Zakouma
A national park of floodplain and savannah in south-eastern Chad, where buffalo gather in herds of a thousand and cranes crowd the drying pans.
- Arrival
- N'Djamena Hassan Djamous · NDJ
- To the park
- About 860 km by road, or a park charter flight
- Private jets
- Land at N'Djamena, then the park charter
- Best time
- December to May
The city
Savannah and floodplain in the south-east.
Zakouma covers some 3,000 square kilometres of floodplain, woodland and grass, and African Parks has run it with the Government of Chad since 2010. Elephant numbers have grown by about forty per cent in that time. The park also holds a large share of the world's Kordofan giraffes, and its rivers and pans draw birds by the tens of thousands.
Camps open at the end of November and close at the end of May, when the rains arrive. The months from March are the hottest and the best for animals: water shrinks to a few pools, and the buffalo, and the predators that follow them, come to drink.
- The pans Black-crowned cranes in their thousands, pelicans in November and December, and clouds of quelea coming in to roost in January and February.
- Buffalo herds In the late dry season, Central African buffalo mass by the remaining pools in herds of up to a thousand.
- The Salamat River The main river of the park, wooded in places, where the tsetse flies are worth a warning.
Arriving
N'Djamena, then a charter into the park.
Every journey goes through N'Djamena, Chad's only international airport. From there the road to the park runs 860 kilometres by Ngoura, Mongo and Am Timan, twelve to fourteen hours in a 4x4. Most visitors fly in on the charter that African Parks contracts, landing on an airstrip a quarter of an hour from Tinga Camp.
- Kigali 2 h 45
- Lagos 2 h 45
- Marrakech 5 h 05
- Baku 6 h 05
- New York 12 h 35 long-range jet
When to go
December to May.
The figures are for N'Djamena, about 520 km to the north-west, the nearest station with long records. Dry from November to March, with April close to 40 °C, then rain from June that peaks in August at about 200 mm. The park follows the same pattern and shuts for the wet months.
- 32° J 0
- 35° F 0
- 38° M 0
- 40° A 8
- 39° M 26
- 36° J 57
- 32° J 147
- 30° A 204
- 33° S 94
- 36° O 19
- 34° N 0
- 33° D 0
Elsewhere in Chad
More reasons to come.
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