Tanzania 2012
After such a long day of flying to get to the Siwandu Airstrip in Selous, it's a relief to see an old Land Rover with the Selous Safari Camp logo waiting to take us to our home for the next 4 nights...
Selous Game Reserve
Africa's largest and oldest game reserve is one of its most scenic wildlife destinations. Only 200 km West of Dar es Salaam, one of Africa's least known yet wildest conservation areas. At an unbelievable 55,000 square kilometers, Selous is almost twice the size of Belgium and four times larger than the famous Serengeti in the North, covering 5% of Tanzania's land area. The beauty of the park is matched by the quality of a safari here; boating, and walking compliment standard game driving in thriving wildlife areas.
It's a short drive from the airstrip to our camp, we pass a few young Giraffes and some Greater Kudu before arriving. The term Luxury Camping takes on a new meaning when we see what the Selous Safari Camp has in store for us.
As we pull up to reception we are greeted with a cold cloth, and a tropical drink, before we are told that there is no fences... Yep, we've heard this before. After getting all of our deets we are introduced to our "Room Steward" Suileman, he would carry our luggage, bring our wake up call refreshments, do our laundry (just not ladies undergarments), and clean and prep our tent every day.
Our "Tent" is amazing, one of only 7 tents in the camp, complete with hardwood floors, ceiling fan, running water and flushing toilets, a huge outdoor star shower with solar hot water. It has a large deck with a great view across a meadow at the lake, and a giant comfy bed.
Even the small touches are cool, African carvings and art throughout, and very unique furniture.
Boat Cruise
After a brief stop to change our clothes and drop our stuff in the tent, we are taken out by Bantu on Lake Nzerakera in a small aluminum boat. Even as we walk towards the dock we see the Crocodiles slipping into the water. The scenery is beautiful, but the mixture of Crocodiles and Hippos all around our small boat is a little scary to say the least.
The lake is full of Hippos, and they all seem to be staring at us. They watch for a while, then disappear into the water before resurfacing.
The creepiest of them all is the Nile Crocodiles, as the boat moves along they slither from the shoreline into the water, they submerge into the water so all you can see is their scary dead eyes staring at you, then they disappear. What makes it the most scary is that we can see so many Hippos and Crocs in this lake, and we know it is just the tip of the iceberg... how many can't we see in the waters below us?
Mamba - Crocodile
From our small boat it's not just Crocs and Hippos, there is a great mix of wildlife to see, Giraffes, and birds of all sizes.
Goliath Heron
Fish Eagle
Sacred Ibis Great White Egret
Our biggest surprise on our boat ride is when we see a pride of 12 lions all lounging around one area of the shoreline. As we watch them from the safety of our boat, we notice they are either sound asleep or staring at us, even when a potential meal walks in front of them.
Bantu has drinks and a tray of sausage rolls he refers to as "bitings", and we enjoy a little snack out on the waters while watching the sunset.
Safely back on the shore, we head to the room before being escorted back to the dining room area for dinner. The tradition here starts with drinks and chairs around the campfire, until the chef "Peter" comes to announce the 3 course meal for the night. Oh the dinners, so good.
Nzuri Sana - It's very good!
Instead of having us eat in the elevated restaurant area, they have setup tables on the grass, and in the candle light we would meet our amazing waiter, Mohammed. Mohammed would look after us for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and was one of the friendliest people I have ever met. We learned so much from him every day, and shared our stories of the day and our respective countries.
Since we are on the grass a short walk from the lake shore, there is a Masai Askari watching for animals, and we get a little excited as a Hippo wanders from the shore past the dining area. I feel so much better knowing that Masai warrior has a flashlight and a little stick.
Askari - GuardAt 2:30 in the morning I am woken up by crunching sounds outside our tent, in the moonlight we watch the silhouette of a Hippo as it wanders past the front of our tent. Comfortable with the knowledge that a Hippo couldn't get through mosquito netting, we head back to sleep.
DAY ELEVEN
At 6:30 the sun comes up and shines right into our tent, and every bird in the country breaks into song... I'm up. Suileman shows up with a tray of cookies, Tea and Hot Chocolate, and we sit on our deck watching a herd of Impala grazing in the grass.
We have a lovely breakfast of traditional Tanzanian foods... OK maybe not, Omelette with Cheese and Bacon. It seems that all the creatures are coming to see what we are eating, birds come watch, even a squirrel (yep, apparently they are in Africa too) tries to get in on the covered buffet trays. I assumed the covers were for flies, who knew?
Full of eggs and bacon, it's time to jump in the Land Rover with our driver and guide Mashaka for a game drive.
Mashaka heads back to the area where was saw the lions on shore from the boat, and sure enough the pride is still lazing around there.
