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Published: July 17th 2006
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I have been to some of the great wild life areas of Africa like the Kruger National Park, the Okavango delta and many others. I had even visited the Serengeti plains, the Ngorongoro crater and Lake Manyara but I had never before been to Selous.
Selous is a massive park, bigger even than Kruger and 2 years older. It is pronounced ‘se loos’ and was named after an English soldier, Frederick Courtney Selous, who was shot in the park during a skirmish with German soldiers in World War One.
Just like many of my destinations of the past few months, I arrived in Selous quite by accident. I was speaking, on Skype, to my mother about my plans for the next few weeks. It turned out she would be in Tanzania (working for the breweries here) and had a spare week exactly when I did. I contact Star Alliance and found that South African Airways (SAA) was now accepting Star Alliance Round the World Tickets so I was able to fly to Dar Es Salam on my existing ticket at no extra charge! So I boarded a plane in Bangkok and twenty-four hours, almost to the minute, later -
Selous from the Sky
And what are those stripey beasts! and having passed through Singapore and Joburg, I found myself back in Tanzania.
In the mean time I had done a quick search on SKYPE for “Safari” in “Tanzania” and found Chris, the MD of
Bush 2 Beach. He made some quick arrangements and squeezed us into the Sable Mountain Lodge, just on the outskirts of Selous.
My mom and I boarded yet another plane, and disappeared into the bush. The approach to Selous was stunning... we saw, on the final approach, elephants, antelope - too small to identify from the plane - and giraffes. I was getting excited now.
The lodge, Sable Mountain Lodge, is a quaint collection of huts scattered across a bushy hilly area not far from the park border. At first I was disappointed to hear that it was outside the park - in South Africa that would generally mean on the wrong side of the fences, but as Selous is not fenced, it made little difference really - we were in the wilderness.
We undertook both bush drives and a bush walk and we were both struck by the similarities between many parts of Selous and the Kruger National Park. There were differences
Elephant from the Plane!
I was shocked at how much game we saw from the plane on the approach to Selous. though.
One of differences reminded me of Thailand and Indonesia where you often here “Same Same; but different.” A saying probably inspired by the Lady Boys (transvestites) that are common in both clients… think about it… Same Same, but Different. Anyway…. I would see birds that were exactly that, Same Same but Different! Like all these bizarre species of hornbill that I had never seen before.
The next difference was in service. Before discussing the differences, I should say that the service was very good. The staff was friendly, the facilities were excellent (solar powered) and the food was wonderful.
The differences were more about the way things were done. For example, the guides do not appear to be of the same quality as the guides in South Africa. Perhaps this is due to FGASA (Field Guide’s Association of South Africa) and government regulations that guides are trained and tested? For example, we had one guide try to convince us that a Francolin was a Grouse - all of us in the jeep knew different, but he was insistent. And he was wrong.
The real trouble was the game walk - they really are a bit
Welcome to Selous!
This is one of the roads that could easily be in the Kruger National Park... lost in that area. We woke early - as always for morning walks. The goal generally is to start walking shortly after sun up - before that it is a bit too dangerous (hippos still feeding, lions hunting etc.) This morning was no different, except that instead of heading out to the walk, we drove around to pay park fees and pick up the guides. (In Kruger and other parks I have walked in, the guides are in the jeep and pick up the guests… ) Van Rooi, I really think you could change some things here!
By the time we got moving, the sun was high in the sky. They then drove us to a field where there were other people doing bush walks too. I have NEVER before seen other tourists when doing a bush walk - and have done over a hundred walks in the bush. It seemed as though this was “the field” for the bush walks, and everyone went there.
We got out of the jeep and got ready to walk. I was expecting the usual pre-walk briefing - don’t run, don’t talk, walk single file - but none came. The guide was
Welcome to Sable Mountain Camp
And then imagine sitting here and watching the sun come up each morning... just going to walk.
“Aren’t you going to tell us not to run?” I asked.
Ah, well, yes, he explained, perhaps there are a few things I should mention… he went on.
We then started the walk… and the two guides with the riffles walked BEHIND us the entire time. On EVERY other walk I have done the riffles remain at the front of the group.
I could go on, but I would suggest that walking in the Selous is probably not a great idea until they iron out a few of these issues.
And still, Selous is magical. We had some excellent game encounters and took a fabulous boat safari on a lake in the reserve (do this if you go to Selous!) We saw elephant, hippo, crocodiles (Topher and co, it was similar at times to our alligator experience in Florida last year) and a variety of birds. Oh, and of course our trip was punctuated from time to time by the totally African sound of the Fish Eagle echoing around the lake.
I really have no idea what is in store for me over the next few days. My mom is
Selous Ranger's Office
Like many offices and buildings in Game Reserves, this one had an amazing collection of skulls... can you tell which animals are there?? headed to Uganda for work and I am travelling around Tanzania with Chris, of
Bush 2 Beach. He is showing me around TZ so that we can prepare an itinerary for the adventure trip we are planning for my seminar customers in the UK. I will report again soon! Keep the comments and e-mails coming!
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Nick
non-member comment
Nice shots
Fish Eagle look surpisingly like bald-eagle.