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 Palm trees sway in a
cooling oceanic breeze. White sand 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 European 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 surprisingly 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 velvet
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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