Selous National Park, one of the largest nature reserves on earth — as big as one-and-a-half Switzerlands — is still, as Matthiessen wrote in Sand Rivers, his book about his 1979 safari, a gorgeous place of “river thickets, green mbuga, and dry black cotton marsh, grassy ridges, sand rivers, and airy open woods, yellow and copper, red and bronze, under blue sky.” As Matthiessen quoted one of the Selous’ fiercest admirers, the fabled Brian Nicholson, “The Selous is the real Africa…the heart of Africa.”
Access to the beating heart of Selous — sublime savannahs, verdant wetlands and animal-rich woodlands — is carefully monitored (no permanent structures or human settlements are permitted) and its animal population abounds (quite possibly more numerously than any African park or reserve) with the charismatic big beasts of the savannah: bubbling pods of hippos, African wild dogs, pleistocenic crocs, Cape buffalo, and, of course, happy confederacies of elephants.
Neighbouring Ruaha, Tanzania’s largest national park, is larger than Jamaica, with Luxembourg thrown in for good measure. Famous for its large elephant population, its rare kudu and impressive sable antelope, the lesser-visited park and its larger eco-system attract us with their quintessentially African landscapes and — because they are less visited, less interrupted by the outside world — they abound in warm, inviting quiet.
How did the hippopotamus find its way up into the Crater Highlands, to blunder into the water of Ngorongoro? Today one sees them there with wonder, encircled by steep walls….
Ngorongoro
Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate.
East Africa, Tanzania
Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate.
East Africa, Tanzania
Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate.
PLAN A CUSTOM SAFARI
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