Another road trip: Selous Game Reserve

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Another Bank Holiday weekend - so we couldn’t really stay in Dar! This time the decision fell on Selous Game Reserve, the biggest game reserve in Africa. It’s about the size of Switzerland! But only the North-Eastern part is open for photo safaris, the South is for game hunting with rich Arabs and Westerners going there. We - that were my housemates Ellen and Sara, Rita and myself - chose Selous for it’s vicinity to Dar, it’s only 250km to the South. The first part is tarmac and even less frequented than the roads to the West and North from Dar, so we got to Kibiti, the little town, where we had to branch off to the West in less than 2 hours. As we booked self-catering, we wanted to stock up on fresh vegetables on the local market, but the choice was rather restricted, only onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, aubergines and 3 small carrots. So we got at least all that and continued our journey. It was only 100km left to go. It started off with a solid dirt track with hardly any holes, but became increasingly more sandy, culminating in the odd sand pit. There were a few little villages with lots of people, but not really much happening. It took a good two hours to master this part and we reached Selous River Camp in the early afternoon, where we had booked to stay in a mud hut! The camp is beautifully set on a bend of the Rufiji River. It was so beautiful, calm and relaxing, a world apart from the dust and the noise in Dar! The camp was really nice; a gorgeous bar area overlooking the river and a short stroll away was our mud hut, also built not far above the riverbank. It was really cute, a round hut with an extension of a modern style bathroom with big shower head.
The hosts were lovely as well, a young Tanzanian/British couple. After a soda by the bar and a self-barbequed corn on the cob we went for a walking safari with Kenny on their grounds, that are bordering the game reserve. We passed some very strange acting monkeys, some of them were shaking and Kenny told us, they were drunk from eating too many Amarula fruit.

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Photos

On the walking safari
Ellen, Kenny, Rita, Sara

On the walking safari 2
Sara, Kenny

On the walking safari 3
Me, Ellen, Sara, Kenny (carrying the gun in case any wild animals come to close for comfort)

Dying monkey
We didn't realise this at the time

Sunset over Rufiji River
View from the bar at the camp