Aberdare National Park Safari

Travelers between Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Nyerere National Park will find a simple path.

From Dar es Salaam or Arusha, a network of all-weather gravel airstrips serves Nyerere national park; these airstriks comprise

Mtemere airstrip
Airstrip Matambwe
Sumbazi flights
Kira Airstrip
Airstrip Beho Beho
Stigler’s George airport and Siwandu airstrip
Several airstriks, notably Regional Air, Coastal Aviation, Safari Air Link and Auric Air, also service Selous wildlife reserve.

Note: One hour’s flight from Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam brings you the closest international runway to Nyerere National Park.

Those who intend to fly to Nyerere national park should be aware of the airfield they are flying too. Flying to an airstrip close to your hotel is rather crucial in order to save needless costly and long transfers.

The airstriks below serve Nyerere National Park.

Mtemere Airstrip

Visitors flying to Nyerere national park and Selous game reserve, both in Southern Tanzania, most often utilize Mtemere Airstrip. Mtemere airstrip has geographic coordinates 07 45 01S 038 12 47E.

Airstrips in Nyerere National Park Mtemere Airstrip Matambo. Airport

Located in Selous Region in the Southern Circuit of Tanzania, Matambwe Airstrip, sometimes known as Selous Matambo Airstrip and SE3 by IATA Code, is a rural airfield also serving visitors to both Nyerere national park and Selous game reserve.

Sumbazi Airstrip

Scheduled flights from Arusha, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Ruaha service Sumbazi Airstrip, which is located inside Selous Game reserve and serves visitors to both Selous Game reserve and Nyerere national park. Situated within the reserve, Sumbazi Airstrip also provides lodging and campers for various people. One such camp is The Retreat Selous Camp.

Kiba Airstrip

Serving daily flights from Dar es Salaam, Ruaha, Zanzibar, and Northern Tanzania, Kiba Airstrip, also known as Kiba Airport and SE2, is a regional airport in the Selous Region in the Southern Circuit area of Tanzania. IATA Code is Kiba. Kiba Point Selous Camp and Sand River Camp are among the various camps and lodges located inside Selous Game reserve and Nyerere national park that Kiba airstrip supplies.

Beho Beho airstrip

Mostly serving visitors staying at Beho Beho camp, Beho Beho airfield is another airfield inside Selous Game Reserve with airstrip coordinates S 07 40 25.9 E 03755.

Siwandu Airstrip

Mostly serving guests staying at the Siwandu Main Camp, Siwandu airport is situated on the northern edge of the Nyerere national park in Southern Tanzania on Lake Nzerakera. Siwandu Airstrip’s GPS coordinates are 7° 41 ’27 S – 38 ° 08 ’21 E. Rwy 1200 m, SL elevation 18/36.

Airstrip Stiegler’s Gorge

Serving mostly visitors staying at Stiegler’s Gorge, Stiegler’s Gorge Airport, also known as IATA, is a regional airport situated in the Selous Region of Southern Circuit of Tanzania.

Nyerere National Park’s airy paths
In Nyerere National Park, Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar Es Salaam (Code DAR),

Located around 12 kilometers southwest of the city center, Julius Nyerere International Airport (Dar es Salaam) is the international airport serving the largest city in Tanzania. Airlines from Julius Nyerere International Airport fly to locations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. With a capacity of roughly 1.5 passengers, the airport has a terminal reserved especially to manage all the domestic and regional aircraft.

Flight Schedule

The flight time from Dar es Salaam to Nyerere national park is roughly one hour. Every airline providing flights to Nyerere national park has morning and afternoon flight using the same aircraft turning back to Dar es Salaam after each and every flight. These are known as hops as they land to drop or pick up passengers from different airstriks in the reserve; the actual flight time depends on how many stops the flight will make.

Most flights to Nyerere national park reduce pauses to the fewest possible so that an hour’s timing is essentially rather precise.

Flying schedule to Nyerere National Park

(Daily flights and roughly scheduled times)

Flights From To Departure Arrival
Morning Flight Dar es Salaam Nyerere 10:00 11:00
Nyerere Dar es Salaam 11:00 12:15
Afternoon Flight Dar es Salaam Nyerere 14:45 15:45
Nyerere Dar es Salaam 15:45 17:00

Summary of Tanzania’s season

High Season: 1 July – 31 October; December 16 – March 31
Low season runs from April to 30 June and from November to 15 December.
Note: Booking your flights early enough will help you to guarantee seats should you intend to fly to Nyerere national park during high season.

Airlines running flights to national park Nyerere

Several companies run domestic and chartered flights to Nyerere national park, including

Regional Coastal Aviation in Different Areas
Safari Air Link as well as Auric Air

Aberdare National Park Safari is a protected region east of the East African Rift Valley in the Aberdare Mountain Range in central Kenya. It reaches the Aberdare Salient to the east and the upper elevations. About 100km North of Nairobi, Aberdare National Park has a great range of topography at heights ranging from 2000 meters (6,600 ft.) to 4000 meters (13,000 ft.). Established in 1950, Aberdare National Park spans 766 square kilometers and is a component of the Aberdare Mountain Range. From mountain tops rising to 4000 meters (13,000 feet) above the sea level, to their deep-shaped valleys pierced by the streams, rivers, and waterfalls, the park offers a great spectrum of scenery. Lower altitudes are found Moorland, bamboo woods, and rainforests.

