Zakouma National Park — Attraction in Guéra

Zakouma and the Chadian government has done a terrific job of bringing wildlife back from the brink.

The elephants in particular were decimated by Somalian poachers from neighboring Darfur during the conflict there and the approx. 500 left abandoned their matriarchal life, stopped breeding and grouped together just to survive. They are now up to 800 but are still very skittish around humans. We were dismayed at a female elephant with a baby charging and shrieking at us in terror. But if you are lucky, you will see 300 or so at a time coming to bathe in the river in a joyful manner if they feel safe. We sadly missed this, this but our Kenyan guide said he had tears streaming down his eyes witnessing this and thinking about how much the animals here have been through.

And it's not just the elephants who are skittish. This means you can't expect the same close encounters with wildlife that you can in Botswana or East Africa. But it may be more authentic?

Bird enthusiasts will like Zakouma because of its profuse bird life. Even non birders will be impressed by the red billed quelea murmurations.

Over three days we saw cheetah; herds of water buffalo; a serval cat; genet; civet; a few lions and elephants; and mating mob. Although most of the action was on our first afternoon/evening game drive. After that, the animals moved to other watering holes and few visitors saw game. (This was in early March.)

Breakfast starts at 5:30 AM for 6 AM game drives. It is a very simple continental breakfast but you can pay extra for eggs.

Lunch is served around 12:00-12:30 PM with the afternoon game drives starting at 3:30 PM until around 7 PM or longer if there is action.

The food (included in the package) is good but vegetarians just get pasta and potatoes unless you ask for more protein and give examples. They have well water that is filtered for free or you can buy plastic bottled water. Drinks are extra.

There is a next day laundry service. (Extra charge.)

Staff are very friendly and helpful but only the manager speaks English. Each safari vehicle is assigned coordinates in which to drive in to ensure each group gets a private safari experience, so you can't decide where you want to go. However, they do make sure you get to see different areas of the park during your time there. The driver/guides are well trained and enthusiastic but the guides who speak English work at the upscale Camp Nomad (see below, which is why most groups bring in a wildlife guide from Kenya).

You should absolutely book a one night Salamat River fly camping experience. The tents and bedding (proper sheets, pillow and mattress in a zipped up bag) are very comfortable and they set up toilet and shower tents. Book this in advance as it's popular.

The main camp is at Tinga. It consists of 24 2 person concrete rooms. The design is very poor (small windows; concrete; roof doesn't cover walls to keep sun off them) which means you bake (except in the cold winter months) as the ceiling and floor fan just move hot air around. It's like a hair dryer constantly blowing on you. The only way to sleep is to soak a sarong in cold water and wrap it around you. It will quickly dry but hopefully you'll drift off before then. The older rondavels are reportedly cooler than the newer rooms.

There are no cupboards, but there is a desk and table. The beds have mosquito netting. There is a power bank in each room to charge devices but make sure it works when they take you to your room! Each room has ensuite shower and toilet with TP and soap provided. Some of our group got daily cleaning, others didn't.

There is free, slow WIFI in a common area behind the main restaurant area.

Zakouma also boasts a high end camp called Camp Nomad. It overlooks a river plain and the rooms are in spacious tents. Groups such as Steppes Travel (Doug Macdonald Kenya based guide) stay here.

It's 2 hours to fly to Zakouma on an Airmax private charter from N'Djemena or 2 days...

This post is just about Camp Tinga!! If you are an safari enthusiast avoid this Camp at all costs! I have never been in an african safari camp offering so less quality. Everything, just everything is far below average from any other Camp I have ever seen!! The Camp consists of one main area and 6 houses. Each house contains 4 rooms, so at all 24 rooms. The rooms are divided in a sleeping area and a disgusting bath room. Over the bed is a mosquito net, more or less existing. The fan has a sound of starting Cessna Caravan. There is also a mobile fan in some rooms, but we couldn't get into the broken power outlet. Some rooms have charching stations, some don't. Some rooms have hot water, some don't. Our room was extremly run down when we arrived. Dirty, no toilet paper and no soap. The only thing Tinga offers are 4 towels. So bring all the equipment you need.

The Camp ist open for children at all age!! Just horrible, because it can be as loud as in a Disney Park. They even do safari with children under the age of 1!! This is extremly respectless towards other clients and especially towards photographers and of course nature.

The staff in the Restaurant is extremly unmotivated and lazy. Don't expect anything here. They only speak french. No one of the waiters speaks english. Food is OK, but as a vegetarian you are lost, you have to stay with potatoes or rice. Also when you are a picky eater it gets complicated as well. And no one is interested in diatarys. No one. For breakfast they only offer some bread and strawberry jam and melon. Every single day the same.

Sometimes people working for African Parks come to Camp. While paying guests nothing get offered and has to ask for everything, the staff of African Parks are treated like kings and queens. These people of African Parks are so arrogant. The do not say Hello or something else.

The camp has a huge lack of competence in Management. The camp has a Manager, but he is not there. And if he is there he doesn't speak and communicate to the guests. A very very unfriendly and uninterested person. Do not expect that someone will ask you about your experiences on game drive or something else.

The guides at Tinga are probably the worst guides in Africa. They have absolutly no knowledge and no idea what people on Safari, especially photographers, expect. They are simple drivers. Not more, not less. At the time we were at Tinga no guide could speak english. Very frustrating. Guides give no instruction how to behave on Safari. Especially white french people are talking loud in the car and jump of the car whenever they want. They don't show any respect towards nature.

If you have been to safaris in english speaking countries forget everything you experienced there. No breakfast in the bush, no coffee, no sundowner. They even don't care about the beauty of a sunset. All in all this Camp is a completly desaster. As a photographers you Probably should stay at Camp Nomade, that is much much more expensive but has probably the...

Zakouma is Chad's oldest national park,4] established by the nation's government in 1963.[5 Its wildlife have been threatened by the ivory trade and poaching, including by Janjaweed members. In 2007, militia forces attacked the park's headquarters for its stockpile of 1.5 tons of ivory, and killed three rangers.7 The government of Chad began working with African Parks in 2010 to help manage and protect the park and its wildlife,1[9] especially elephants.[6] The park's anti-poaching strategy includes equipping approximately 60 rangers with GPS tracking units and radios to improve communications, mobility, and safety, as well as improving mobility through the use of horses and other vehicles.The European Union pledged €6.9m in 2011 to help protect the park for five years.Elephant protection efforts expanded outside the park's boundaries in 2012, and an airstrip was constructed in Heban to make monitoring of the migrating animals easier. In August, Heban rangers destroyed a camp belonging to members of the Sudanese army after four elephants were killed.[9] Three weeks later, the poachers attacked the Zakouma outpost at Heban and shot and killed...