GUIDE ON KIGELIA CAMP IN TANZANIA

Navigation Tip - Go Directly To Prices, Reviews, Map, Photos, Video & Room Rate Guide For Kigelia Camp

With over 20,000 square kilometers of the little known Ruaha National Park, South Tanzania, there is a unique wilderness experience waiting just for you. Kigelia Camp derives its name from the grove of Kigelia or sausage trees in which it is set. Greater Kudu and Elephants eat the leaves. The fruit is relished by monkeys and baboons, bush pigs, giraffes, hippopotamuses and nocturnal porcupines. Birds and barbets love the seeds. But don’t stand too close. The meter long firm fruits might fall and give you quite a headache.

Kigelia Camp offers wilderness with comfort on a mid-range budget – the primary focus of the camp owners/management – “Afrika Afrika-cum-Nomad” compared to the others higher end camps such as Jongomero or Mwagusi. Remotely located overlooking Ifuguru sand river, it delivers the undeniable feel of an authentic yesteryear, uncomplicated tented camp safari in Africa, where you can immerse yourself in the rejuvenating spirit of the natural world.



Communally and environmentally, the camp is an asset to the area, encouraging local people to work in-camp, care for and profit from their wonderful environment by introducing AfricanMecca guests on vacation in Tanzania to its richness and diversity, and also sharing their innate natural aptitude for happiness and hospitality. Light aircraft from Arusha or Dar Es Salaam will bring you to Msembe Airstrip in Ruaha.

From there, the camp manager or your guide will collect you for a delightful Ruaha introductory trip of 20 kilometers through varied scenery to the beautiful location where you will be staying for a recommended minimum of three days in order to explore even a fraction of what the park has to offer.

Accommodation At Kigelia Camp

This remote and secluded Kigelia Camp comprises of 6 spacious double tents which can be booked separately, or as an exclusive stop over for AfricanMecca groups of eight or more on dream photo safari in Tanzania. The comfortable tents overlook the Ifuguru sand river, and the elephants who dig there for water in the dry season, making shallow waterholes, which attract varied antelopes, buffalo, zebra and other hooved herbivores as well as their wide-ranging predators.

Jackals, hyena, bushbucks and vervet monkeys commonly rove the camp, especially at night, when you will feel especially alive, knowing that only a canvas wall divides you from the howling, barking, laughing wild-visitors outside. But there is no need to worry. Camp guards patrol to ensure your safety at all times. So relax and enjoy the thrill of Tanzania’s Ruaha wilderness; the quickened heartbeat that tells you when you are truly alive.



All the tents are furnished with comfortable, light wood beds, tables and chairs, made by native craftsmen. En-suite bathrooms offer flush toilets and wash basins, together with the delightful African tour experience of an outdoor bush shower. Solar power is the main source of light. Battery charging is possible in the main pavilion, an open-sided space, richly furnished, containing a dining area, small lounge, library and bar with entrancing views of grassland and flat-topped acacia trees backed by distant blue Ruaha escarpment hills (read more on where else to stay in Ruaha National Park).

Safari At Kigelia Camp

On a Kigelia Camp safari, you will be treated as a very special AfricanMecca guest being such a small camp. Your guides will be eager to share their bush skills and knowledge of their environment as they try to ensure that you will enjoy the Tanzanian tour experience on which you have set your heart. On enlightening walking safaris, you do not need to venture far from base to encounter numbers of mammals; buffalo, zebra, giraffe, and also smaller animals you would miss unless on foot, such as rabbit-like hyrax or shy dik-diks -- a graceful prancing miniature antelope.



Well camouflaged, slow-moving chameleon or fast darting Agama lizards with their blue and red tails would be invisible from the jeep. Bird watching walks can also be very productive close to home, with over 570 species recorded at the river confluence. A hippo-pod walk to the river is an alternative choice for lovers of these deceptively endearing tubbies. But to see the rarer species, the Kudu with its widely spiraled horns, its stiff mane, and soft goatee beard, or the magnificent, deep-chested sable with its scimitar antlers arching over its back, you have to travel farther.

The African painted dogs courses its prey over vast distances, but when you see the pack, you will hear more high-pitched, bird-like yelps since they hunt cooperatively in packs, rarely failing to bring down their prey. If you intend to travel in Africa, beware of leaving your heart in Ruaha National Park, at least for those seeking an authentic wilderness safari experience in Tanzania.

Dining At Kigelia Camp

At Kigelia Camp, the food tastes all the better for being served with a smile and genuine enthusiasm. From dawn onwards, as birds tune up for the day, staff will arrive with a tray of morning tea or coffee, served in a flask on your verandah at whatever time you specify. With cheerful greetings, they will bring hot water for your morning shower if you prefer. The morning greeting rituals can be extensive. Families on an AfricanMecca safari in Tanzania would notice the children replying word for word, or calling out “Jambo” and “Habari”.

Breakfast may be taken outdoors on the bank of the Great Ruaha River, or in the pavilion where lunch is also served companionably with other guests. Alternatively, picnic lunches can be taken on extended full day game drive tours of Ruaha. In the evening, you return for campfire sundowners as you watch game in the sand river, marvel at the colors of sunset, listen to the wing claps of a parting nightjar and see the world fade into a fire-lit void spangled with stars while crickets, night birds, and mammals add their voices to the rustle of leaves and soughing of the breeze.



Bush dinners are cooked in the open as a kind of interactive theatre. Grills, roasts, potjies and cooked vegetables are standard, served at table, formally set out and romantically lit by the leaping flames. Relax for a post-prandial exchange of the day’s events whilst sipping cognac, fresh juices, tea, coffee or liqueurs before your guard escorts you back to your tent for a night of blissful freedom under an African moon.

Related Pages

1. Ruaha Safari Park Guide	2. Best Time & Weather To Visit Ruaha
3. Ruaha Map	4. Safari Lodges, Camps & Hotels In Ruaha