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Saadani National Park
Palm trees sway in a cooling oceanic breeze.
White sand and blue water sparkle alluringly beneath the tropical
sun. Traditional dhows sail slowly past, propelled by billowing
white sails, while Swahili fishermen cast their nets below a
brilliant red sunrise.
Saadani is where the beach meets the bush. The
only wildlife sanctuary in East Africa to boast an Indian Ocean
beachfront, it possesses all the attributes that make Tanzania’s
tropical coastline and islands so popular with European
sun-worshippers. Yet it is also the one place where those idle hours
of sunbathing might be interrupted by an elephant strolling past, or
a lion coming to drink at the nearby waterhole!
Protected as a game reserve since the 1960s, in
2002 it was expanded to cover twice its former area. The reserve
suffered greatly from poaching prior to the late 1990s, but recent
years have seen a marked turnaround, due to a concerted clampdown on
poachers, based on integrating adjacent villages into the
conservation drive.
Today, a surprisingly wide range of grazers and
primates is seen on game drives and walks, among them giraffe,
buffalo, warthog, common waterbuck, reedbuck, hartebeest,
wildebeest, red duiker, greater kudu, eland, sable antelope, yellow
baboon and vervet monkey.
Herds of up to 30 elephants are encountered with
increasing frequency, and several lion prides are resident, together
with leopard, spotted hyena and black-backed jackal. Boat trips on
the mangrove-lined Wami River come with a high chance of sighting
hippos, crocodiles and a selection of marine and riverine birds,
including the mangrove kingfisher and lesser flamingo, while the
beaches form one of the last major green turtle breeding sites on
mainland Tanzania.
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