Day 1 - Saturday 12th October 2013 - Lake Manze - Selous

Saturday 12^th October 2013

Lake Manze Camp – Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

After three flights we finally arrived in the Selous Game Reserve. Our first experience of flying on  the internal Tanzanian flights was excellent. This is Mike our pilot from Dar es Salaam to Selous.

We were met at the Swindu airstrip by Victor, our guide, and Kumkumba, our driver., we then headed off on a game drive arriving at camp in time for lunch. During the hour and a half drive we saw Impala, Giraffe and Great Kudu including a male with  a fantastic set of antlers.

Arriving at the camp we were greeted by Phil and Tricia , our hosts for the next three nights along with the Maasia who were be looking after our safety during our stay. We sat and had lunch of homemade vegetable pizza with lovely fresh salad and fruit for dessert.

After lunch Phil sat with us to tell us about the camp and the options for activities each day. During daylight hours we were free to move around the camp keeping to the sandy pathways but were reminded that the animals can be in camp at any time and to remain vigilant but the maasai would be aware that the animals were around and would advise us when necessary. After sunset and before sunrise we would need to be accompanied by a massai at all times whilst moving around the camp. If, during the night, you needed assistance in an emergency there was a whistle in the tent and this would bring the maasai running!! Some guests have  strange ideas of an emergency with one guest blowing the whistle because her solar powered shower ran cold.

We chose to take an evening boat trip out on one of the channels that feeds Lake Manze and therefore had a couple of hours to unpack and relax . We had been advised to unpack and make sure you knew where your torches and everything was as we would return after dark and even though we had tilly lamps and candles the lack of light can be challenging if you haven’t unpacked . It was whilst we were relaxing that we heard our first hippo and  very quickly located them in the lake area in front of the tent. They were quite a distance away but you could see them working their way through the vegetation in the lake along with a selection of birdlife who sit on their backs. We also saw a large mature hippo out of the water.

 Inside out tent

View from our veranda

 Hippo in the lake

Hippo Out of the Lake

At 4:00pm we headed off for our boat trip, we were driven down by Kumkumba and were introduced to our boat guide whose name we couldn’t master at all but his knowledge of the lake and it inhabitants from reptiles, birds and mammals was amazing. He looked really young but told us that he had four children (including a set of twins) and was also responsible for looking after his mother, father and sister now his father was unable to work. We had a really memorable evening  learning about the various weaver birds who build fantastic nests on the end of the tree branches to keep their chicks safe from predators. We also saw a heard of young buffalo on one side of the channel who were being watched by two old male bulls on the other side. Our guide explained how the buffalo can swim and often graze on the islands in the middle of the lake.

We saw numerous wading birds, storks and geese as well as hundreds of hippos and some very scary looking crocodiles.

Malachite Kingfisher

Very Ugly Stork - Name to follow!!

The evening ended with a  cold beer whilst watching the sun go down as we quietly watched a large pod of hippos

We then headed back to camp where we had an hour to shower (under the open sky) and change before heading up to dinner.

Drinks were served in the relaxed seating area where we caught up with other guests to hear there stories of the day and also to chat to Phil and Tricia who asked us what our plans were for the next day. We chose to do an early morning safari  with a bush breakfast before returning to camp for lunch and then heading out again in the afternoon for an evening drive.

Dinner was served under the stars where all guests sit together , fires at either end of the table and candles lighting the table. It was a really atmospheric end to a wonderful first day.

We were back  in our tent by 10pm, exhausted after our long day traveling but lay in bed listening to the hippos on the lake.