Walking Safaris in South Tanzania

Walking safaris offer a very different perspective to more traditional game drive safaris.
South Tanzania offers some of Africa’s finest walking safari opportunities in Selous Game Reserve and Katavi and Ruaha National Parks, as well as hiking with game viewing options in Udzungwa Mountains.

Ruaha National Park -

There is a lovely half day walking safari which starts near the Msembe park HQ and follows the Ruaha river all the way to the park entrance gate. Duration of the walk is around 2 hours and the walking safaris can be organized with the park HQ either from lodges or from Authentic Tanzania campsites.

Selous Game Reserve
Authentic Tanzania offers morning and afternoon walking safaris from our mobile campsites in Selous. It is best to avoid walking in the heat of the day so a typical early morning or late afternoon walk will last from 2-3 hours. Distances traveled will not usually exceed 8 km/day.
An armed ranger escorts all walking safaris.

Katavi National Park
The vast plains of Katavi offer spectacular scenery for walking safaris and it is possible to see the huge herds of buffalo which reside here. Walking safaris are organized through the park HQ either from lodges or Authentic Tanzania campsites.

Udzungwa Mountains
Although more famous for its primates than big game, the Udzungwas have several trails of several days duration which offer great opportunities to see elephant, buffalo, sable antelope and very visible signs of lion, leopard and hyena.
There is more info on the trails on the Udzungwa Mountain pages.

Hiking
If game viewing is not as important as just being able to walk in the open air, experience local life and see more of the country on foot there are several options in south Tanzania to go hiking.
The Udzungwa Mountains and Uluguru Mountains near Morogoro have lovely forest walks of several hours to several days duration.
Mount Rungwe in Tukuyu region is a 2 day/1 night camping hike with stunning scenery. Also nearby is the shorter walk to Ngozi Crater Lake.
Kitulo National Park offers the opportunity to hike through one of Africa’s finest flower spectacles and over the Livingstone Mountains before descending down to Lake Niassa, another 2 day/1 night camping hike.
The Kilombero Valley combines dug out canoe safaris with great bird watching walks.
Udzungwa Scarp has a community based tourism initiative with a 3 day hike through the forest revealing sacred sites, bat caves, waterfalls and a vast array of primates including the Sanje Mangabey.

Authentic Tanzania can organize any of these walking safaris and hikes in combination with longer itineraries in southern Tanzania.