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@@Jaycees2012 I am really enjoying your TR.

 

Thank you for the detailed information on Lake Manze Camp, I've not heard much recently about this place.

 

Your photos are fantastic, so lucky with 4 types of bee-eaters! I also like the muddy hippo monster, the fish eagles sharing a perch with the baboon and the crocs feasting on the hippo.

 

You did well to watch the saga of the unfortunate zebra foal, I imagine its very hard to observe this type of early learning.

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@Jaycees2012 I'm really enjoying this report - the content, style and photos all draw the reader in. Difficult to pick a favourite image but for me the Zebra shots really brought out the idea of a 'Dazzle' I appreciate the detail in your planning, down to sorting out the correct side of the plane for the best image of Kili - to my wife's despair (and my children's amusement) I can be equally obsessive in my research!

Edited by pomkiwi
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@@Jaycees2012

What an excellent report with superb photos- a very enjoyable read.

I think the baby Zebra with the lion cubs would be very difficult to watch.

Your bird photos are great!

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@@Jaycees2012 I am really enjoying your TR.

 

Thank you for the detailed information on Lake Manze Camp, I've not heard much recently about this place.

 

Your photos are fantastic, so lucky with 4 types of bee-eaters! I also like the muddy hippo monster, the fish eagles sharing a perch with the baboon and the crocs feasting on the hippo.

 

You did well to watch the saga of the unfortunate zebra foal, I imagine its very hard to observe this type of early learning.

 

Thank you for your comments. We really enjoyed our time at Lake Manze. There's still one more type of bee-eater to come once we get to Selous Impala & there's also a good selection of kingfisher to come.

 

Chris

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Thursday 12th November

 

The monkeys were back this morning, leaping onto tent roof and slithering down, hanging onto the tent guy ropes and peering curiously into the tent (leaping away as soon as a camera was picked up).

Today is our last morning at Manze – but we had arranged to start early and then continue over to Selous Impala Camp. This means we still get to eat breakfast out in the bush (which is our favourite way to eat). We start with a lovely little bee-eater just on the edge of the camp grounds.

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There is more of the usual game, including giraffe, elephant and zebra.

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We find the family group of lions again, with the three teenage lions. They have set themselves up on a slight mound overlooking the dried out lake, and under a number of palm trees. They had obviously been out on the mud flats earlier, either to get a drink or after some of the unfortunate stuck prey animals and a number of them were still covered in the mud.

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Heading along a road J suddenly says – “something small just hid in that bush”. We approached the bush carefully scanning for anything moving, and see, much to our surprise, an elephant shrew through the greenery. We tried to line the cameras up and then to our delight he came out straight in front of us, his long nose twitching up and down as he snuffled along. He stayed for probably five minutes before heading off on his explorations. I was really pleased to see this creature – he has been one of my target creatures for the last few trips to Africa.

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Again we saw some more of the usual game, including warthogs, buffalo, zebra and lots of birds including crested barbet, striped kingfisher, white-throated bee-eater, cattle egret, malachite kingfisher, black egret (heron) and a pied kingfisher.

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We arrived at Selous Impala by around 11.30 and were met by Chania and Fausto. The main reception for Selous Impala is a huge platform, which overlooks the river, lunch is generally served up here (and breakfast although we only ate that here on our last morning as we preferred bush breakfasts). We waved goodbye to Joseph and Kamkumba who headed back to Manze with our thanks for a great four days. Chania and Fausto went through the briefing, before we were taken to our tent. All the tents at Selous Impala are up on platforms, and are very well appointed. They have a very similar layout to Lake Manze tents but in this case the bathroom is enclosed within the tent rather than being out side. This means that you do not need to unzip to get to the bathroom at night, but also means that you cannot look at the stars from the bathroom. Selous Impala has locks on the tent zips, as the vervet monkeys have figured out how to unzip the tents, and will happily explore your tent if you forget the locks. There is also a single power outlet in the tent (we had put a divider into the luggage, so were able to charge batteries for both cameras at the same time – really worthwhile for minimum weight).

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It is lovely to be up in the trees – the birds tend to be at eye level, or at least closer to it. And there is a fantastic view from the tents across to the River Rufii.

