Welcome to the Serengeti Trip series of blog posts! This series of posts covers the planning, packing and progress of a massive 70-day trip through 6 African countries early in 2011. The trip started on 20 January 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa, and is heading north through Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania to the legendary Serengeti National Park! From there the guys will head back south through Malawi, another part of Zambia and Zimbabwe… These blog posts are syndicated from the Official Trip Website.
We left Morogoro before sunrise, not only to beat the traffic, but also to make sure we didn’t arrive in Selous too late. Instead of driving via Dar Es Salaam, we took the scenic route via Kisaki. Certain sections of the road were very rocky, but the drive was incredible! We passed through some of the most scenic landscape since we left Pretoria 19 days ago. The road passed through small villages and dense forests, down mountain passes and past hordes of palm trees.
We reached Matembwe Gate at noon and got the shock of our lives when we were charged $180 US to enter the park for 24 hours! That’s even before we’ve found accommodation! We decided to suck it up and carry on, hoping that Selous would make it worthwhile… The drive through the reserve to Selous River Camp produced sightings of zebra, giraffe and about 60 elephants. I also enjoyed seeing birds I haven’t seen before, such as northern carmine bee-eaters and spur-winged lapwings!
- A northern carmine bee-eater, Selous
We reached Selous River Camp, which is located just outside the north-eastern boundary of the reserve, around 15:30. After taking some heavy gear out of the Hilux, we decided to go back into the reserve to get our money’s worth. At first game viewing was slow, producing only a few impala, a troop of baboons and the riverside regulars such as crocodiles and hippos. Just as we turned back towards the gate JI spotted something in the road: “lions!” There they were – four healthy lions right in front of us in the road. At first they all looked like females, but we soon realised that one was a large young male without a mane. We stayed with them for about 20 minutes before we had to leave…and we had them all to ourselves!
Both JI and I took photos again, so it’s time for you to guess again: Please tell us in your comments who took which photo and which one you like best!??
We’ll be doing another game drive in Selous tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, so look out for some scenery shots of the reserve on our next post, and hopefully some more cats too!
Night night
Villiers
Highlight of the day:
Villiers: The scenic road between Morogoro and Selous
JI: Lions!
Lowlight of the day:
Villiers: Not being able to keep my eyes open this morning – literally!
JI: Selous entry fees!
