Kitulo Plateau National Park

Kitulo Plateau sits at 2,600 metres above sea level in the southern highlands of Tanzania between the Kipengere and Poroto mountains. It was gazetted in 2005 and is the first national park in tropical Africa established primarily to protect its flora. Local people call it Bustani ya Mungu, the Garden of God, and Tanzania Wildlife Society names it Serengeti ya Maua, the Serengeti of Flowers. Both are appropriate.

Between late November and April, the plateau explodes with wildflowers. Over 350 species have been catalogued, including 45 species of terrestrial orchid, aloe, red-hot poker, lobelia, geranium, protea and many more. Whole hillsides turn purple, gold and pink for months, and no other place in East Africa offers anything comparable. Botanists come specifically for the orchid diversity, and photographers for the sheer visual spectacle.

Birdlife is unusual and rewarding, with several highland-restricted species including the endemic Kipengere seedeater, blue swallow, Denham's bustard and mountain marsh widow. Mammals are less prominent than in the savannah parks - Kitulo is not a wildlife-viewing park in the traditional sense - but reedbuck, eland and duiker are present, and leopard occasionally cross the plateau.

Kitulo is a hiking destination and a botanical one. Walks range from a two-hour meadow loop from the ranger station to multi-day traverses of the Kipengere range. It combines beautifully with a Ruaha or Nyerere safari to add a completely different landscape to a southern Tanzania itinerary.