Palm trees sway in a cooling oceanic breeze, white sand and blue water sparkle beneath the tropical sun.  Traditional dhows sail slowly past, propelled by billowing white sail, 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.

Saadani is protected as a game reserve since the 1960’s; in 2002 it was expanded to cover twice its former area.  The reserve suffered greatly from poaching prior to the late 1990’s, 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 are 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 more frequency, and several lion prides are resident, together with leopard, spotted hyena and black backed hyena.  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, lesser flamingo, while the beaches form one of the last major green turtle breeding grounds on mainland Tanzania.

The size of this National Park is 430 square miles; its location is on the North Coast, about 60 miles northwest of Dar es Salam as the crow flies, and a similar distance southwest of the port of Tanga.  To get there you take a charter flight from Zanzibar or Dar es Salam. There is a thrice weekly road shuttle from Dar es Salam taking about four hours in either direction, no road access from Dar es Salam along the coast, you follow the surfaced Moshi road for 100 miles, the 36 miles on dirt, road access from Tanga and Pangani after heavy rain you will need a 4X4 to get there.

Things to do, are, game drives and guided walks, boat trips, swimming, visit Saadani village which lies within the reserve, there is a collection of ruins from the 19^th century, giving history of the major trading port.  It is generally accessible all year round, but roads may be a bit of a problem during the rainy season April and May.  The best game viewing time is in January and February, and from June to August.

The accommodations include one luxury tented camp; campsites are planned there is one tented camp close to the park boundary.