SAADANI NATIONAL PARK: Where the Beaches meets the Bush

This recently gazetted national park bills itself as ‘where the beach meets the bush’ and it is indeed the only viable African wildlife sanctuary to boast an Indian Ocean beachfront. As such, it shares many attributes with
the rest of East Africa’s legendarily beautiful tropical coastline – but with the added frisson that an afternoon’s sunbathing might be interrupted by an elephant or baboon strolling past en route to a nearby waterhole!

Such hedonistic concerns aside, this under-publicised gem of a reserve protects a full 1,000 sq km of coastal bush inhabited by creatures as diverse as hippos, lions, dolphins, green turtles, vervet monkeys, pythons, seagulls, egrets and eagles – in short, it’s the ideal wildlife-lover’s alternative to the more crowded and developed beaches around Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam.