Kitulo National Park

Kitulo National Park sits at 2,600 metres in the Kipengere highlands of southern Tanzania — a cool, mist-touched plateau that the Tanzanian government was persuaded to protect not for large mammals, but for flowers. Local missionaries called it 'Bustani ya Mungu': the Garden of God.

From November through April, the plateau erupts into colour. Orchids, aloes, red-hot pokers, pelargoniums, proteas, and sunbirds fill the grasslands in a display that rivals the famous flower seasons of South Africa's namaqualand or the Alps in July. Over 350 orchid species have been recorded, including many found nowhere else on earth.

The park also offers excellent birding — Denham's bustard, mountain marsh widow, and the Kipengere seedeater are all present — and spectacular highland scenery with views to the Ruaha escarpment.