Hippos and Horseplay

Question

_{This is part 5 of the puzzle series Around the World in Many Days. Each part is solvable on its own.}

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Deаr Puzzling,

This time you are going to need some of your chess knowledge. Not a lot of chess knowledge, though – you simply need to know how a single piece moves! Find a path for a knight starting in the lower left corner to cover each unshaded cell exactly once, ending in the cell marked with the white diamond. The grid is eight by eight, because a chessboard has eight lines and eight files and the number eight is significant.

Today I have visited a national park that’s bigger than many countries and seen lions, hippos and giraffes in their natural environment. Can you guess where I am?

Love, Gladys.

Crossword on Penpa+
Knight’s tour on Penpa+ (use the “line / free” mode)

Across
1. Artists who sing "All Along the Watchtower", "Turn the Page" and "Jammin'", for example
4. A letter used in the names of Corfu, Cyprus and Crete
7. Automatic weapons from 10 down
8. A coastal inlet
9. A Pacific island nation
11. A novel by Jane Austen
13. An official language of South Africa
15. A Starfleet officer
17. An Indian king or prince
18. A shah of Iran
19. A type of small deer native to Eurasia
20. An aircraft or ship's personnel
21. A person like Forrest Gump or Doctor Dolittle
22. A disease the Berlin Patient was famously cured of (abbr.)

Down
1. An enthusiast or expert
2. A small jewel
3. Antebellum
5. A relative of Muhammad's on his father's side
6. Animal cells that can be fertilised
10. A name given to Jacob
12. Allocated portion
14. A language spoken in the Caucasus
16. A thriller film by Steven Spielberg
17. Accelerate without the gears engaged

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Gladys will return in Who’s in for a Cruising?

Answer 1

Gladys is at

Ruaha National Park in Tanzania.

The answer to the crossword is as follows:

Across

1. Artists who sing "All Along the Watchtower"(Bob Dylan), "Turn the Page"(Bob Seger) and "Jammin'"(Bob Marley), for example -> BOBS
4. A letter used in the names of Corfu(Κέρκυρα), Cyprus(Κύπρος) and Crete(Κρήτη) -> ρ-RHO
7. Automatic weapons from 10 down (Israel) -> UZIS
8. A coastal inlet -> RIA
9. A Pacific island nation -> FIJI
11. A novel by Jane Austen -> EMMA
13. An official language of South Africa -> SWAZI
15. A Starfleet officer -> UHURA
17. An Indian king or prince -> RAJA
18. A shah of Iran -> REZA
19. A type of small deer native to Eurasia -> ROE
20. An aircraft or ship's personnel -> CREW
21. A person like Forrest Gump or Doctor Dolittle -> VET
22. A disease the Berlin Patient was famously cured of (abbr.) -> AIDS

Down

1. An enthusiast or expert -> BUFF
2. A small jewel -> BIJOU
3. Antebellum -> PREWAR
5. A relative of Muhammad's on his father's side -> HAMZA
6. Animal cells that can be fertilised -> OVA
10. A name given to Jacob -> ISRAEL
12. Allocated portion -> SHARE
14. A language spoken in the Caucasus -> AZERI
16. A thriller film by Steven Spielberg -> JAWS
17. Accelerate without the gears engaged -> REV

And the Knight's Tour is as follows:

^{(Click to see the static version)}

Then,

Reading the letters along the Knight's path gives a string which makes no sense. Then we notice Gladys saying in her letter "the number eight is significant", so we extract the letters in positions within periods of 8-letters (starting from 9th, ignoring the initial position)

VAFZSIOM [R] VZAEERS [U] BIPAAJE [A] ARUIBIF [H] EYCZSRH [A] AWI

and those letters spell where she is.