Selous Game Reserve and Ruaha National Parks - Good game viewing in unspoiled Africa
Written: Oct 19 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Good wildlife viewing if you go during the dry season.
Cons: Game tends to be more shy than in other African national parks.
The Bottom Line: This is a good reserve for the repeat visitor to Africa but not for a first trip to Africa, as other areas in East Africa have better game viewing.
|
|
|
| Prim8Pal's Full Review: Selous Game Reserve |
In early October we spent 6 days in this reserve, splitting our time between the Rufiji River Camp and the Selous Safari Camp (formerly known as Mbuyuni Luxury tented camp). Only a small portion of the north of this vast reserve has been developed for tourism. The terrain is mostly flat with woodlands/scrub and the great Rufiji River where most of the camps are located. There are also some lakes, and during the dry season much of the wildlife concentrates near the river and the lakes for water. We saw large herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and antelope, but these herds were more cautious of humans than in other parks in Africa. This is a result of the fact that they see fewer vehicles, and also the fact that hunting is allowed in parts of the reserve. Elephants are also plentiful, and there was a profusion of giraffes. We also saw several prides of lion which are always entertaining. The highly endangered African wild dog can be seen here, although we were unlucky. The dogs are generally on the move except for the period when they are denning and raising their pups. Typical game viewing activities include game drives, walks, and boat rides along the river (tons of hippos and crocs, and birds).
Rufiji River Camp - This camp is attractively situated on a bluff overlooking the Rufiji River. Tents are comfortable and well appointed, and you can see hippos and antelope from many of the tents. One night elephants came through the camp and were chomping away on the vegetations right next to our tent! The food here is average. The guides are ok at finding animals, but don't explain as much about animal behavior as I've seen with guides in other parks. The Italian manager does not interact much with the guests and does not make an effort to tailor your activities to meet your interests.
Selous Safari Camp - This was clearly the better of the two camps we stayed at. The tents are well appointed and widely spaced apart. The staff is very willing to please and the guides are better at approaching animals without scaring them off so that you can get a closer look. Both the Selous Safari Camp and the Rufiji River Camp traverse the same areas looking for game, but we were able to get closer to the animals in the Selous Safari Camp vehicles. The guides also made a better attempt to explain about animal behavior. The camp manager is an American who tries to tailor the activities to suit the interest of the client. The camp is located by a lake, so we had elephant, impala, waterbuck, and giraffe coming close to our tent as they came to drink. The menu here is very creative, although sometimes the execution was a bit off. Overall, we found the meals tasty although sometimes over-salted.
Ruaha National Park
From Selous, it is easy to take a flight to Ruaha National Park which is Tanzania's second largest National Park. There are only two lodges spaced quite far apart, so it's unlikely you'll see many other vehicles. The terrain consists of mountains, rocky hills, and two river valleys. There are forested areas and some areas of typical African savannah.
You can see many of the same animals as at Ruaha, but others including cheetah, sable and roan antelopes, and rock hyrax, and this park also gives the chance to see wild dogs. We had some excellent game viewing, including the most lions we'd seen on any of our previous African journeys. We saw 5 different groups of lions, including prides of 21 and 16. There were really some magnificent males in these prides. Leopards are also commonly seen, although we were not lucky on our trip. The game viewing activities are limited to game drives and walks since boat trips are not offered on the river.
We elected to stay at the smaller Mwagusi Safari camp which has 8 spacious rooms instead of the much larger Ruaha River Lodge. This turned out to be an excellent choice. The guides were extremely informative and great at spotting animals. Rooms overlooked a sand river with some water. We didn't see too many animals coming to drink, but they definitely roamed the camp at night. We routinely found hyena tracks in camp in the morning, and one day lion tracks! Food was excellent and included many tasty vegetable dishes. The games drives tended to start too late in the morning for my taste (9:00 a.m.), but this was supposed to be better for viewing the thirsty throngs of animals that come to the river to drink during the dry season.
Due to flight schedules, you can stay either 2, 4, or 5 nights. I think four is about right and let's you get a good cross-section of the park. From Ruaha, it's easy to connect to Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar to complete your safari.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Prim8Pal
|
|
Member: Glenn Hori
Location: Pleasant Hill, California
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 6 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.