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Click on a set, then click at top right on ‘slideshow’)
SELOUS RESERVE, SOUTH TANZANIA.
2-3 nights in the Selous? NO! 4-5 nights in the Selous? An absolute YES!
The Impala camp (Selous) was a mix of “fly” camping in tents and staying in the main tented camp. I was looking for a relaxed, African feel rather than top western-style luxury. Managed by Adventure Camps and with a distinct Italian influence, it definitely provided good quality service & food, and for me, was exactly the sort of base from which to experience all the activities and adventures that I had. My ethos is very much to spend my money on the best locations rather than the top-priced camps and I think I achieved this. A Gin & Tonic and nibbles on the veranda as the African sun sets is no less wonderful!
The greatest benefit in Selous was that I had a vehicle with 2 guides all to myself for the full 5 days, partly I guess because of the dates but also part of the camps own service levels. It is less well known, and for our wild dog sightings, we were the only vehicle for miles around. The maximum number of other vehicles that I saw in any given day was 5, but they did their thing and we did ours! Selous is truly massive.
It was great to spend a full 5 days with the same people, whether sleeping out or staying in the main camp. It allowed the guides to share their enthusiasm and knowledge, as well as for them to adjust to my own levels of knowledge and appetite. The one on one relationship fully enhanced the whole experience.
The Selous reminded me a little of the Linyanti/Moremi region in North Botswana for the scale and wilderness. The Rufiji River is big, lots of water & lakes and then great areas of bush land. They offer great boat trips up the river, loads of birds, hippos, buffalo, crocs and elephant all along the river bank. There's a mix of landscapes which meet the river, from semi-open plains, small forested areas, woodlands, hillsides and slopes to the Selous mountains.
Staying in the fly camp was an excellent experience, with very friendly attentive camp staff. We took an early morning 3 hour bush-walk, seeing things from the ground-up, including finding Colobus monkeys. I’m not a great walking safari fan, but one long walk was very good when added to the rest of the trip.
One of the real benefits to the Selous is that it’s a Reserve and truly massively wild. Although not encouraged, vehicles are allowed off road for the big 5 as well as any special sightings (dogs etc). One of the best things that I found was that you could follow a particular group of animals and see them interact over a period of time. Examples would be following a herd of elephant mums, adolescents and calves as they browsed their way down to the river to drink, mud wallowing and playing as they went.
Personally, I do not think that the hunting licensed concessions make for skittish animals. I had heard some negative comments made before I went. Hunting is all South of the Rufiji, whilst the photo-safaris take place along the Northern bank. The animals recognise the safety in the North.
Also, the Rufiji river is a massive magnet for all the animals, particularly later in the season as the bush dries up. Whilst the animals cannot be considered to have become habituated with the vehicles as you might find in the Kruger or Sabi Sands, my driver and guide were very, very good at approaching our sightings with minimal disturbance. A good pair of binoculars and a long camera lens will always help!
I was also very interested to hear that the hunting concessions are now pretty limited, with the Government looking to sell the concession rights more and more to photo-safari operators. Demand for these has been particularly high all along the Southern river bank. Despite the loss of top-priced dollars to the Reserve (which greatly assists in conservation, education as well as ranger activity) that the loss of hunting fees will bring, this can only be good news.
Remember, this is not the Kruger or Sabi. This really is as close to truly wild Africa as you can get. As a result (and similar to any other experience I’ve had) the game drives were hit or miss. You have to spend time in these locations to get the full value. Any given drive may yield some birds, giraffe, zebra and impala only. However, you’ll then experience a whole day with the most wonderful sightings. On my trip, I was extremely fortunate to have wild dog, lion/leopard interacting, big buffalo and zebra herds, finishing off with Civet ALL in a single day.
Finally, I can only highly recommend the Selous, but with the caveat that it requires a minimum of 4 days to truly get the best out of the place. I was marginally cynical about the “value added” boat trips and walking, but the fly camping was superb and the combination of game drives, boat drives and walking means that I for one will be returning to experience all that the Selous has to offer again.
STORY 1. 1 HOUR WITH WILD DOG.
This all happened 0700-0800, Sunday 20th June. North of the Rufiji, in the Selous reserve. Driving from our Impala fly-camp, we see 9 dogs just waking up around the den they whelped at last year. From the fuss they're making at the den entrance, the tiny squeaks & growl coming up, the Alpha female must have had her pups that night! The dogs make off slowly, bonding as they wake. Then it's an incredible site seeing them move off line abreast, a width of 200 metres, as they sweep the bush at a long loping trot seeking game. One shoots off, full speed, close to the ground with head, back and tail all in a perfectly straight line. The dog is after an impala. He hits it hard and the kills been made with another from the pack so quickly. 3 then 4 dogs come in for a very rapid, noisy and gorging feed. Finally, the yearlings demolish the Impala. In less than 20 minutes there is only the skull and backbone left. It was all very precise, surgeon like and carried out at an incredibly fast pace. Waking to finishing feeding all in an hour.
STORY 2. THE LION, THE LEOPARD, BABOON & A ZEBRA.
This all happened 0840-1020, Sunday 20th June and occurred following my previous post Wild Dog, Waking to finishing feeding all in an hour.
We drive away from the dog sighting, excited and chattering away on what we had experienced. I spot and shout “Lion”, the driver and guide automaticaly say “No, it's Impala” after my many false calls! However, I am correct!
It’s 08:40 & the sun is warming up. Having had their first feed during the early hours, one lioness drags their Zebra kill to under the shade of a false umbrella tree. The second lioness looks on from 20 meters away, resting in long grass, and a third older female lies some 50 metres on.
Suddenly we see movement and spots up in the tree that’s immediately above the zebra carcass and the first lioness. She’s dragged the meal directly under where one, no, two leopards must have escaped earlier, during the kill. And none of the lionesses know they are there!
The leopard look down, it’s a large male with a smaller female. The male has had enough and takes his chances. He comes down vertically, lands softly and makes a break for it, leaving his partner to fend for herself. The lioness is too slow and all she can do is look on as he makes good his escape, avoiding all three of his enemies.
The female leopard watches her mate disappear into the distance & towards thicker bush. She’s now stuck up the tree, with two of the lions looking up at her. After a growl & snarl of defiance, she calculates whether she can move, but only heads up as far as she can into the canopy, the lion below now guarding her every move. The stalemate continues, half an hour passes, lion below, leopard above. Both look up and away to the mid-distance.
Spread out and 100 metres away, coming closer, a troupe of baboon can be seen. Heads down, the baboon are foraging the ground for food. The big male suddenly barks an alarm, and in panic and noisy commotion, the whole troupe leap up the nearest trees. The panic subsides, they’re safe from the three lion below. It’s only then that they spot the leopard, the greatest threat. Loud, intermittent alarm barks from the adult baboon have the youngsters scurrying along the branches. The big male baboon stays watchful on the ground.
The second lion decides to stir herself and strolls up to begin feeding, looked on by the other two lions, the leopard above her and the baboon in the nearby trees. The third older lioness makes her way slowly to the zebra carcass and the two of them rub heads in greeting. They settle down, the elder taking a turn at feeding, in the shade of the leopard tree.
This has become all too much for the leopard. The young female makes her move, descends to a lower branch, looks down at the lion & then surveys her options.
She makes her escape! Plummeting vertically, she’s off & running. But the guard lion is after her, accelerating with great strides and threatening to overtake the leopard, who is sprinting for her life. The lion is huge compared with the fleeing leopard, there’s no way she’ll out run the bigger predator. With the lion less than 5 metres behind and catching fast, the leopard bolts up another tree, barely 35 feet from the original.
Safe again, the leopard watches on as her chaser retires and the other lion continue to feed and rest by their meal. It’s clear from the scars on her face and the shortened teeth, the senior lion has had a tough life. A lost segment has given her a forked tongue. But she continues to feed on the zebra with relish.
Two and a half hours have now passed since the lion dragged the kill under the two leopards' tree. A combination of the rising heat, full bellies and maybe two days of meals left on the zebra means the lion are losing interest in the young female leopard. At last she has enough space and time to descend safely and make good her escape. She trots confidently off, following the same path as her mate towards the thicker bush.
A short while later, some distance away, can be heard the soft throaty coughing as one of the leopard calls for the other………………………
