Serengeti Maswa

Maswa Makau is the southern most section of the Maswa Game Reserve, a 203,500 acre reserve to the south west of the Serengeti, abutting the short grass plains themselves. Maswa shares a boundary of some 60 kilometers with the Serengeti National Park and the area is dominated by acacia woodland interspersed by craggy kopjes and the occasional Maswa woodland. 

To the south and south east of Maswa Makau is Lake Eyasi with its dramatic escarpment, part of the great Rift Valley which rises 3000 feet from the edge of the lake, This is remote country and home to some of the least disturbed groups of Wahadzabe tribes people, who share many similarities with the San Bushmen of further south.

During much of the dry season this area is the private domain of several of Tanzania's biggest hunting companies and opportunities for photographic tourism are pretty limited. Its in the Green season, particularly between December and April that the area comes into its own, as the wildebeest come down onto the short grass plains of the Serengeti. The plains extend into this huge reserve and the animals that follow the rains and the fresh green grass pour into the area. The Maswa woodlands provide excellent cover for the predators that wait all year for the plains game to arrive.  Waterholes that have been empty for months fill up, the plains turn green; the leaves grow on the trees; the game drops it's young; the birds grow their breeding plumage and the reserve bursts into life.

Its worth being aware of the dangers of tsetse fly within these acacia woodlands as well as the risk of vehicles becoming hopelessly bogged, with the lethal combination of rains and black cotton soil.

Its well worth running these risks though as, like {Loliondo} along the eastern boundary of the Serengeti and parts of the {Ngorongoro Conservation Area} the restrictions that sometimes compromise the wilderness experience in the National Parks do not apply here.  You can walk, night drive, drive off road and for the very adventurous go down to the south to spend some time hunting with the Wahadzabe on the edges of Lake Eyasi.