Reviews of Mdonya Old River Camp

"Alex was excellent, welcoming us back from every game drive.

Kerosene lamps did not last the night which meant that getting up in the dark was interesting. Also the electric battery lamp supplied was about equivalent to 2 unfit glowworms. The blankets supplied for the cold nights were rather small.

The meat at the evening meal was sometimes very salty. Bush breakfasts were good.

On the game drives the tsetse flies were biting in August." See all these reviews: 11n in Tanzania

"Excellent start to our African adventure.

Although the camp is basic the atmosphere created by the kerosene lamps and simple style tents immerses you in the safari experience. And a shower under the stars is one of the many memories we will never forget! Meals are taken together which provided a good opportunity to share your days experience with other guests.

The setting of the camp was superb - we saw Impala, Elephant, Buffalo and more from our tent! The staff were really friendly and helpful and make you feel welcome the second you land on the airstrip - our transfer to the camp turned into a full safari and by the time we reached the camp we had seen a wide variety of wildlife already.

Overall an excellent place for those with a sense of adventure!" See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania

"Aomodation is quite expensive in Ruaha and to me Mdonya Old River Camp is the best place to stay when you cannot afford an expensive camp in Ruaha.

They did their best to make sure I was in best conditions to take nice pictures. Most of the time I was the one guest in the car . I have really appreciated that . I enjoy sharing the car with other guests as long as we are not packed like sardines in tins. The guide and the drivers did their best to find animals. Micole and the staff have been very friendly and professional.

I have been very fortunate as we saw leopard twice in two days. The first sighting was the dream of any wildlife photograher. A very relaxed leopard laying on the branch of a sausage tree. Thas was the best moment of my trip.

Also Ruaha is a very beautiful place. It is remote and wild. Lots of baobabs. Tse Tse Flies annoyed me a little bit but that's part of the game. The place is not crowded of tourists which is great." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania

"This camp and Ruaha far exceeded our expectations. We were made to feel very welcome. They had modified a tent for the four of us which worked well. The tents were comfortable, well furnished with flush toilets and a solar powered shower. We did have a problem with bees coming to drink at the shower and the water in the morning was warm rather than hot.

We loved the open nature of the camp. We were visited by an elephant in the early hours 2 nights and to watch him feed on a bush less than a metre from our bed was amazing. Food was good and we really enjoyed having communal drinks around a fire and eating with all being watched by buffalo and impala. We had 3 full day safaris and saw more of the park than many other visitors. Our bush lunches were out of this world.

The wildlife was fantastic - lions and leopard and even a cheetah, elephants and giraffe everywhere, antelope, 3 species of mongoose, 100 species of birds and even a puff adder. Our guides were amazing.

We loved the experience, but others who had come from more luxurious camps were less than impressed and found the rustic nature not to their taste." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"# we were met by RAMADAMI who introduced himself as a newly qualified guide with only 3 months experience. His honesty was appreciated but any doubts quickly evaporated and he is clearly star material. Our driver was KNIGHT, clearly a very experienced driver and spotter / guide - great team and very good company.

# the very good National Park infrastructure was in complete contrast to Selous, with well graded tracks, viewing points, toilets at the picnic areas and Msembe airstrip ..... but still a wild and wonderful landscape and a long way short of the the tarmac roads in the Kruger.

# clearly Manze & Mdonya are different in detail but G&T's around the Mdonya log fire and superb food under the stars while overlooking lions stalking the 3 resident buffalo could not be equalled. Micol and Alex are excellant hosts.

# tips - we followed the sensible guidance in the Expert Africa and both camps literature to use the tip box so that all the camp team benefit. So we were surprised to find that some guests at Mdonya were only tipping their guides and drivers. We suggest that this point is covered in Micol's / Alex's welcome briefing, with the aim of consistency and to avoid embarrassing clients. In the event RAMADAMI received some hurried additional cash at the airstrip in addition to the intended present of my copy of Jonathan Kingdom's 'Pocket Guide to African Mammals'; similarly Colin gave KNIGHT some additional cash and his bird book as a present." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania

"Again this camp was selected because of it's style, it is of a similar setup to Lale Manze but I would say that Mdonya Camp does have the edge on Lake Manze in terms of how it was run, this camp is more 'Polished' and the reason is Nicole who is an excellent host and camp manager.
The down side was it's distance from the main game areas, at this time of year the best viewing is around the Ruaha River
where the grass is shorter and the game more frequent. Therefore the routine for the day would be an early start on an all day safari
with breakfast and lunch in the bush which suited us fine. The other drawback is of course the abundance of Tetse flies at this time of year.
The food was a touch better than Lake Manze and Nicole made a very good host each evening and was always about early to see you off.
Would I go back ? - Yes (but at a different time of year.)" See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"Camp manager was excellent as were the guides and staff. Super experience, I would suggest that this camp is at the end of a trip as anywhere else may be a dissapointment after experiencing such wilderness." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania

"We found the camp to be located quite a distance away from the main game viewing areas in Ruaha. Apart from a large pride of lions who we saw one evening on our return to camp, there didn't seem to be any other animals close to camp. As a result of this our driver was keen for us to do full day game drives so that we could travel further distances. We were more than happy to do this as we prefer to be out all day rather than have a rest in the middle of the day.

We were extremely lucky with the animals that we did see - a leopard in a tree, a cheetah with her cub and plenty of lions.
The rooms were as we expected from the brochure description - comfortable with everything we needed for our stay. The evenings tended to get cooler which was nice as you could get a rest from the heat.

The food at Mdonya was excellent. Very tasty and well cooked. We are both vegetarian and found that we were very well catered for. On our last evening we were treated to a private meal outside our tent which was a lovely surprise.

Overall we had a very enjoyable stay at Mdonya Old River Camp and would like to thank all the staff for their efforts particularly the Chef." See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania

"A simple camp run as well by very efficient people. They are serious about "wildlifeing". Mcol, the camp manager, is very passionate about Africa, the camp and the nature itself. She´s proud of her camp, and congratulations.

Being on a Land Rover from 7 AM up to 5- 6 PM sometimes can be tiresome, but not at Mdonya. Thank you." See all these reviews: 14n in Tanzania

"We spent four nights in Lake Manze camp. That was the best camp and location we did during the whole safari experience. The location is fabulous, elephants and buffaloes come to the camp.

The food was very good in this camp, this may be coming from the Italian touch in the management (same comment goes for his sister camp Lake Manze in Selous). Like all other camps, the negative point about food was the lack of fruits.

Micole is very nice and interesting. Talking to her and seeing her passion for the wildlife is very inspiring. It makes us all want to come and live her life. We had Giovanni and Richard (guide/driver) during the five days. They were very interesting, and we had a great time with them.

A negative point in this camp is the Tsetse flies a few kilometers on the entrance of the camp. But that was only annoying, as they are not carrying bacterias, and their sting doesn't hurt. It only scratches after the bite like a mosquito bite.

One point we thought as negative in this camp (same comment on his sister camp Lake Manze in Selous), is that the majority of the guests are Italians, and by that I mean non English speakers. It is obvious that we go to a safari for the animals, the landscape, and the whole experience. But this also includes meeting other guests at dinner to discuss what we saw, and simply talk. We were there in a low season, and there were many Italians, and it was not possible to communicate with the others. We were told that in hight season the camp is full of Italians. We think it could be difficult for non italian speakers to be in the middle of all that the high season." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania