Flying to Nyrere National Park
Our flight to Nyrere/Selous is not due to leave until
1:40pm, so we choose to kill most of the morning with a bit of a game drive –
it’s more than an hour down from Mdonya anyway. Apart from one decent sighting
of some elephants taking a mud-bath, it is a very quiet affair and soon far too
hot to be enjoyable. We sort out our permit extension and are banished to the
Bandas (TANAPA lodgings) for lunch by the Great Ruaha River.
By the time we make it back to the airstrip it is once again
pushing 40°C and it’s all one can do to stand in the shade and wait. The plane
is a single-engine 12-seat Cessna and there are nine of us on board for the
first hour or so towards the Selous. We drop down to a small strip and pick up one
more person. Then we are up in the air again for the five-minute hop over to
the main airstrip where we are the only four to disembark.
Our drive to camp is fairly quiet – the new highway of dust
that’s been pushed through this part of the park to allow traffic for the
Rufiji Dam pushes most of the game away – but as we get close to Lake Manze, we
spot two lions sleeping and after a handful of photos move on to our final
stopping-off point.
The Lake Manze Safaris
Lake Manze Camp is situated on the shore of a seasonal lake
that gets most of its water from run-off, but can, when the Rufiji is high, get
additionally flooded from the river. The camp is tents, virtually identical to
those at Mdonya in Ruaha, but set in dense mixed woodland of palms and acacias.
Here, you really do need the Maasai guards to escort you to and from your tent
at any time, as something could be lurking unseen in the undergrowth, from
baboon to elephant.
It can be nice to have a change of scenery, and indeed a
change in the faces around you, but I’m not sure I’m always prepared for the
changes. This first evening is a perfect case in point. We arrive at the bar in
good time and get a drink before dinner. There are the usual staff, our two
hosts, two more guests and the four of us for dinner. Dinner is taken at a long
table outside the lodge, nearer to the waterside.
Having been away from the sights and sounds of company for a
few days, I apparently can’t cope with this. As I sit waiting for the soup, I
have my fingers in my ears, desperately trying to block out the incessant (to
me anyway) chatter of the others around me. The heat and the humidity really
don’t help here. I make it through the soup, but as the bowls are being
cleared, I tell Chris, who is sitting beside me, that I’m going to have to
escape. I say the same to Elizabeth as I pass around the table and move back
into the now deserted bar to calm down.
I haven’t seen much written about this very specific form of agoraphobia, but I’ve come to recognise the onset and have learned to just walk away from the triggering sound and allow myself to relax out of it. If you placed me in a silent crowd, I’d be perfectly fine – it’s the chatter that I can’t stand. I can usually manage a restaurant or bar, as you are in a small group and can cut the rest out, but sharing a long table is a step too far, especially when I’m unprepared for it.
Once my friends have had dinner, we all retire and I get a
restless night in the sapping heat on a bed that is – by far – the hardest I’ve
ever slept on.
Safari Day One
For our first full day, we have opted for a local morning
game drive and then the boat trip late in the afternoon.
We set off after breakfast, slowly around the shores of the
lake and the local area. There’s actually plenty of game. There are dozens of
giraffes, plenty of zebras, wildebeests and impalas, but they are all quite
nervous and keep their distance. We do see a couple of elephants, but they too
seem to melt quickly into the bush as we approach. There are quite a few birds
to make up for this, though, and we get some spectacular images of northern
carmine bee-eaters as they fly along with the vehicle, hunting the insects that
we disturb and then landing conveniently very close for wonderful photo
opportunities.
We return for a comfortable lunch and a couple of hours to
relax during the heat of the early afternoon. I spend the time just relaxing on
the porch, writing up this journal and then watching some video to pass a
little time. I have to admit that, with my Sennheisers in and the video
playing, I’m pretty isolated from what’s going on around me, although I do
glance around every so often as one should in the bush.
When I look up to find I am not alone, the very welcome
guest is closer than I could have expected. A young bull elephant, probably in
his teens, has come to within less than 5m from our tent, browsing the lush
undergrowth. I reach for the Canon and, rather uncharacteristically for me, opt
to start video and just sit and wait. Over the next four minutes he comes close
enough to brush the tent-post and sniff the oil lamps on the corner of the
step. He moves slowly in front of me and then back down the other side of the
tent before slowly ambling back into the bush. I couldn’t even call Chris from
inside the tent, but Fred was watching from the other tent and can attest to
the closeness of the encounter. Absolutely wonderful!
We head out for our boat-ride on the lake at around 4pm. If
I’m honest, and I usually am, I would call it disappointing. There are quite a
few birds, a few hippos, some small crocodiles and a few buffalo, but nothing
to really call interesting or exciting. It’s still blisteringly hot and the
boat moves slowly which doesn’t really help with the ambience.
When we add in the fact that Elizabeth isn’t feeling very
well, it soon turns into another anti-climactic event on our first full day in
Nyrere National Park. To finish off the day in style, I once again can’t manage
to sit with the crowd for dinner. I want to keep trying, and equally, I don’t
want any fuss made about me. Our host tells me he can set up a separate table
if I’d prefer, but that seems a bit like singling me out for special treatment
when all I want is to try and fight through it if I can. I’m carrying enough
extra poundage that doing without dinner for a few days really won’t hurt me at
all.
Safari Day Two
The fact that I’m sitting writing this bit at just before
9am on our second full day probably speaks volumes about many things.
Firstly, I’m having at least the first half of the day off.
I’m going to sit, watch the birds at the bird-bath, write a little, maybe do
some photo editing/sorting and just relax for a few hours. Fred and Chris have
gone on a game drive that, without either Elizabeth or I, will surely descend
into a bird-watcher’s delight. I bet they see the painted dogs when I’m not
with them.
