Great for Grazers!

The Selous is nothing short of Lush this time of year – and it feels like every inch of the place is thriving.

Our residents seem well aware that this time of plenty will be a distant memory in a number of weeks and their taking full advantage of the salad buffet! 

Emerging from a thicket of riverine forest into a little clearing this evening gave us the perfect reminder that there’s magic in diversity.

The Rufiji seems to drop each morning giving us an indicator that things are drying out. You get caught up in this dynamic, untamed system living in this little outpost in the thick of it.

In search of Lycaon Pictus

Our first group of guests in camp were no strangers to safari. Having met in Serengeti several years ago the group of ten have been travelling through Africa ever since. This year’s adventure brought them down from Rwanda into Serengeti then through Ruaha to a finale at Sand Rivers Selous. There has been an infectious buzz of enthusiasm throughout the lodge during their past three nights. The name on everyone’s lips…the African Wild Dog.

Cites listed “endangered” with a population fewer than 5,500 it is hardly surprising that these painted canids are so often the cherry on the cake that eludes the most seasoned of safari veterans. This pack of seven gave us dawn and evening viewing in an area we call “the garden” just north of the lodge. There were some pretty broad smiles around camp this evening.

There are no guarantees when it comes to viewing wild animals in their natural habitat but with the highest population of wild dogs on the continent and boasting a surprising density of this species (one every 30 square KM is hardly dense but it’s a striking difference to Serengeti’s one in 208 square KM), the Selous is a pretty good bet!

                                       

Karibu Tena

The lodge team has returned from a well earned holiday with their families. The heavy rains have been and gone and the camp is a hive of activity as managers, waiters, guides and chefs get stuck in assisting the maintenance chaps with preparations for the off.

The night before our first guests of the season arrived found us enjoying our first sundowner in the reserve. Ice cubes clinking in a pair of G&T’s, watching the impala silhouetted on the ridge-line ahead of us – welcome back to Sand Rivers Selous.