Reviews of Mwagusi Safari Camp
(94%) From 64 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Mwagusi Safari Camp review
Everything about this sociable camp is authentic and first rate. The guides are enthusiastic and very well trained, the food is great, the bandas a delight. The location at a bend of Mwagusi sand river allows for lazy afternoon game viewing. Evenings under the stars are pure theatre.
Animals in Ruaha NP seem relaxed around vehicles. This means that the longer you stay the more interesting behaviours you will get to see. We stayed three nights and were sad to leave.
We all agreed that Mwagusi Camp was the highlight of our trip to Tanzania.
Great rustic "in the bush" experience
Very relaxed, good game viewing - long game drives (9-10 hours a day)
One really felt like you were part of nature - elephants walking between the tents , lions in the river bed, bats & monkeys in the bathroom - great
Food was good but limited - basically one menu for each meal - not unreasonable given the remoteness. Every night was an evening alfresco dinner in the bush or in the river bed near the camp. Lit by lanterns and with a big fire - cooking was on hot coals.
Very informal - keen knowledgable guides - kids loved it.
Traditional african safari in great setting.
Rooms had brilliant veiw but bathroom layout was too 'open' for us. No hot water to the basin but plenty to the shower.
Meal times ensured that guest mixed and it was great to talk through our days experiences. Good veiws of lions and one excellent view of leopard.
Dissapointed that we did not see the African dogs in the four nights we stayed at this camp.
Mwagusi - a great bush camp
We loved Mwagusi - an informal top quality African bush camp. You have the benefit of sleeping in a tent, combined with the luxury of a beautifully designed, spacious and private banda. We particularly liked the flexibility and the fact that Riaan or Kimberley (the managers) asked us each evening what we would like to do the next day. Even on our last morning we were offered 3 different options and provided with our own vehicle to allow a morning drive, return for breakfast and then a leisurely game drive to the airstrip to catch the 11.30 flight.
The guiding was excellent with both a guide (Daniel in our case) and a driver and the morning drives typically lasted 6 hours with a gorgeous breakfast (the cinnamon roll really is as good as its reputation!) and careful thought taken into which part of the park they would take us on each drive. The park is scenically dramatic and varied and we were lucky enough to see a wonderful variety of game, which was particularly dense around the Ruaha river.
Although we dont chose a camp based on its food, dinners at Mwagusi are a highlight and foster a terrific atmosphere in the camp, which is further enhanced by the presence of the owner Chris Fox.
My only criticism is that the camp undersells itself on its website, such an important influence on travellers today - I would recommend Mwagusi to anyone who wants to retain a real bush atmosphere and high quality guiding with a significant degree of comfort.
View to a kill
At first site this is a large camp, but you immediately feel at home, the staff are friendly and helpful.
Kimberley and Rianne were great hosts and Samson was an enthuastic guide.
The highlight of the stay was the seven hours spent watching a cheetah with two cubs, making 5 failed attenmpts stalking and hunting impala, before finally making a kill less than 300m away - truely widescreen viewing.
Mwagusi Safari Camp review
This was our next stop after having been at Selous. The landscape was quite different - more open , hotter.
The camp was excellent. The location overlooking a dried river bed was interesting - with elephants, jackal , monkeys wandering around ( and lion ).
The game viewing turned out to be even better than we had had in Selous. On our first drive , we made a rapid detour to see a leopard , photogenically perched in a tree. We then came across a large pride of lions, over 20 strong. On our second day , we encountered a mother cheetah with 2 cubs. Our guide ( Samson ) was sure it was hunting and we watched as it attempted on about 5 occasions to run down impala. This took some time and the camp brought out a packed lunch for us so that we could continue to watch. Just as it looked as if the cheetah would never succeed, it pursued and dragged down an impala - a grisly lunch for the cubs , right in front of us. All this goes to show is that the guiding here was excellent.
The accommodation was very comfortable. Each night , dinner was held a short distance from the camp , under the stars and next to a roaring fire. On the second night it was not only the fire that was roaring. We were dining in the dry sandy river bed and over coffee suddenly heard loud growling . The camp manager ( Rian ? - big South African - excellent) flashed his light to reveal about 6 lions prowling and looking straight at us about 75 yards away. We were very calmly ushered back to the camp , where the same lions , and the rest of the 20 strong pride were to wander through during the night, with very loud roaring. I was impressed with the professionalism of the staff. It sounds scary, but we didn't feel in danger and it was all rather exciting !
Mwagusi - full of character
One can feel that Mwagusi has grown over the decades as an owner-run camp, loads of character and and owner Chris makes an excellent host with plenty of stories to tell after over 20 years in Ruaha.
The best feature of the bandas may well be the sunken corner with big cushions - a great spot to relax and watch the action down in the sand river. Not that there wasn't plenty of wildlife outside the camp - guiding was excellent and one really noticed that each guide knows the different areas of the park very well.
In general, we really enjoyed the fact that Ruaha has such a varied landscape - everything from plains to wooded hills or rocky kopjes can be seen in good day's drive.
Dinner at Mwagusi is a real occassion - the camp has three different locations along (and in) the sand river which are lovingly decorated for dinner, making for a very special experience. While there were some issues around quantity at lunch, the food was fresh and of excellent quality.
Mwagusi Camp review
thank you annabelle and charlotte you are great. also sampson and moses and our super banda attendant.
what happens when the girls leave at the end of the season?:
Mwagusi Camp review
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Mwagusi, but overall we found the bandas very dark, you needed at least one more light in the bedroom area and probably more in the "wet" area - it was impossible to shave with the available light.
The size of the banda overall was amazing and the "entertainment" area which opened out on to the river bank was absolutely amazing - especially the double swing.
The public dining area was great and the concept of pre-prandial drinks round the camp fire led to convivial evenings.
The staff at the camp were excellent but were eclipsed by the brilliance of our guide who knew absolutely everything about absolutely everything to do with the park.
Mwagusi Camp review
As activities we only went on Game drive. There were two incidents that we were disatisfied with. One morning there was a confusion about which guests were going in which Jeep for the game drive, this led to a delay of 45 minutes which was annoying since we got up very early in the morning to have an early morning game drive.
The second disappointment was that one afternoon we saw a Leopard hiding in the bush, it had caught an Impala and was hiding from us and waiting to go to it's food. We knew that the Leopard wasn't going to move as long as we were close by, the guide said that we should come back early tomorrow morning and see if the Leopard has gone up a tree with the Impala.
Thrilled and excited about this we went up bright and early the next morning only to find that we did not have the same guide to take us to the leopard, our guide from the evening before had explain where the leopard ought to be but still the new guide didn't get it right, no comment was made why we didn't receive the same guide as the night before.
Apart from that we always enjoy and appreciate it when the owner is also living in the camp, it adds alot of feeling and personality to the atmosphere.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