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Looking down from the platform we could see a pair of lizards toasting themselves – not the normal lizards that you see around the camps such as agama lizards and gecko’s, but something different. J went down the stairs and photographed them (our guide later confirmed they were greater plated lizards – something he had not seen very often. He was very interested to hear that we had seen them actually in the camp.)

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Anyway after a very nice lunch we met our guide – Gerard. The other couple that would be joining us in the vehicle were exhausted from their journey (they had arrived from the UK that day) so we headed out for our afternoon drive with just ourselves and Gerard. The terrain around Selous Impala is totally different from that around Lake Manze. Gerard suggested that due to the time of year there was a limited amount of wildlife, but this drive seemed set to prove him wrong.

Heading out we started with a warthog curled up in the deep shadows of a palm tree, giraffe stretching for their afternoon snack, more warthogs in the afternoon light, and an open billed stork peering down at a lizard who presumably hoped he had not been seen.

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Suddenly Gerard said “look”, and we looked - straight up into the trees, where there was a troop of colobus monkeys swinging along (yet another creature from my wish list). The colobus were busy eating the fruit in the trees and had lovely evening light highlighting them.

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At the base of the trees where the colobus were feeding a pair of bushbuck appeared, and stayed long enough for a couple of quick shots.

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The giraffe were also enjoying the nice evening, along with some beautiful elephants, who were feasting on the palm leaves. One of these elephants appeared to have lost the end of his trunk. It had healed and he was using it perfectly well to grab leaves. J and I were concerned that it might be related to human activity but Gerard said it had probably been a crocodile.

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Now we headed further on and found, yet another thing on my wish list – tree climbing lions. This family were mostly tucked up on a large sloping tree. Some of them had managed to get themselves wedged enough to be secure, others looked decidedly uncertain, but in the evening light they glowed with good health – and cuteness! One of the adults and a junior were sitting at the bottom of the tree - must not have been any more space in the tree. There were no males in this group, and we were told that the father of the cubs here was actually one of the male lions we had seen with the Lake Manze pride. We stayed with the lions until nearly sunset before heading back to Selous Impala.

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That night after, a superb meal (all the food at Selous Impala was superb) we curled up for another night. The bush babies were leaping around the trees and although we never saw these little beasts, we could hear them calling whenever we woke during the nights we spent here.

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Friday 13th November

 

Today we were up bright and early ready for our morning drive. We travelled around Lake Mzizima and saw a number of the usual suspects including warthog, giraffe, hippos, and a common waterbuck with his friend.

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We also saw a number of birds around the lake including a lovely glossy ibis (who was showing off its glossiness in the morning light), a hadada ibis, more spoonbill, black-winged stilt, white-fronted bee-eater (which J and Gerard decided should be renamed to red-throated bee-eater as this would be a far more accurate name for it), some nice African jacanas, and a small flock of white-faced whistling ducks.

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In addition a grey heron was making good use of the hippos as a lookout to hunt for fish.

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At one end of the lake and lounging comfortably in the muddy pools at the edge we found a clan of hyenas, five of them in total, half submerged in the muddy green water, some snoozing and looking only too happy with life. We noticed that one of the hyenas had been in the wars, and had lost all the external parts of its left ear. It had healed fully and did not seem to bother either it or any of its compatriots.

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Darting daringly amid the hyenas was a little marsh sandpiper.

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We had breakfast this morning looking out at the wonderful view across the lake. Whilst eating breakfast Gerard asked if any of us were bothered by snakes, and proceeded, after quite a bit of “where in the tree?”, to show us this lovely green tree snake (later research has failed to identify a specific species of snake so I guess that’s what we call it).

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After breakfast there were more hippo, water thick knees, and a white-crowned lapwing (why have all these birds that I think of as plovers become lapwings – I am convinced that they rename them to sell more books, and it is very irritating when you have learned the names to find them all changing.)

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Tucked back in the trees we found the lions that we had seen yesterday evening up the tree, they had obviously come down from their tree and had a rather successful morning. The zebra had been partially eaten, and the bloody faces of the lions showed they had been eating just a short time before we arrived, but there was still plenty of meat available.

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In addition to the lions, before we headed back to camp, we saw a small group of zebras, possibly the same herd from which the lion’s lunch had come, some curious giraffe, including a junior and more impala.

