Today we leave Lake Manze and the Selous Game Reserve and head off to our second camp in the Ruhau National Park before we left I took some pictures around the tent to give you an idea of what camp life was like.
Below is the solar powered shower open to the skies, the other side of the screen was the toilet....fully plumbed in but also open to the elements
Below is the other side of the shower screen which is the wash basin area.
Views of our tent. The tents were really well spread out and you didnt feel overlooked at all...except for the hippos of course
One of the masaai guards who kept us safe and escorted us to and from or tents during the hours of darkness. They were always cheerful with a friendly "Jambo" whenever they saw us.
The bar and lounge area
After waving a sad farewell to Phil, Trish, Victor and Kumkumba and all the staff who had looked after us so well we headed to the airport with Mike and "Talkative Tracey"....wow Graham thought I could talk....she didnt stop from the time we got in the jeep until we waved her goodbye at Ruhau airport about 4 hours later!!!
On the way to the airport we saw our first large herd of elephant and Emmanuel (the guide) and Daniel (the driver) who were taking us to the airport decided to follow them through the bush. We thoroughly enjoyed watching them and it was a great end to our trip to Selous.
Below is the Swindhu Airstrip in Selous and our flight arriving to pick us up to take us to Ruhau. As you can see it is quite sandy and when the rains come they have to use another airstrip further away as the planes tend to sink into the wet sand on landing
On this flight we had a pilot who was obviously still in training and was being supervised by a senior pilot with 5 strips on his shirt...as you can see our pilot had none!! Slight disconcerting when, as you take off, the instructor makes rapid upward movements with his hands!! Between Selous and Ruhau we had to take off and land 3 times
View of Selous and Lake Manze, the rains had turned it to a beautiful green landscape. The contrast was remarkable as we flew into Ruhau
We were collected from the airstrip by Mowledee (our guide) and Nightie (our driver). We traveled with a lovely lady called Charlene who was from Chicago but currently working and living in Oman. It was her first safari and she was so excited and great fun to be with.
We had a two hour drive to the camp and this was mainly through thicket type scrub land and alongside dry river beds. We still saw some wildlife including some birdlife we had not seen in Selous including this red billed hornbill.
We arrived at camp and were greeted by the manager, Mary. She was an older English lady who was managing the camp with an Italian guy called Marco. The camp was very dry and dusty but lots of impala and birds could be seen from the lounge area and the tents.
After a welcome drink and time to unpack we re-joined Mowledee and Nightie for a short game drive close the the camp along with Charlene. Mowledee explained that the night before two prides of lions had clashed close to the camp One was the Mdyona pride and the other was a small pride consisting of two males and three females. The two males had tried to challenge the Mdonya dominant male but had failed. Apparently the noise kept the camp awake for most of the night. During our game drive we came across the two males and watched them for a while. Mowledee explained that the females were close by and they would re-group later that night but that it was unlikely that the males would try to re-challenge in the near future
Further along the drive we came across the females sleeping in the dry river bed
During the drive we saw vultures and Mowledee explained that the camp had, up until recently, a resident herd of elephants who visited camp. Sadly a month ago one of the large bull elephants was killed by poachers quite close to the camp and that the herd had not been back in camp since. They obviously relate the poachers with the camp. The vultures were feeding on the carcass which was still very evident from the track. Such a sad sight and the effect on the herd is enormous. As the shots were heard in camp, the rangers were immediately contacted and the poachers were caught and sent to jail. Mowledee explained that even though the park rangers are very evident with their regular patrols both in landrovers and by air. The park is so huge that keeping poaching under controls is an almost impossible battle.
At the end of the game driver we headed to one of the high points near the camp for a Sundowner which was beautiful
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