Reviews of Mdonya Old River Camp
Wildlife sightings and reviews
131 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Mdonya Old River Camp and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

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"Mdonya Old River Camp review"

Elephant
Multiple sightings

Giraffe
Multiple sightings

Hippo
1 sighting

Lion
1 sighting

Zebra
Multiple sightings
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
Really like the sustainable aspect to the set up, and the guides were fantastic and really knowledgeable.
Saw lots of wildlife too!" See all these reviews: 5n in Tanzania

Buffalo
Multiple sightings

Elephant
Multiple sightings

Giraffe
Multiple sightings

Hippo
Multiple sightings

Leopard
1 sighting

Lion
Multiple sightings

Zebra
Multiple sightings
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
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

Buffalo
Multiple sightings

Eland
1 sighting

Elephant
Multiple sightings

Giraffe
Multiple sightings

Hippo
Multiple sightings

Leopard
1 sighting

Lion
Multiple sightings

Spotted Hyena
Multiple sightings

Zebra
Multiple sightings
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
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

Buffalo
Multiple sightings

Elephant
10 sightings

Giraffe
10 sightings

Hippo
10 sightings

Leopard
2 sightings

Lion
4 sightings

Wild dog
2 sightings

Zebra
10 sightings
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
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
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
Good laundry service. Nice staff and tent was nicer. Water wasn’t hot." See all these reviews: 21n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

Buffalo
Multiple sightings

Eland
Multiple sightings

Elephant
Multiple sightings

Giraffe
Multiple sightings

Hippo
Multiple sightings

Leopard
Multiple sightings

Lion
Multiple sightings

Spotted Hyena
Multiple sightings

Wild dog
1 sighting

Zebra
Multiple sightings
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
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

Buffalo
1 sighting

Eland
2 sightings

Elephant
4 sightings

Giraffe
5 sightings

Hippo
3 sightings

Leopard
1 sighting

Lion
3 sightings

Spotted Hyena
1 sighting

Zebra
3 sightings
"A great camp but not the most prolific area"
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

Buffalo
1 sighting

Elephant
10 sightings

Giraffe
10 sightings

Hippo
5 sightings

Lion
1 sighting

Wild dog
1 sighting

Zebra
10 sightings
"Our Third Stay"
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

Cheetah
1 sighting

Elephant
10 sightings

Giraffe
10 sightings

Hippo
1 sighting

Leopard
3 sightings

Lion
8 sightings

Zebra
10 sightings
"Immersive bush camping experience"
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

Buffalo
1 sighting

Eland
1 sighting

Elephant
9 sightings

Giraffe
10 sightings

Hippo
2 sightings

Lion
9 sightings

Wild dog
1 sighting

Zebra
10 sightings
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