Starting our safari in the Selous

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We had a challenging start to our safari when we got up early and were transferred to the main terminal of the Dar es Salaam airport (terminal 2), only to discover that our airline only flew from the (much smaller) terminal 1. When we managed to get to terminal 1, we discovered that we were going to be boarding a plane with 11 passengers, 1 pilot and no toilet on board! Eeek! Fortunately, the flight was actually very smooth and we landed at our air strip without incident.



We were taken on a game drive en route to our permanent tented camp at Lake Manze and had our first glimpses of baboons, impala, lions, giraffes (including a couple of babies less than a week old), zebras and wildebeest! Very exciting for first time safari goers (although after the Serengeti zebras and wildebeest became about as exciting as seeing cows or sheep back home - but more on that later).



In the afternoon we went for a boat safari to get up close with the crocodiles and hippos. We also saw a few giraffes crossing the channel, a buffalo hiding in the bushes and a multitude of birds.



The next day we had an early morning game drive (which is easy when you are on New Zealand or Australian Eastern time), which was relatively quiet, followed by a 2 hour walking safari, accompanied by our guide and a couple of armed rangers. The walking safari enabled us to learn a lot about animal poo and tracks. It was also apparent that the herbivores still run away when you are on foot - this may be a hangover from most of the Selous being open for hunting (we hope that our stay supported the growth of the photographic tourism sector there) or may have been because we were sweating, stinking and dying in the sun! The exception to the running away was a small group of angry old men buffalos that were giving us the eye and caused us to divert from our proposed route to steer clear!



Accommodation at Lake Manze was excellent - tent with a view of the lake, wooden floor, bed, furniture, flushing toilet and shower. We went to sleep listening to the weird grunting noise of the hippos and woke up to see elephants sneaking past to try to get some fruit from the dining tent at breakfast time!



On our last full day we had a long full day game drive, which was our most rewarding. We spent some time watching a few lion cubs playing (extremely cute!), followed the lakes around to a swimming hole (no crocs or hippos there), saw the extremely rare African wild dogs, a hyena and a herd of elephants!



Hideously early the next morning, we went to shoo the animals off the dirt strip runway ready for our flight up to Arusha.

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Photos

Crazy little plane
Challenge accepted.

Baby giraffes
Still has umbilicial cord attached - less than a week old

I liked this bird
He makes an umbrella with his wings and then eats the fish that swim into the shade underneath

Hungry hippo
Pretty serious - is already missing an ear

Giraffe drinking
They have limited up and down movement in their necks so have to sprawl their legs for a drink

Pumba!
They run with their tails in the air

Walking safari
Hope nothing is stalking us