Where to Find Ruaha National Park

Ruaha National Park’s dramatic topography is shaped by the steep crevices of the Great Rift Valley. Ancient baobabs reach for the star-studded sky, while granite mounds create the park's characteristic landscape that is sculpted by the Ruaha River. 

This is where it began for the Fox family. Ruaha National Park is the inspiration behind Foxes Safari Camps, which has been curating personalised Tanzanian safari tours for more than four decades. It is here that the four Fox boys (Christopher, Peter, Bruce and Alexander) grew up in the 1970s undertaking annual walking safaris with their parents, Geoff and Vicky, long before there were any tourism facilities. This instilled within them a deep respect for the African bush – a landscape that forever holds their childhood memories. The Fox family continues to visit Ruaha River Lodge regularly.

Ruaha River Lodge – the first accommodation in the Foxes Safari Camps’ collection of properties – was established in January 1982 along the riverbank. It was the only safari camp in Ruaha National Park for two decades before Tanzania welcomed commercial tourism. 

Ruaha National Park straddles the convergence zone of southern and eastern African ecosystems, resulting in a biodiversity of flora and fauna unlike that of any other national park in Tanzania. This global biodiversity hotspot is an indicator of how plant and animal species adapt to a changing climate. Ruaha National Park is crucial for long-term conservation efforts, especially as it is home to large prides of lion, elephant, bat-eared fox, striped hyena, and African wild dog, alongside other endemic species. 

To protect this sensitive wildlife ecosystem for generations to come, the Fox family established the Friends of Ruaha Society in 1984, which continues it works today in the form of the Foxes Community and Wildlife Conservation Trust.