Udzungwa Mountains National Park

The little-visited Udzungwa Mountains National Park is part of the Eastern Arc mountain range, a set of ancient crystalline mountains formed more than 200 million years ago. The primeval forests of Udzungwa seem positively enchanted: to walk these jungle pathways is to enter a damp, green kingdom of sunshine-dappled glades enclosed by giant trees, their trunks encrusted with dripping fungi, lichens, mosses and ferns. This area has been called the African Galapagos for its wealth of endemic plants and animals, ranging from a tiny new African violet to the Sanje Crested Mangabey, which remained undetected by science for thousands of years and was only discovered in 1979!