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At lunch our waiter Victor continued to try and teach us a bit of Swahili – we eventually managed our numbers up to three – Moja (one) Umbele (two) and Tatoo (three) which came in very useful as we seemed to be allocated tent umbele for the rest of the holiday. In addition he taught us maja buridi (cold water) and lala salama (sleep well). Lala salama is the one we still remember, something to do with the pictorial image we used being particularly memorable – I started off with LaLa (one of the teletubbies) eating salami. J however decided to make salami from LaLa (something we will not mentioning to our youngest niece and nephews).

Also at lunch we noticed that a collared sunbird was building its nest in one of the trees next to the platform. A stunning little bird which it was a joy to see so close and unbothered by human eating habits.

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For the afternoon we decided to take one of the boat trips down the river. As already mentioned Selous Impala is right on the river and this was one of the reasons to go to this camp. Oh what a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Along the river we saw quite a lot of birds including cattle egret, striated heron, african pied wagtail, african harrier hawk and pied kingfishers.

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We also saw a rather well patterned Nile monitor lizard, who glared at us and refused to move from his comfortable spot, simply flickering his tongue presumably trying to scent us.

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Looking behind us, and along one of the side channels we noticed a small herd of elephants that had come down for a drink in the evening light.

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Further along were a family group of waterbuck, including a very cute youngster. Hopefully they were being cautious of the very large crocodiles which also inhabited the banks of the river.

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Whilst watching the waterbuck we noticed that further up the river there was a decent sized herd of elephant who wanted to cross the river. We headed up river and they started swimming across. You could see them, or at least parts of them, like some strange Loch Ness monster with lumps and bumps of heads and backs, and tentacles of trunks. When they got to the other side they reared out of the water, using their herd mate’s backs to climb on and clambered up onto the banks. It was noticeable that the male elephants, including the junior males seemed to “enjoy” the water very much. The elephants then proceeded to cover their lovely, shiny wet bronze skin with a coating of orange dust, turning them from bronzed gods back to earth coloured elephants.

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Watching all of the elephant proceedings a hammerkop kept an eye on both them and us.

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Towards the end of the trip and as the sun was starting to dip we stopped at a colony of white-fronted bee-eaters. There were dozens of them, everywhere, all with their nests dug into the soft river bank, and clearly coming back from their day out to congregate and chat and discuss what had they had been doing before settling for the night. They were totally unbothered by the boats which effectively anchored (by way of grabbing some of the fallen trees) to allow all the guests to have a good look at these beautiful little birds.

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All of the birds were now settling down for the night including the open billed storks and some more of the pied kingfishers. The sun was really going down now – giving a beautiful sunset over the water.

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Tonight our dinner was up on the platform which looked amazing all lit up.

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You, the birds, even the lions - everyone's in the trees!

Really like the photo "Waterbuck and Friend."

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Great updates. I share your confusion as to why your guide said you might not see much! That's really a great bunch of sightings.

 

Some lovely behavioural photgraphs in there - really great moments caught. Very enjoyable to look at.

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@@Jaycees2012

 

More wonderful photos!

 

PS:

I'm pretty sure that your unidentified snake is a Spotted Bush Snake (or close relative) a fairly harmless snake.

They don't have distinctive "spots" and can sometimes appear almost plain green.

Edited by ZaminOz
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@@Jaycees2012

Wonderful photos of some great sightings. Spending an afternoon on a boat trip seeing so much sounds perfect.

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Really great photos - and so much wildlife.

Probably the same family of elephants in the Rufiji river that we saw, but we only saw them crossing a shallow backwater. Your views of them in the main river look fantastic.

We also had Gerard as our guide - I can only assume he wasn't expecting you would see so much wildlife - I guess he was speaking from experience as he has been a guide at that camp for 15 years.

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Really great photos - and so much wildlife.

Probably the same family of elephants in the Rufiji river that we saw, but we only saw them crossing a shallow backwater. Your views of them in the main river look fantastic.

We also had Gerard as our guide - I can only assume he wasn't expecting you would see so much wildlife - I guess he was speaking from experience as he has been a guide at that camp for 15 years.

 

Yes the trips out around Selous Impala were really good. Gerrard was a great guide but I think the sightings on that first afternoon surprised even him! You just never know what you will see even when you've been guiding for years.

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Saturday 14th November

 

This morning we headed out along the main road, and found a pair of hyena in their morning “mud” bath. They were both really comfortable and totally unwilling to move. The female was clearly lactating but they were disinclined to show us any pups. We suspected that their den was in one of the culverts which were dug under the road.

