Calling all safari nuts
Posted by: Kevin-W on 25 November 2003
Chaps
If any of you out there are considering a safari in the near future, may I recommend the Selous (pronounced Seloo) in Tanzania? I've just had the BEST safari ever there.
At over twice the size of Belgium, it is Africa's largest game reserve, and is also the least developed (it gets about 3,000 visitors a year, apparently). This means it is utterly pristine. It's not open country, like, say the Serengeti or Chobe, so you don't get cheetah there, or large herds of wildebeest, but it is exceptionally good country for lions, elephants, all the various types of bucks, kudu, giraffe, hyenas, wild dogs, buffalo, hippos and crocs (along the Rufiji River).
Hell, I even saw a leopard (fleetingly) - the first time I'd ever seen one (four previous safaris). It is also exceptionally rich in birdlife, especially kingfishers. pelicans, hammerkops, storks and flamingos. I saw a martial eagle kill an impala with its wing (and it was still there, jealously guarding the corpse when we returned several hours later).
We spent 10 days there (we followed it off with a week in Zanzibar, which was fab - especially the cuisine) and could easily have spent 10 more.
Kevin (brown 'n' peeling)
If any of you out there are considering a safari in the near future, may I recommend the Selous (pronounced Seloo) in Tanzania? I've just had the BEST safari ever there.
At over twice the size of Belgium, it is Africa's largest game reserve, and is also the least developed (it gets about 3,000 visitors a year, apparently). This means it is utterly pristine. It's not open country, like, say the Serengeti or Chobe, so you don't get cheetah there, or large herds of wildebeest, but it is exceptionally good country for lions, elephants, all the various types of bucks, kudu, giraffe, hyenas, wild dogs, buffalo, hippos and crocs (along the Rufiji River).
Hell, I even saw a leopard (fleetingly) - the first time I'd ever seen one (four previous safaris). It is also exceptionally rich in birdlife, especially kingfishers. pelicans, hammerkops, storks and flamingos. I saw a martial eagle kill an impala with its wing (and it was still there, jealously guarding the corpse when we returned several hours later).
We spent 10 days there (we followed it off with a week in Zanzibar, which was fab - especially the cuisine) and could easily have spent 10 more.
Kevin (brown 'n' peeling)