Ruaha - Old Mdonya Safari Camp
We landed at Ruaha quite gently. The airstrip at
Ruaha was a touch more formal than before and we had
to be processed accordingly before moving onwards to
Mdonya Old River Camp, this camp is a sister to
Lake Manze Camp but a touch more remote. It was mid
morning when we set off and again it was a game
drive to the camp so we arrived just before lunch
with time to 
unpack
the kit into the tent before it was time for food.
The tent setup was the same style as before, I had
seen some comments on Trip Advisor relating to tent
number ‘ten’ so I requested it and thats the one we
got.
It
was right on the end with nothing but the bush to
one side and overlooking the dry river bed, just
what I wanted, the only problem was the hot water
because it was the end tent it took a long time to
arrive and seldom did (no matter).
Most mornings the tent flaps were opened to the presence
of Giraffe, Zebra and sometimes Buffalo lurking in the
dry river bed whilst the dawn chorus was in full swing.
Everytime we made a trip to the dining tent or off on a
game drive the ever present Masai escorted us along the
way. That same afternoon we embarked on a game drive but
not far from the camp we were soon to learn the
drawbacks of the Mdonya area - long grass and tsetse fly
and there were plenty of both. The wet season had
arrived early and the rain had been persistent for some
time, the Mdonya area is on a higher plateau than the
Ruaha river area and subsequently had endured more of
the rain. When it rains in Africa grass grows and in
some places the grass was over 6 feet tall making game
viewing difficult to say the least. I’d never realised
grass had so many different varieties with seed heads of
all differing shapes, sizes and colours it was quite
amazing.
The worst part was when our vehicle disturbed the grass
the tsetse escaped from their shelters in droves and
appeared to head for the offending vehicle. These two
factors dictated all game drives were conducted towards
the Ruaha river area which meant an hours drive each way
with the section near the camp at a faster pace but
those tsetse still found their way into the open
vehicle. By the end of our trip into the interior of
Tanzania my legs were like those of spotty Maldoon.
Having said that, the Ruaha National Park in the green
season was splendid, displaying scenic vistas of all
types, something worth seeing if you can and it was good
to see this time the river in full flow.
The temperature although very hot was nowhere near
the humidity of Selous and the coast, the night time
was so much easier to sleep. In fact a fleece was a
necessity for the first hour whilst on game drives
in the early morning. Each day we were up with the
dawn chorus with a quick snack before departing
towards the Ruaha River area and again with a ‘Bush
Breakfast’ a few hours into the drive. The whole day
was spent game viewing with lunch provided somewhere
remote during the day, each trip was virtually from
dawn till dusk and certainly not for the faint
hearted. It would appear we had the whole of Ruaha
to our selves as we hardly passed another safari
vehicle. The grass in this area was not the height
of that in Mdonya although game viewing was not as
easy as the dry season.