Palm trees sway
in a cooling oceanic breeze. White
sands 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 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 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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