Africa's Next Big Thing

by Leigh Kemp, 23 November 2007

Out of Africa always something new ... and people are forever on the search for the continent's secret new places.

Some years ago when I was still a wildlife guide, I was sitting around a campfire with guests discussing Africa's great safari areas when someone asked where Africa's best kept secret and 'next big thing' were.

Back then my answer was the north-western parts of Zambia; the Liuwa Plains area in particular, a remote, inaccessible region that sees what is thought to be Africa's second largest migration of wildebeest.

Recently however, I have heard thrilling whispers of a place of hills and game rich plains, a place of diversity - and virtually unknown.

Tanzania is one of Africa's foremost safari destinations, with its iconic attractions such as the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro. These are the attractions most people associate with a safari in Tanzania - after all, the Great Wildebeest Migration and the lure of Africa's highest mountain are difficult to match.

Tanzania Holds a Secret

On a recent trip to Tanzania I was visiting the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater and was excited to hear guides and management staff talking in hushed voices of the new frontier in Tanzania safaris. There's a tangible sense of something new in the industry in Tanzania.

I began to study my maps more closely and was quickly drawn into the excitement. Vast areas of the country are calling.

Tanzania's northern safari circuit is best known, but its southern and western regions are home to some of the most dramatic game parks in Africa; remote, scenically diverse, game-rich and untouched by development. But if these areas are so wonderful why are they only coming to the fore now?

Tanzania has always relied on its iconic northern circuit to carry the tourism industry. And as a poor country, it wasn't able (or thought it unnecessary) to develop its southern parks. With the country's present economic growth though, comes an upsurge in tourism and the opportunity to develop new areas.

Tanzania's Secret Places

Southern and western Tanzania hosts many national parks and reserves, from the largest - Selous Game Reserve at 50 000km² - to the 52km² Gombe Streams National Park.

Gombe Stream National Park Gombe, situated on Lake Tanganyika, is Tanzania's smallest national park and home to the pioneering work of the famous researcher Jane Goodall. She began studying the chimpanzees of Gombe in 1960 and the work continues today.

The park also has other primates such as the olive baboon and species of colobus monkeys.

Gombe Stream National Park can be visited via lake-taxi or speed boat from the town of Kigoma.

South of Gombe - also on Lake Tanganyika - is Mahale Mountains National Park: wild and remote and achingly beautiful.

Katavi Plains National Park Named after the legendary hunter Katabi - whose spirit is said to inhabit the park - Katavi lies in an off-shoot arm of the western rift of the Great Rift Valley.

Most literature on the park speaks of an isolated, wild and undeveloped area, left as it was hundreds of years ago - and this is what it is.

Well known among the few who have been there for its hippos and crocodiles, Katavi however promises much more than a wildlife experience. What the park offers is an experience found nowhere else in Africa today.

Ruaha National Park 'Of all the faunal preserves it is the park of the future,' said John Williams, a renowned researcher. Ruaha is living up to its reputation. Hard hit by poachers in the 1980s the park has returned to its natural state and is now considered one of Africa's greatest wilderness areas.

Rivalling Katavi in unspoiled wilderness, Ruaha is more accessible, although still not easy to get to. Tanzania's second largest park supports a great number and diversity of wildlife.

Selous Game Reserve If southern Tanzania is the next big thing in Africa then Selous Game Reserve is its flagship.

Up until now, Selous, the largest gamepark in Africa, has been virtually cut-off from major tourist development. Together with Ruaha National Park, Selous makes up one of Africa's greatest wilderness areas, not only in size, but in diversity and experiences on offer. Vast, remote and pristine, the area is only now gaining a reputation in the safari industry.

Saadani National Park Elephants on the beach! At the newly proclaimed Saadani National Park, the only East African park to be situated on the Indian Ocean, you have the option of a unique bush and beach holiday experience (along with unforgettable sightings of elephants sunbathing on the coast).

Start Discovering

There are few places in Africa today where you can feel something like a pioneer, as most of the continent's safari destinations have been sterilised - in my opinion - by the new ideal of luxury that has crept into the tourist consciousness.

I sometimes feel that luxury enjoys a bigger emphasis than pristine wilderness experiences. Safari operators today invite visitors to find their souls or to 'feel the earth' while looking for the Big Five - and charge vast sums for the privilege. Wildlife sightings are guaranteed and massages await the guests after the hardships of driving around for a few hours.

There is a movement away from this though, and many wildlife connoisseurs are reaching for their maps in search of the alternatives.

Thankfully not all of Africa's wilderness areas have been taken over by the luxury concept. Although luxury has been introduced into these areas, it's the sense of true wilderness that still pervades. Of these, southern Tanzania is Africa's greatest secret and is waiting to be discovered.

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