Travel Guide Saadani National Park

On the coast, between Pangani and Bagamoyo, 100 km from Dar es Salaam opposite Zanzibar, this park of a little more than 1,100 km2, accessible by bad tracks but mostly by boat and plane, is home to about 50 lions, leopards, 150 to 200 elephants, hippotragues, oryx, many giraffes, buffaloes and hippos.. It is the only reserve in Africa where you can still see elephants bathing in the sea! The vegetation is quite dense bush and it is not easy to enjoy the wildlife. You can take a boat ride on the Wami River, which is full of hippos, crocodiles and birds. The village of Saadani, the only one of its kind tolerated in a national park by the Tanzanian authorities, has played an important role for centuries as a place of exchange and embarkation for slaves and goods between the interior of the continent and Zanzibar, as well as Pangani. The Germans built a fort here, the remains of which can be seen. The fishermen who live here bring back good quantities of shrimp. A few years ago, a project for the protection of sea turtles was started here. Now the eggs are collected and protected until they hatch. Then the young turtles are released back into the ocean