Roho ya Selous

Posted on 31 Oct 2017 | 0 comments

From Dar es Salaam it is only a 45-minute flight to the Selous, allowing us to indulge in a weekend safari even if Tanzania is not celebrating one of its many public holidays. It means we only have 2 short days in the park, but we love it. We can re-energise after the noise and pollution of Dar es Salaam, and its many frustrations during the week.

a lovely place for breakfast without any traffic noise…

beautifully coloured diederik cuckoo

palmnut vulture

this speckle-throated woodpecker was hammering away for a long time, we didn’t see it catch anything, but something good must have been hiding in that crack

A new lodge from Asilia opened not long ago in the Selous, Roho ya Selous (Royal Selous) and we decide to check it out, flying there early on Saturday morning and returning Sunday late afternoon. It’s relatively close to our normal stomping ground, and we even bump into Zahor, our favourite driver from the Lake Mwanze camp.

we watched this tawny eagle hunt for something hiding under the dead branch…

success…. a small lizard was the reward

striped ground squirrel

a funky lizard, reminded us a little of the thorny devil in Australia

we see the Angola pied colobus for the first time in a small patch of forest with large trees

this mama seems to have a few too many kids following her

It’s a luxury lodge, great food and a nice pool. But we are most impressed with the tents, if you can still call them that. There is only one solid wall, the rest is all fine mash, so we have a panoramic view over the, currently almost dry, lake in front of our tent. We are also fascinated by a Dutch invention wafting cool air around our bed. We don’t need it at night as it feels cool enough for us coming form Dar, but before lunch, when we spend some time relaxing in the room, it feels marvelous.

our room seen from the dry lake, in the wetter months the water will be much closer

our room from the inside, stunning views with only thin mesh separating you from the bush

we love outdoor showers, in this room there was also an indoor one, but that remained unused during our stay

Jon sitting down for lunch

Jon about to dip in the rather cool swimming pool

Three new birds are added to our list, a burchell’s coucal, the sharp-tailed starling and the pretty swallow-tailed bee-eater. And of course we also enjoy seeing the usual birds, including one of our favourites, the black egret made famous by the BBC’s talking animals – ‘night-time, day-time’. Many kudus, zebras, impalas, squirrels, giraffes, hippos, crocs, warthogs, hyenas, a turtle, some monkeys, geckos, and a few lions later, we are back in the little plane on our way home.