Reviews of Mdonya Old River Camp

"Malcolm and his staff have created a warm, inviting camp at Mdonya. While the location is a bit further from most of the wildlife sightings (leading to some long game drives), the atmosphere in camp more than makes up for it. The small touches of juice upon return from game drives, cocktails around the campfire and hot water bottles in your bed at night made this camp really special. Malcolm even loaned us a tripod part while his staff located the right size wrench to tighten the problem part. We sent laundry out and it was back the same day.

Our tent was comfortable, with plenty of hot water (almost too hot!) The solar powered light was very helpful. There were extra blankets if needed as it did get chilly.

Our guide and driver were excellent. We appreciated that the guides were in constant touch with each other sharing sightings. That led to us skipping lunch one day to drive almost an hour for a leopard, which was well worth it! Due to the drought, wildlife was noticeably less, but the guides really tried their best. A brief but very exciting serval sighting near the camp was amazing and we're still wondering how they spotted it! They were very patient with our photography requests. Early morning game drives were chilly and most guests didn't seem to be prepared for that. Layers are needed - the blankets in the vehicles are not thick. Note that while walking safaris are available, they are at the park HQ and require leaving camp at about 5 am.

The food was delicious, although on nights when camp was full, servings were not large. Lunches were excellent.

Ruaha is beautiful and we would definitely return. Hopefully they will get some rain next April and May." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania

"Mydonya was aprox a 90 min flight further north. Tiny aircraft again - very exciting! Again our lovely guide and driver - Sustin and Edmund made our 4 days at Mydonya with their knowledge and incites into the land and the animals.

Different temperatures here - colder mornings and evenings but hot water bottles and blankets were provided!

Highlights - again elephants in camp ... we have a photo of 4 young elephants, heads under the side awning of the neighbouring tent looking through the windows - or were they just keeping cool in the shade!? Countless elephants here - tiny ones up to huge bull elephants. Lots of sleepy lions - saw a couple of large males and saw a lion cub demanding a feed from it's mum.. Kudu, giraffe, Hyrax, Jackals, Ostrich to name just a few ..

Main highlight was that we were privileged to see a large male leopard up a tree with a freshly killed impala. Totally unconcerned by us as he snacked safely up his tree. We saw him again the following day just pottering across a track and then he hopped on a rock had wash and then settled down for a snooze.. Just amazing!

Our host was Micole who had some amazing stories to share with us each night at dinner.." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 4n in Zanzibar

"At this camp, the camp manager/owner Mikola was my host, and she was so lovely. My guides Jonas and Ayoubou were as fabulous as the guys at Lake Manze - working tirelessly to find me fabulous sightings - and they did! Lion kill right outside my tent, a leopard eating, lots of elephants and babies - i was transfixed and could have spent all day watching them.

For both camps (Lake Manze & Mdonya) beyond the sightings - the guides told me a wealth of information about plants, their customs, tiny creatures - they just never stopped telling me fascinating things. And all of this with much laughter and fun. I had the most brilliant time." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania

"Flies all over, so pesky it was hard to sit by the campfire which was a bummer.

Good laundry service. Nice staff and tent was nicer. Water wasn’t hot." See all these reviews: 21n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"Mdonya felt the most remote and wild of all the camps to us, that we stayed at. We saw our only Leopard of the entire trip here and a Serval cat too. The night sky was the best here and at Mwagusi. Just spectacular. Got cold at night too as we were a bit higher in elevation.

We watched a pride of lions one night just before sunset for quite a while. We were the only car/jeep/lorrie there the entire time. We left them, after some great late afternoon sunlight for photos, and were back in camp after only 5 minutes. That pride was only less than 3 KM away from camp and we could hear them roaring and calling to one another all night long. What an experience for us!

The guides were great. Chabon and Godson with their super vision for spotting things. We made friends with Jonas and Joelle there and the rest of the staff.

Because this camp is so remote, it is difficult to schedule safari walks with the rangers because their headquarters near the Msembe air strip is far away. We did not do any safari walks here." See all these reviews: 20n in Tanzania

"Camp itself is perfect, really loved the tents and the atmosphere. The managers are doing a great job there. The immediate surrounding area is beautiful, lots of huge old trees, and a reasonable amount of game. But boy, this is really a marginal part of the park. On the way to the core safari areas mammals were awfully scarce, one morning we went two hours without even seeing an Impala. Really a long way to the much more productive grasslands along the Ruaha River - which we absolutely loved.

Our guide Jimmy was fantastic, one of the best we've ever had. A very keen and avid birder and a fun guy, I'm sure he has a good career ahead of him. Our driver Ayoubu was equally outstanding, much more than a driver, had all qualities of a super guide - we tipped him as one.

