Nyerere National Park

Nyerere National Park was created in 2019 from the northern, photographic-tourism section of the Selous Game Reserve, and at 30,893 square kilometres it is now the largest national park in Tanzania and one of the biggest in Africa. It is named after Julius Nyerere, the country's founding president. The southern part of the old reserve remains the Selous, still used for other purposes.

The park is defined by the Rufiji, Tanzania's largest river, which spreads into a maze of channels, lakes and sandbars that support big populations of hippo and crocodile and one of Africa's most important strongholds for the endangered African wild dog. Elephant, lion, buffalo, giraffe and sable antelope are all present. What sets Nyerere apart from the northern parks is how you see it: boat safaris along the Rufiji, walking safaris with an armed ranger, and fly-camping are all standard here, and visitor numbers are a fraction of the Serengeti's.