First 24 hours at Sand Rivers Camp (Selous/Nyerere National Park)

 After an overnight flight to Nairobi, a flight to Dar es Salaam, a night there and an hour’s flight on a 9 passenger plane, we arrived at the air strip for our first location, the Sand River Camp in Nyerere National Park.  The park is the largest national park in Africa at 30,893 square kilometers and was established by the German governor of Tanganika in 1896. Called “Selous” until 2019, its name was changed to honor Julius Nyerere (as was the name of the international airport in Dar es Salaam). The camp is on the banks of the Rufiji River and includes 7 tented cabins, open both front and back, so you really feel immersed in the bush. It is truly beautiful although the serenades by hippos (in daylight) and bush babies (at night) can sometimes be a bit much.  Watching pods of hippos and groups of Nile crocodiles, as well as wading birds sometimes makes us a little distracted from eating the excellent cuisine!

We took a late afternoon game drive on September 4 after our arrival, and a longer morning game drive today (September 5).  It is nearing the end of the dry season (the annual rains begin in October), which concentrates the water sources and improves wildlife viewing.  It would be hard to enumerate all we’ve seen— birds large and small, countless hippos and impala, large groups of eland (the young ones are beautiful) and yellow baboons, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, and 5 young lions and lionesses dozing in the shade of a palm tree. One of the interesting things is how many hippos we’ve seen out of the water during the day, both along the river and inland, including a “nursery” of at least 5 baby hippos at the edge of a swamp where the adults were mud-bathing. The same swamp provided cooling off space for Cape buffalo and elephants as well as hunting grounds for fishing eagles, kingfishers and a variety of shorebirds. There appeared to be no contention among all these species— truly a community center!

Pictured: eland herd, young yellow baboon, white-browed coucal, hippo mom and baby, our room