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After we left the hyenas there was a large herd of rather skittish buffalo who we watched for a while. We also saw a lilac breasted roller who sat nicely for us (apparently the roller is the most photographed bird in the world) and a lovely nubian woodpecker.

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Along the edge of Lake Nzerkera a rather dried out carcass of a buffalo was being explored by a small group of white-backed vultures.

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Then we came across our favourite family of lions, the juveniles were obviously practising their hunting skills on the palm leaves which had fallen down recently.

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We also saw giraffe drinking, some nice relaxed elephants, zebras, some lichtenstein’s hartebeast, more kudu and a young waterbuck.

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Through the binoculars we watched a crested barbet chasing off about half a dozen buffalo weavers from a supply of seeds that it had declared as its own. Each time it chased off one buffalo weaver another would land behind it to start eating. The barbet would turn and chase that one and two others would land and eat the seeds, the barbet would turn on them and the rest of the flock would land to eat the seeds. This carried on for at least fifteen minutes with the barbet getting more and more frantic. It was hilarious as it spent all of its time chasing them, and not getting any of the seeds.

Over lunch time we watched the antics of the common bulbul and a striped bush squirrel that were hanging around. The camp was also home to a white-browed sparrow-weaver, which proudly posed in front of its home.

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This afternoon we decided to go for a ride down the river again. The river trips from Selous Impala are beautiful in and of themselves, and when you get lovely light the scenery is gorgeous even without any wildlife.

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Today’s trip down the river was extraordinary. We started off with some more lovely birds including a goliath heron, white-fronted bee-eaters and an eastern golden weaver. A pair of fish eagles were calling to each other whilst they sat on the bank. A spur-winged lapwing paddled along the river edge.

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The waterbuck were down on the river bank again making the most of the afternoon light. A buffalo provided a view point for a cattle egret, and the crocodiles kept an eye on everything that moved.

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Once again we had the elephants swimming across the river, but today a lot more elephants and we were so much closer. The elephants seemed even more playful today, and once they were close to the other bank they played, clambering on top of each other, rolling and submerging in the water, before finally climbing out.

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Once again they proceeded to coat themselves in the orangey sand that lined the river banks, scratching those bits that cannot be reached against the bank, and creating a sandstorm in the air.

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One of the little elephants had to work really hard to clamber through the grasses and mud at the edge of the river before it made its way into the water, and proceeded to swim across carefully guarded by the adults ahead of and behind it.

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The light was fabulous, and every kingfisher on the river seemed to have decided to sit and show themselves off to us, the beautiful coloured malachite kingfisher; the tiniest pygmy kingfisher which we initially saw as two of them swirled around each other, in intricate patterns (more like butterflies than birds because they were so delicate) before they touched the water and one flew off, however we watched as the other one sat beautifully as we drifted within feet of it – totally ignoring us. Pied kingfishers sat all along the bank and finally we saw the giant kingfisher (which certainly matches its name being absolutely huge in comparison to all the other kingfishers) which we saw sitting in a patch of the very last light of the day.

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There was another amazing African sunset which lit up the whole river and the trees along the river bank.

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Along the path to the room we finally managed to see one of the toads that make Africa sound like Africa (terrible photo I am afraid, but it hopped off really quickly). Tonight there was a barbeque for dinner which meant everyone was sitting at the same table (unlike all the other camps we visited Selous Impala generally serves meals at individual tables). We liked the barbeque and thought the single table was positive as you chat about what you have seen during the day with the other guests. The genet obviously thought the big table and the barbeque was a good idea too, as it turned up for the second night running. It was great fun watching the genet wandering round sniffing, standing up on its back legs (like a meerkat), trying to figure out where all the delicious smells were coming from.

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After dinner when walking back to the room, our Masai found a lovely little elephant shrew just off the path to the room. It sat in the light of his torch for a minute, before trotting off to hunt for its own dinner. (We told Gerard about the elephant shrew the next morning and he could hardly believe it, we referred him to our Masai, who confirmed the sighting – amazing to see this little creature once during a trip let alone twice.)