Lots of Zebra, Impala, Grant´s Gazelle and Giraffe along the Ruaha River, also dozens and dozens of Elephants. We found the Lions once - although our focus was more on birding (which was terrific) so did not really make an effort for Cats. I´m sure we would have seen them more often when really trying. No Leopards - but others guests saw three not too far from camp during our stay. Had a great sighting of the Dogs. Very lucky - they've last been seen in November Also saw a Serval, but one step into the high grass after a few seconds - and gone! Our most exciting sighting was a Spitting Black Cobra attacking and fighting a Puff Adder - watched that for half an hour. David Attenborough stuff!

In general, Mdonya is a top camp with super guides and really good value (esp. considering the very reasonable pv rates) but its location is less than ideal." See all these reviews: 14n in Tanzania

"This was our third stay at Mdonya Old River camp so I think that speaks for itself. This time we stayed for 4 nights and were accompanied by some friends.

When we arrived Ayoubu our driver from our previous trips welcomed us at the airstrip and introduced us to Jimmy who would be our guide.

We had a fantastic 4 days game viewing with Ayoubu and Jimmy. We enjoyed their company and their combination of experience, knowledge and enthusiasm. They both worked really hard to show us so many things including lions, leopards, cheetahs and even a serval cat. We also saw many other animals both large and small and also loads of birds. We knew from our previous trip that Ayoubu was good at spotting and identifying birds but were surprised and very happy to find out that Jimmy absolutely loved the birds and was a real expert on them.

We spent all day everyday out on safari with these guys, taking bush breakfast and lunch with us. We generally left camp around 6.30am and didn’t return until between 6.30 and 7pm.

Food provided by the camp was generally good although we did have one evening meal in camp which was pretty awful. I am not sure what had happened but there had clearly been an issue in the kitchen. I would have thought the managers might have apologised for this but it just seemed to get ignored.

We spent very little time in camp so didn’t see a lot of the managers apart from at dinner time or early morning. Sometimes they were quite chatty, sometimes not. They seemed less in evidence than the previous managers.

All in all we had a great safari experience and cannot thank Ayoubu and Jimmy enough for their good company and hard work and for providing us with so many memorable safari experiences." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"Like its sister camp in the Selous, Mdonya Old River offers super comfortable bush camping with excellent helpful staff, delicious food and an immersive safari experience located on an old dried up riverbed.

From the communal area we had regular visits from giraffe, impala, monkeys and a resident troop of mongooses. The managers set a camera trap one night and shared images of a hyena that also visited whilst we were asleep.

The food served is delicious home-cooked-style instead of a la carte and we preferred the lovely selection of vegetables and side dishes to more restaurant-style rich cuisine. When the weather allowed, we ate under the stars, served by super attentive staff." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"This was probably our favorite camp. Our guides, Henry and Thomas, were fantastic. Personable, fun and amazing at finding incredible wildlife sightings. Our favorite was watching five families of elephants come together in a dry river bed to bath, drink and interact. It was hilarious and a memory that will stay with us the rest of our lives. We were also the only people at leopard sightings, making them even more special. We will miss these two young men.

Iris and Kings do a wonderful job managing the camp. The food is excellent, particularly considering it is all sourced locally. The tents are immaculate. The staff are very well trained and provide excellent service.

Cocktails and then group dinners by the fire were wonderful. We met people from all over the world and had some very interesting conversations.

We would love to go back to Mdonya Old River Camp someday." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 4n in Zanzibar

"The experience at Mdonya Old River was very special due to the location. It was very remote and at one with nature, the animals being part of daily life, particularly the elephants.

We expected no frills at this camp, but it was a bit more than that, dining al fresco under the stars with great food and good wine. No electricity in the tents added to the feeling of being less intrusive on the habitat and environment. Candles and lanterns provided atmosphere. Masai guides walked you to and from your tent after dark. Great hot showers in the 'open' bathroom.

We had great game drives here with our wonderful driver and guide, Thomas and Henry, who were both great birders too and went out of their way to find us some great sightings. We had some really wonderful leopard time too and the elephant groups here were extraordinary, searching for water in the dry river bed.

Along with the matriarchal elephant groups with young, there were lots of young and old male bulls, two of whom decided to take large bush down next to our tent at 3am, which was an interesting experience!

The only negative were the tsetse flies, which are very annoying and vicious, although the elephant muffin burning on the back of the jeeps in the area did help somewhat.

The management Kings and Iris, were very friendly and relaxed and were always around joining the group for meals, along with the elephants!" See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania