Southern Highlands

Ruaha National Park forms the core of a wild extended ecosystem covering about 40,000 sq km and provides home to Tanzania’s largest elephant population, estimated at 12,000. In addition, Tanzania's largest national park hosts buffaloes, greater and lesser kudus, Grant’s gazelles, wild dogs, ostriches, cheetahs, roan and sable antelope, and more than 400 types of birds.

Ruaha is notable for its wild and striking topography, especially around the Great Ruaha River, which is its heart, and which is home to crocodiles, hippos and wading birds. Much of it is undulating plateau averaging about 900m in height with occasional rocky outcrops and stands of baobabs. Mountains in the south and west reach to about 1600m and 1900m respectively. Running through the park are several ‘sand’ rivers, most of which dry up during the dry season, when they are used by wildlife as corridors to reach areas where water remains.

This is Tanzania’s fourth-largest national park, with a landscape of baobabs, black hardwood trees and grassy plains, and the most accessible from Dar es Salaam. With almost guaranteed year-round wildlife sightings, Mikumi makes an ideal safari destination for those without much time. Within its 3230 sq km – set between the Uluguru Mountains to the northeast, the Rubeho Mountains to the northwest and the Lumango Mountains to the southeast – Mikumi hosts buffaloes, wildebeest, giraffes, elephants, lions, zebras, leopards, crocodiles and endangered wild dogs, and the chances are high that you’ll see a respectable sampling of these within a short time of entering the park.

Mikumi is an important educational and research centre. Among the various projects being carried out is an ongoing field study of yellow baboons, which is one of just a handful of such long-term primate studies on the continent.

To the south, Mikumi is contiguous with Selous Game Reserve.

Picturesque and unspoilt Lake Nyasa (also known as Lake Malawi) is Africa’s third-largest lake after Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika. It’s more than 550km long, up to 75km wide and as deep as 700m in parts. It also has a high level of biodiversity, containing close to one-third of the world’s known cichlid species. The lake is bordered by Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. The Tanzanian side is rimmed to the east by the Livingstone Mountains, whose green, misty slopes form a stunning backdrop as they cascade down to the sandy shoreline. Few roads reach the towns strung out between the mountains and the shore along the lake’s eastern side. To the north and east, the mountains lead on to the Kitulo Plateau.

Places of interest around the Tanzanian side of the lake include (from north to south) Kyela, Itungi, Matema, Ikombe, Liuli and Mbamba Bay.

Perched at a cool 1600m on a cliff overlooking the valley of the Little Ruaha River, Iringa was initially built up by the Germans in the late 19th century as a bastion against the local Hehe people. Now it’s a district capital, an important agricultural centre and the gateway for visiting Ruaha National Park. Once away from the main street, with its congestion and hustlers, it’s also an extremely likeable place, with an attractive bluff-top setting, healthy climate and bracing highland feel.

The new Boma museum of local culture and the Neema Crafts centre are enticing, and there are a couple of outstanding historical sites within easy reach: ancient rock art at Igeleke, and even more ancient Isimila, where you can see Stone Age flints and hammerstones, as well as an extraordinary landscape of earth pillars.

The small, peppy town of Tukuyu is set in the heart of a beautiful area of hills and orchards near Lake Nyasa. There are many hikes and natural attractions nearby, but only the most basic tourist infrastructure; for all excursions you'll need to rough it. There's compensation, though, in the lush surrounding hills, swathed in tea plantations and dotted with banana-palm groves, and the town itself has a lively daily market selling fruit, veg and clothes.

Towering over the Kilombero Plains 350km southwest of Dar es Salaam are the wild, lushly forested slopes of the Udzungwa Mountains, portions of which are protected as part of the 1900-sq-km Udzungwa Mountains National Park – an intriguingly offbeat destination for anyone botanically inclined or interested in remote hiking. In addition to unique plants, the park has an important population of primates (10 species – more than any of Tanzania’s other parks) as well as the grey-faced sengi (a species of elephant shrew). There are also elephants, buffaloes, leopards, hippos and crocodiles, although these – particularly hippos and crocodiles – are primarily in the park’s southwest and seldom seen.

Birding is excellent, especially on the surrounding Kilombero floodplains. A good place to start is the wetlands bordering the main road about 2km north of Mang'ula town, below Hondo Hondo camp. Behind here, at the forest's edge, colobus and other primates are frequently spotted.

This national park protects the flower-clad Kitulo Plateau, together with sections of the former Livingstone Forest Reserve, which runs south from the plateau paralleling the Lake Nyasa shoreline. The area, much of which lies between 2600m and 3000m in the highlands northeast of Tukuyu, is a paradise for hikers, although tourism infrastructure is minimal.

The park reaches its prime during the rainy season from December until April, when it explodes in a profusion of colour, with orchids (over 40 species have been identified so far), irises, aloes, geraniums and many more flowers carpeting its grassy expanses. Orchids are at their peak in February. Look out too for zebra, which have been reintroduced here, and the rare and recently discovered kipunji monkey, with its long coat and 'honk-bark' call.

Rising up from the plateau is Mt Mtorwi (2961m), which is 1m higher than Mt Rungwe and southern Tanzania’s highest peak.