There's a lot of young males in this group, they look a little funny with the Mohawk Manes.
After a little bit of action when we arrive, they start to ignore us, and go back to sleep, one of the lions even climbed up into a tree in an attempt to find more private sleeping quarters.
Shortly after leaving this Lion pride we come across an Impala who has injured himself and is struggling to move around on three legs, it's a little shocking to hear the bluntness from Mashaka "That will be the Lion's dinner", shocking, but true.
It's always fun to see the primates, so we are pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in a huge troop of Yellow Baboons. They are smaller and skinnier than the Olive Baboons we had seen in other parks, but just as fun to watch, especially the little ones.
At Tarangire we were told how lucky we were to have seen Wild Dogs, so it was a great surprise to find another pack here. Nestled under a tree was a wide assortment of the mottle furred dogs and pups snoozing. They were a little curious at first, but soon went back to sleep.
We will have to send Michelle at Oliver's Camp an email and let her know we saw the dogs again, she'll be thrilled.
Back at our tent, we watch a troop of Black Faced Vervet Monkeys, then head to the restaurant for some lunch.
Did I mention how good the food was, Crab Cakes with roasted pumpkin and feta... this is crazy! While we are enjoying our Crab Cakes, I notice something green in a basket on the deck, when a small green tree snake climbs out, Norine and I are in awe, but several ladies eating lunch are not quite so cool with it. No real excitement as he climbs down the deck into a tree, and slithers away into the grass.
our pet bug-catcherWild Desert Rose
There's nothing better than a nice cold pool on a hot sunny day, and that is how we would spend the afternoon until our next game drive. Reading our books, watching the birds, cooling off in the water... I know, tough life.
Lilac Breasted RollerBuffalo Weaver
Once again we loaded into the Land Rover with Mashaka and another couple and headed out for the afternoon drive.
One of the creepiest things we saw was this wasp, we heard it coming from a distance, and it flew right through the vehicle nearly hitting me. It is so loud that the locals call it "The Motorcycle", the actual name for it is "Spider Hunter Wasp". This thing is big, and it's loud drone apparently scares/encourages the spiders out of their holes, where it then proceeds to sting and kill them... nice, yoiks!
To be clear, I did not take this picture, I am not going near that!!!
How we actually spotted them I am not completely sure, but we did... hidden in a small area of tall grass is 2 small Lion cubs, probably hidden there by their mom while she was out hunting up dinner. It's amazing just how much their fur blends into the grass. We didn't want to freak them out too much, or potentially piss of their mom, so we left them in peace and moved on.
White Browed CoucalLipstick Bird
Probably my most terrifying moment of the trip (aside from that Wasp) was when we stopped for a pee break. We had just been watching some Baboons, and I was told it was safe to go behind a bush to pee. Just as I am undoing my fly the bushes start shaking, and there is loud crashing sounds mere inches in front of my unzipped pants. I am having a complete paranoid meltdown while everyone else watches a cute little rabbit come running out of the other side of the bushes. All I could say was "What the hell, I don't have to go to the bathroom anymore."
All of the excitement over we have a drink while watching the sun go down (called a sundowner), and head back to camp.
Tonight we would meet a very interesting lady from Alaska, a fellow traveller, Carol has been everywhere, and she is in the midst of a several month long vacation. We invited her to join us for dinner, and we became very good friends over the next week or so after a night of laughing.
What some people didn't find quite as funny was our walk back to our tents, we are escorted by a guy with a giant Elephant gun, and as he walks us to our tent with his flashlight, bats are circling around our feet picking off the bugs in the beam of light... I thought it was awesome!
DAY TWELVE
Since we had such a great time doing the walking safari's with Alex in Tarangire, we signed up to do one here. At 6:00am, we get our wake up call delivery of Tea and Hot Chocolate, and at 6:30 our Masai Askari comes to get us for the walk. We barely get out of our tent and he stops us, there is a Hippo coming down the path. He bangs his stick on the bushes to let the hippo know we are there, and encourage him to move along, but there's yummy grass here, so it takes a while. Finally he wanders away and we can go join the guides.
As it turns out the walking safari is a shit show, literally... we learn more about animal pooh with Mtambo and Mboto, than we will ever need to know for the rest of our lives. The frustration sets in when he is standing in a pile of Impala pooh (pic above), and he keeps talking about Impala pooh while an entire troop of Baboons is wandering behind him, excuse me... MONKEYS!!!
A small segment of an ant trailGiant African Land Snail shell
It wasn't a complete loss, as we did actually see some animals including the greater Kudu, and we got to see the interesting defense mechanism of trees; ants live inside small pods in the thorns and when the tree is disturbed the ants attack. We continued to learn more and more about pooh, and even saw a shedded skin of the deadly Puff Adder.
