As you head south into central Tanzania, the open plains give way to a more heavily treed landscape, with large areas of miombo woodland — a habitat dominated by brachystegia and other broad-leafed trees that also carpets much of Zambia and Malawi to the south.
At the country’s dead centre, Tanzania’s second largest. This wild park offers superb game-viewing, without the crowds of the Serengeti. Highlights include the large elephant and buffalo herds that gather along the Great Ruaha River during the dry season, and a healthy population of large predators. On my single visit, I encountered numerous lions and surprisingly relaxed leopards, and had a memorable on-foot encounter with a hunting pack of wild dogs that bounded after impala along the valley floor below us as our guided walk crested a hillside above.