Just taking a bit of time out is something I haven’t managed
to do on this trip until now and the relentless schedule does take a toll –
probably more mentally than physically. I’m not tired, just a little psyched
out. I think, if we travel to Africa again – and this is not certain – we will
need to plan a couple of days in the schedule where we have no plans to do
anything. There is a pressure to keep going. There’s always that nagging
feeling that, if you miss a game drive, you might miss out on that one superlative
sighting that could make or break the whole trip.
In some ways I feel that pressure as I sit here now. There are painted dogs out there somewhere and I haven’t seen any on this trip. It will feel like a big loss if I miss them this morning, but sometimes you just have to do what feels right, regardless of the pressure you feel to participate. Still, I have the little Canon with me and there’s always the striped squirrel in the tree beside me for that whenever-needed safari photo fix!
It turns out I didn’t need to worry. There were no dogs to
see this morning, but I did miss a side-striped jackal and some eland. I can
live with that and see what the afternoon brings.
When we leave for the evening at about 4pm, it is
punishingly hot, and the breeze from just driving slowly along is most welcome.
We find ourselves getting a better view from along the shore of the lake and
channel than we did from the boat, finally getting a few nice birds to add to
our shorter than expected list for the trip. I always like to see a spoonbill,
and there were a couple out and about on the lakeside.
We also see a couple of hyenas – they are a bit uncertain
about their intentions – probably just awake and off for a prowl. It’s pretty
quiet really, but that’s no surprise considering the heat.
Safari Day Three
I’m back to full-steam ahead for the final full morning and
we set out after breakfast, initially in the same direction Fred and Chris were
taken the previous day. I catch up with some shots of the eland, but, as the
crew are forging a route towards the nearby mountain, the call comes through
that there are painted dogs. Once again, they are at some distance – actually
close to 90 minutes of hard driving back the way we had just come and then
beyond along the main road back towards the airstrip.
It's not much of a decision – we’re off immediately in
search of the last real mammal that we want to see on this epic trip. We make
it in one piece and meet a group of 14 dogs with just a couple of vehicles for
company. They look like they have recently eaten, as they are playing or
resting in the shade with some of them taking the opportunity to cool in a
small muddy pool.
Now, I know, I have a tendency to get a bit shutter-happy
when there are dogs in the viewfinder, but I just can’t help it. It’s a good
job digital photography is a thing, as 600 frames in less than 30 minutes would
break several banks if I had to pay for developing and printing.
We stay with the dogs for quite some time, after moving to
get a better view on the other side of the trees, where we can see the water
clearly. Once they settle down, we get to observe them quite peacefully. They
do seem a little interested in an approaching hyaena, but that particular visitor
knows he will be unwelcome and once he feels detected, makes a hasty retreat.
There are also some fun interactions with a troupe of
baboons who seem keen to try and annoy the dogs into action by getting too
close. Once again, though, contented and relaxed dogs just pay as little
attention as the baboons deserve.
Honestly, that’s a full house for me. Time to put the big camera back in the bag and prepare for the long flights home.
The Drive Out
The trip out the final morning is pretty uneventful. It’s
all a bit of an anti-climax, but that is only to be expected as we are all more
interested in getting back to Dar es Salaam and then having a pleasant flight
home.
The little Cessna 208 arrives in good time and we are soon
in the air for our flight back to civilisation – after yet another stop in
Zanzibar. The pilot has real fun there in a pretty strong cross-wind. He has to
crab it down onto the runway at about 30 degrees then persuade the third wheel
to hit the ground a few seconds later. You can, of course, see him doing it
right in front of you, so it’s fairly exciting.
We have a few hours to kill, and after a rather ill-advised
walk from one terminal to another – that’s more than a kilometre in the blazing
afternoon sun carrying the luggage because we’re too mean or stupid to get a
taxi – we find ourselves once more in the café outside the domestic terminal,
but this time enjoying our last couple of beers before we leave. I don’t really
think of myself as a beer drinker, but you have to keep your hydration levels
up and the local brew is as good a way as any to try and do this. I think that,
maybe, African beers have a tendency to be slightly sweeter and less hoppy than
European or British brews. We drank Lake Manze out of Kilimanjaro, but that
shouldn’t be a problem in the big city.
The International Terminal is brand new, very large and
nicely appointed with really good air-conditioning. Security and immigration
work smoothly and I’m able to sit in the departure lounge and write this with a
reasonable WiFi connection and civilisation at last in sight.
Summing up The Selous / Nyrere National Park
I had high expectations for the Selous – it’s a bit of a mythical place as one of the oldest and largest nature reserves in the world. I’m not sure we gave it long enough to deliver or that, at the end of a trip, I was in the right frame of mind to get the most out of it.
Lake Manze is a pretty good place to see some of the park
from. It’s not far from the airstrip and has good game drive opportunities with
everything that you’d hope to see being seen often and well. The mostly acacia
woodland is so classically “Africa”, along with the numbers of giraffes to
populate it, that you get the whole experience. Also, there are few, if any
biting insects and in general it’s a bit more beginner friendly.
There is now, sadly, a trend of Zanzibar-based tour companies offering day-trip style excursions by plane into this part of the park. Lake Manze is almost far enough from the airstrip to escape the crowds, but not quite completely.
What may not be a downside for some, but was one for me, is
the oppressive heat. The five days were all in the high thirties in the
afternoon and probably never much below twenty-five at night. This may be, and
indeed probably is, mostly a consequence of our choosing to travel in February,
when the rains are starting or have already begun. This is also probably one of
the major causes of the overall quality of the roads and game circuit tracks.
I was maybe a little disappointed by the place myself, but
I’m sure that is more because I had a romantic view of it before going that
nowhere was going to live up to, rather than any shortcomings of the place itself.