MkomaziNational Park

Mkomazi National Park is a wild, semi-arid wilderness in north-eastern Tanzania that shares its border — and its wildlife — with Kenya's Tsavo West. It is best known for two of Africa's most important conservation projects: a fenced sanctuary protecting endangered black rhino and a breeding programme that returns African wild dogs to the wild. With Kilimanjaro on the horizon and hardly another vehicle in sight, Mkomazi is a rewarding stop between Kilimanjaro, the Usambara Mountains and the coast.

Mkomazi was upgraded from a game reserve to a national park in 2008. Its dry bushland, baobab-studded plains and rocky inselbergs form part of the greater Tsavo ecosystem, so elephant, buffalo and other animals move freely across the international border.

The park is home to dry-country species that are rare elsewhere in northern Tanzania, including gerenuk, fringe-eared oryx and lesser kudu. Birdlife is excellent, with more than 400 recorded species, many of them Somali-Maasai specialists that birders travel specifically to see.

Mkomazi's conservation story is its real draw. The Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary, established with the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust, has bred black rhino for reintroduction elsewhere in Tanzania, and the same organisation runs a captive-breeding programme for the endangered African wild dog. Visits to the conservation projects can be arranged in advance.

Because Mkomazi receives very few visitors, it suits travellers who have already seen the classic northern parks and want solitude, big skies and a sense of genuine discovery.