Nyerere (Selous) National Park

Game Viewing on demand

When we arrived at the airstrip in the Selous and met our guide for the weekend, he asked, "what do you hope to see while you are in the Selous?" Being a veteran game park visitor, I aimed high...my response...wild dogs. He laughed and said, "we don't see those very often." We sent off for the camp, intending to do a bit of game viewing en route.

About halfway through the trip to the camp, we saw some vultures circling and thought we would follow them to see if there was anything interesting. Soon we came across a pack of 4 adult wild dogs who had just finished eating their share of an impala they had brought down. They were engaging in all their post feast rituals (wild dog aficionados will know what I mean), while a nearby hyena took over the carcass, continuing to force the vultures to wait their turn. We watched this game-scape play itself out for a while- the hyena got fed up fending off the large birds alone and eventually tore off a hunk of carcass for himself, and left the bulk of it behind for the vultures to fight over. I am not sure how long we sat there- could have been a few minutes, could have been all afternoon- we were mesmerized. When the dogs were gone and the hyena was gone, it seemed time for us to move on as well. Our guide then, with a grin on his face, said, “okay, I found some wild dogs for you, what would you like to see next.” Without skipping a beat, I responded, “mating lions.” He laughed, and off we went.

We probably drove only another 5-10 minutes when we came upon a pride of lions- 3 adult females, each with cubs; a total of 7 cubs, of varying ages. Wow, this safari was only getting better. For quite a while, we watched these cubs frolic and play, as their mothers dozed, but it was getting late and lunch was waiting, so we pushed on to the lodge.

As we approached the lodge, not more that 300 meters from the gate, we came across the mating lions. It was spectacular. We watched them for nearly an hour, forgetting all about lunch. The remarkable anthropomorphic behavior- she nudges him, “come on dear”, he grunts, gets up, walks around her, mounts, nuzzles her in the ear, she complains, he gets off and flops on the other side of her, in a state of exhaustion and she rolls over on her back, as if to say, “if I put my legs up in the air like this, I think I am more likely to get pregnant.” It was fascinating!

And all of this was just on our way to the lodge!

An all-around African experience.

Landing on a dirt airstrip is a great way to land into this beautiful reserve. Immediately you are greeted by your personal guide, who takes you first thing on a game drive to your lodge, or in my case, the Manze Lake Camp. My experience went as follows: we told our guide that we wanted to see wild dogs. 20 minutes later, they were there laying in front of us. The lodge itself was excellent, you have a personal chalet, the food was served family style and tasted great. The next day we told our tour guide that we wanted to see mating lions. Again, 10 minutes later, they were there in front of us. This whole idea of seeing anything you want, sums up Selous Game Reserve. It is a magical place with great wildlife, food, and hospitality. If I could suggest one thing, it would be to go in the month of june, july, august, when it is colder there, any other time is very hot.

The Selous was great-less touristy than other reserves, with just a focus on seeing amazing animals

We really liked our safari in the Selous Reserve - we were able to enjoy both river boat and traditional jeep safaris. It was great that everything was so open and natural - we had elephants wondering past our tent every night and even had a cheeky monkey attempt to join us for breakfast. The reserve has a lot less people than others - some days we didn't see anybody else except our driver.

Absolutely wild. One of the few park in Africa for wild dogs sighting. Astonishing landscape and beautiful lakes! the only negative point: is expensive and a guide is needeed because the road are not indicated. Without an expert guide you get lost 100%!

not as many animals but wonderfully relaxed and lovely area

Selous is amazing and remote place - highly recommend a visit.

We went there 4 of us in a group and stayed in a nice lodge run by a half- Tanzanian man and his wife. They were excellent hosts and we enjoyed staying in a mud hut , and experience we never had before.
In Selous we saw an abundance of wildlife, an elephant family and a great bunch of lions (we counted them up to 13!!!) and other beautiful grazing animals.
I will never forget my time in Selous as everything I saw before on NatGeo just suddenly came to life there.

real wild Africa

I went to Selous with my wife in March when the rain season was about to begin:the scenery was amazing and very different because of the green of the grass and the leaves on the tree.The rain wasn't a real problem for the safari and not too frequent.
We stayed in the Lake Manze tented camp, a little but comfortable camp fully immerged in the wild: elephants, ippos and buffalos wondered through the camp during the day and the night.The wildlife and the birding are really great in Selous: you can see hundreds of animals everywhere (there was even a Puff Adder within the camp). In conclusion I can recommend the Selous to everyone who loves Africa and wildlife.

Completely different to the northern parks of Tanzania

Selous isnt a National Park like the famous Serengeti with all the almost tame animals, therefore its kind of boring or even un-expected in the beginning when you see shy Zebras or Giraffes running away from Safari visitiors even when they are fare away (like 100m and more). But then, you'll end up with a more natural feeling - it's interesting to see big groups of Giraffes running scared ... but the thing I liked at most was that in the Selous you can stop the car, get out, have a walk, picnic or whatever. The drivers go whereever the car is able to go through the bush - and that makes the experience, because you're much closer to animals like Elephants or even the Wild Dogs. In general its not really touristy, so everything feels more like an expected bush adventure. Ah, and for me the flight in small plane was an "adventure" as well. So i'll recommend the Selous (afterwards) in combination with e.g. the Serengeti.

Selous Game Reserve is one of Africa's best kept secrets. It is exspansive, pristine and breathtakin

Selous being the size of Switzerland is populated with no more than 170 people, we felt we were right in the heart of Africa, we felt privileged to experience the vastness of this untouched land.
Everything we experienced in Selous was second to none.

African Wilderness At Its Best

I stayed at the Rufiji River Camp which is one of the smaller camps in Selous. The proximity to the river meant we had the opportunity for a river safari and a walking safari as well as the traditional trips out on a 4x4.

Selous is wonderfully remote and we hardly saw another vehicle which in my opinion is the best way to experience a safari. The guides were good and spotted a lot of wildlife we may well have missed. The number of lakes meant there was always the chance to see wildlife and birdlife around there. We didn't see all the Big 5 but there were no rhino in the area where we stayed.

I loved my short stay in Tanzania and I will be going back.