We walked for almost 10 kilometres, when Mtambo suggest we cut through some trees for a viewpoint, when we come through the trees, the staff have snuck out and setup a table next to the lake. We all sit down and have a full breakfast of egg fritata, breads and fruits on the shore, while watching Kudu and Giraffes graze and drink along the waters edge.
Having finished our breakfast on the shore we walk back to the camp, and rest up for lunch. The big surprise at lunch today was not animals wandering the shores, or the little bird/squirrel visitors that watch us eat, it was the cool napkin holders... we are so getting some for home!
Most of the day would be spent at the pool today, cooling off in the waters, reading our books, talking to Carol about her travel misadventures, or just watching the little Weaver bird keep building his nest.
It was the last day for the other couple we went on game drives with, so Mashaka wanted to make sure they go to see something special, maybe even see some Lion cubs that weren't hidden in the grass... he kind of over-delivered. As we are busy looking at a group of monkeys in a tree, he points out the Lion that is chewing on a Buffalo (those poor Buffalo are taking a beating this trip), one of a group of 5 Lions.
What happened next truly put my bravery to the test... we move on from "The Kill" and there is 2 more Lions chasing away a Hyena, when we stop to watch, they feel the Hyena is far enough away and they come walking right up to the truck. I am in an open sided Land Rover, the only part of my body that is protected from the outside is the knee down, and this giant Lion comes walking right up to the truck where I am sitting. She looks up at me, and goes under the corner of the truck to the other shady side and lays down. If I have video footage of that, I can guarantee you that the footage gets more and more shaky the closer she gets... Wow!
As we are sitting watching these 2 Lions, 5 more Lions emerge from the bushes and wander over, they check us out, have a drink and join in on the nap festival. I would say this is a pretty good night of Lion viewing, but wait...
As we finally leave the snoozing Lions in peace and continue our drive, we are treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets yet, it's not often you see a sky that colour, with the silhouette of a giraffe and zebras... OK, that never happens.
No sooner do we finish our Sundowner drinks and get moving again, and we run into another pride of Lions, this time there is 5 cubs and 3 adults. The little ones are so cute, but it's getting late, and we aren't allowed to be out in the park after 6:30. Mashaka lets the camp know that they may have to tell the ranger we got a flat tire.
What an absolutely incredible game drive, and an excellent way for Lisabelle and Glen to remember their safari.
DAY THIRTEEN
It was a "quiet" night in the camp with nothing waking us up till our wake up call of Tea and Hot Chocolate. We enjoyed our morning beverages watching some Impala and a Wart Hog wander around in front of our tent.
After breakfast we headed back out on the water with Bantu, back into our little aluminum boat to float amongst the Hippos and Crocodiles, now that we were seasoned veterans of the Croc infested waters, it wasn't quite as terrifying as the first time.
Once you get away from the shoreline, it's the Hippos that are intimidating, why must they stare?
If you are into birding, this morning would have been your dream come true, close up to almost every variety from this area.
Even the Elephants are coming to the waters edge, making viewing from the boat a perfect vantage point. As we drifted along we passed several groups of Elephants, the constant was that every group had a young baby... look at the baby elephant... awwwwww.
At first we were a fair distance from the Impalas and Bush Bucks, but as we waited quietly in our boat, their fear dissipated and we got fairly close to Greater Kudu's and larger herd's of Impala that just wanted a drink.
We got our last close-ups of the Crocs and got out of the little tin boat for the last time.
Norine makes a quick trip to the Loo on our way back to the pool, and excitedly runs out "come look, COME LOOK!". Nestled up in the rafters of the bathroom is a yellow bat, staring down at us. The staff didn't think it was as cool, "They are very messy", Oh Guano!
After some more quality pool time, we jumped back in the Land Rover with Mashaka for our last game drive at Selous. He was determined to find us a Leopard and we headed the opposite direction from where we had been before, towards Siwandu Lake.
We never did see a Leopard, but we saw lots of other animals, including the very rare sighting of the Black and White Colobus monkeys. It was amazing to watch them racing through the trees leaping limb to limb.
We had one last Sundowner with Mashaka, complete with "bitings" and headed back to camp.
During dinner we met a pilot from Coastal Airlines, a very funny Spanish lady named Marta. Apparently they aren't allowed to land their Cessnas in the dark on the dirt airstrips... makes sense to me. She thought maybe she would be our pilot in the morning, but she wasn't.
DAY FOURTEEN
It was time to leave, it took a while to sort out the tipping, probably the most expensive place we have ever stayed in that regard, but we were treated so well, and made to feel so welcome. We get into the truck, and all of our new Tanzanian friends are waving as we drive away.
