Saadani is where the beach meets the bush. The only wildlife sanctuary in East Africa to boast for an Indian Ocean beachfront, it sounds too farfetched to be true – an epic safari adventure filled with scenic savannahs, verdant bush lands married with calm beaches absent from tourists. This description may sound like the stuff of dreams, but here in Tanzania’s Saadani National Park, it is the reality. Yet it is also the one place where those idle hours of sunbathing might be interrupted by an elephant strolling past, or a lion coming to drink at the nearby waterhole.Species found here include giraffe, buffalo, warthog, common waterbuck, reedbuck, greater kudu, hartebeest, wildebeest, sable antelope, and the vervet monkey. Saadani is also home to the spotted hyena, leopard and the black-backed jackal. Boat trips on the mangrove-lined Wami River come along with a high chance of sighting hippos, crocodiles and a selection of marine and riverine birds, including the mangrove kingfisher and lesser flamingo. The beaches form one of the last major green turtle breeding sites on mainland Tanzania.