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Mikumi National Park abuts the northern border of Africa’s biggest game reserve – the Selous – and is transected by the surfaced road between Dar es Salaam and Iringa. It is thus the most accessible part of a 75,000 square kilometre (47,000 square mile) tract of wilderness that stretches east almost as far as the Indian Ocean.

The word Mikumi has nothing to do with number ten in Swahili, which is kumi but the name comes after a local word for Borassus palm trees referred to as Mikuky.

Mikumi was the name given to the villages created by a tribal chief of Wavindunda community with the name of Mtwahela Kikuwi (pronounced mm-twa-hhe-laa Kee-kuu-wee).

Mikumi was named as National Park in 1967 and currently has an approximate size of 3,230 square kilometers.

Driving from Dar es Salaam on the one lane Morogoro-Iringa highway lands you right into Mikumi National Park with clear signs posted about the speed limits making safari guides very cautious about elephants, zebras, and giraffes crossing the highway.

The open horizons and abundant wildlife of the Mkata Floodplain, the popular centrepiece of Mikumi, draw frequent comparisons to the more famous Serengeti Plains. Lions survey their grassy kingdom – and the zebra, wildebeest, impala and buffalo herds that migrate across it – from the flattened tops of termite mounds, or sometimes, during the rains, from perches high in the trees. Giraffes forage in the isolated acacia stands that fringe the Mkata River, islets of shade favoured also by Mikumi’s elephants.

Criss-crossed by a good circuit of game-viewing roads, the Mkata Floodplain is perhaps the most reliable place in Tanzania for sightings of the powerful eland, the world’s largest antelope. The equally impressive greater kudu and sable antelope haunt the miombo-covered foothills of the mountains that rise from the park’s borders. More than 400 bird species have been recorded, with such colourful common residents as the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-throated long claw and bateleur eagle joined by a host of European migrants during the rainy season. Hippos are the star attraction of the pair of pools situated 5km north of the main entrance gate, supported by an ever-changing cast of waterbirds.