we believe are mainly in the east of the park. The same car problem stopped us from chasing them, and would probably be the reason that we'd go back.
Wildness factor
The lack of other tourist cars driving around is really a pleasant change from some of the other parks, and the camping under the stars is fantastic, especially if there's no one else is around. Wild? It would probably feel a lot more wild if there were more animals around (and a couple more predators!)
Other logistics
TANAPA card needed? We didn't need one, but this was last in December 2013, so may have changed since then. Current fees are $30 pppd for foreigners.
Our impression
How many times have we been? 2
Would we go again? The main reason that we'd go again is to see the Gerenuk, and definitely in the dry season. It was a pleasant time, but if we've got a few days off, we'd probably head to one of the other parks. It is a nice stopover coming back from the Serengeti though, especially since the resident rates have been halved.
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