The Safari in Aberdare National Park.

safaris in wildlife.

With the Big 5 animal species—lion, buffaloes, rhino, leopard, and elephant— Aberdare national park boasts a range of the wildlife species. Kenya’s second-largest population of the threatened black rhinos resides in Aberdare national park. Apart from that the park is well-known for other animal species including the East African wild dog, giant forest hog, bushbuck, mountain reedbuck, suni, side-striped jackal, eland, duiker, African Wild cat, African civet cat, blue duiker, olive baboon, black and white colobus monkey and the sykes monkey. Two rare sightings are of the bongo and the African golden cat.

Mountains Reedbuck at Aberdare National Park Safari
The visitors can see specials like the common eland, serval living in the higher moorlands during the wildlife safari in Aberdare National Park. An elephant migration corridor of the rich forests and plentiful species, including bush pigs, dik-dik, bushbuck, reedbuck and many others, makes up the Salient region of the park.

Giant forest hog and huge spotted genet are among the nighttime visitors to the waterholes; the woodland provides a habitat for the exceedingly secretive and exquisite bongo antelope. Sadly, populations have dropped during the past few decades and sightings are quite infrequent.

birding safari.

Over 250 bird species abound in Aberdare National Park. Among the many bird species seen in the park are the threatened Aberdare Cisticola, Jackson’s spurfowl, African goshawk, African fish eagle, Montagu’s harrier, Montane white-eye, Moorland chat, Mountain Buzzard, Olive ibis, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Tacazze sunbird, sunbirds, plovers and many more. The most common species are sunbirds; maybe a flash of vivid yellow and black among the leaves may catch your eye to a golden-winged sunbird.

Aberdavian National Park’s vegetation.

Unusual vegetation kinds abound in Aberdare National Park. The Aberdare vegetation is defined by the wide moorland and the steep forested ravines. Because of the park’s elevation and rainfall, there are 778 different kinds of vegetation including subspecies and variations of plants. Among hardwood trees are camphor, cedar, podo, hagenia, and many others. While on the Aberdare national park safari, the visitors should investigate two fascinating ecosystems: a thick rainforest and high, Afro-alpine moorlands that also support a range of bird and animal species.

Aberdare National Park Safari: Vegetation Therein Aberdare
The sheltered areas on the sloping moorland comprise pockets of the Hagenia woodland.

Safaris for hiking.

With several mountain peaks in Aberdare national park that offer hiking safari like the elephant hill hike, which stands at 3720 meters above the sea level and is a 26km hike as you keep observing the Sasamua dam, hiking is an exciting activity and the most adventurous one available in the park. Additionally on the hiking safari in Aberdare national park you can climb the Ol Doinyo Mountain, which rises 4000 meters above sea level. Mount Satima, sometimes known as the mountain of the young bull. Hiking the Satima mountain takes you roughly five hours and requires you to have warm clothing since the higher you go the cooler it becomes. You will enjoy amazing views of the rift valley, Mount Kenya, a diversity of the species.

Safari around waterfalls.

The breathtaking waterfalls in Aberdare national park likewise descend from cloud covered heights to spray-filled ravines. Karuru waterfalls, which span three steps—the first 117M, the second 26M, and the third 130M—have a total value of 273 million. Other waterfalls in the park are Thomson’s or Nyahururu, Kereita cave and waterfall, Chain waterfall, Magura waterfall and Queen’s cave, Gura falls which torent from the opposite side of Karuru falls, and Enchanting Magura falls which cascade over the yawning mouth of the Queen’s cave.

Karuru waterfalls at Aberdare National Park Safari
As they trek throughout the bush, these falls provide the visitors on their Kenya trip at Aberdare national park with an amazing view. Reaching the waterfall lookout from the Mutubio West Gate—roughly 8km away—the climb across the forest to see the falls is actually rather simple, 20 minutes.

safari culture.

Apart from all the fauna in Aberdare National Park, visitors on the Kenya Cultural Safari would want to explore the site of the hideout of Mau leader Dedan Kimathi, who used these mountains as a base; many of his colleagues learnt the ropes of jungle warfare fighting in Burma in WWII.

Down the Aberdare ranges verdant slopes is a huge Mugumo tree which is simply looking at you. The Kenyan Mau Mau freedom fighters actually curve crevices in the trunk of this tree and use these as an undisclosed post office where they pass messages through agents.

The Kikuyu people, who believe that these ranges are among the homes of their (Ngai) natives originally named this location Nayanarua (to indicate drying hide), are the local population closest to the park.