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Sunday 15th November

 

Our last full day in Selous and again an early morning start. Gerard had been advised that a leopard had been up a tree that we had gone past yesterday. He suspected that we had been distracted by the huge herd of buffalo that we saw nearby. But it was clear he was irritated with himself for missing it. When news came in that a leopard had been sighted a fair way off we headed off to see if it would deign to appear for us. However on our journey to see if the leopard was still there we saw giraffe, yet another hyena, white-backed vulture, striped bush squirrel, vervet monkeys and a black-crowned tchagra.

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Making our way past Lake Nzerakera we found a small flock of vultures guarding a dead buffalo calf. It had died rather than being predated and the vultures were extremely frustrated as they were unable to open the carcass themselves, so were forced to wait impatiently hoping for a predator to come along.

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After a fairly speedy transit we arrived to find a young female leopard sitting up a very tall tree, staring down at us. Another vehicle advised that she had been treed by a pride of lions. She was looking around searching the area below her and behind us, and clearly not planning to stay there for very long. We watched her for about half an hour, before she decided that the coast was clear and made her way down the tree and into the thick bush below. We had a fairly quick look for her, but she had totally disappeared.

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We now found a lion out on the mud plain; presumably she was one of those that had treed the leopard. However she was now looking for an easier meal, and we were told she had tried to pull an impala from the mud, but had started sinking herself, so pulled back. Further round the lake were more mud monsters, which had been forced into close company by the shrinking mud.

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We stopped for breakfast overlooking the mud flats, and a rather inquisitive young impala decided to view us, rather than concentrating on where its mother was going. It stood watching us, bleating at us whilst we ate. It eventually trotted off still calling, and hopefully found its mother.

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Down on the mud flats we became aware of movement, there was a very large male lion strolling across. We packed up breakfast rapidly, and went to see where he had gone. The male had found a shady spot, and settled down for a snooze. Working back to where he had come from it became obvious that he and his lady friend had very recently made a kill; she had been left to guard the kill, whilst he snoozed in the shade. However eventually the heat became too much for her too and she headed for the shade - straight at us, walking within inches of the open vehicle’s side.

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Heading back to the camp we found some more baboons, finally managed to get a shot of an African grey hornbill (these birds are really flighty), and some nice giraffe amongst the trees.

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A young male kudo was keeping company with the giraffe, although he had apparently been digging in the mud with his horns. A small herd of buffalo delayed us for a while, and seemed less nervous than some of the others we had seen. Close to the camp we once again came across the hartebeest, and a fairly young male waterbuck, which looked like he had just been to the hairdressers, with his coat all brushed and shining.

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For our last afternoon we again chose to go for a boat ride – the weather was really closing in, and the light was not as good as it had been. Even so we saw quite a bit of bird life, including a male and female eastern golden weaver and a really tiny crocodile (no more than a foot long including its tail). Today there were also buffalo along the bank.

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Because of the huge variety of wildlife seen on previous evenings we had not made it very far up the river so we determined to get to Lake Siwandu this time. When we got there we found a yellow billed stork (which pulled a very strange face at us) and a whole small island of African skimmers. Unfortunately due to the low light they were already settling for the night, but it was funny to see them all lined up in the same direction like fighter planes waiting for the call.

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At the end of the trip the camp had set up a table overlooking the river with a bottle of champagne. It was nice watching the sun go down, and despite the low light levels and the clouds coming in it still made for an amazing sunset.

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Coming back from the boat ride we started to walk down to our room with our Masai and the Masai who dealt with the room further on - when they stopped us. One Masai stayed with us saying “elephant” and the other went forward. As we watched the one who had gone ahead suddenly leapt to one side and an elephant trumpeted, and there was crashing and crunching. Our Masai indicated a quick move back along the path, and at the same time more Masai started appearing from everywhere – our two Masai were suddenly four and then six and then more – as we were trotted along the path back to the main reception. We waited at reception listening to the occasional crashing sound and trumpeting. After about half an hour Chania said they were getting the car out to take us down to the room. One of the Masai came in and said we could now go down to the room. J said if the Masai were happy, so were we. So we headed off to our room with three Masai in attendance. Once we got close to the room, one of the Masai took my arm and trotted me up the stairs, while the others kept a lookout. Looking down from the platform there were elephants contentedly munching the vegetation literally just below our room. One of the Masai took up position on the stairs up to our platform (although I can’t imagine that any elephant would want to come up the stairs after us!).

The trip to and from dinner was careful but clear and after dinner we safely made our way back to our tent – although all through the early night we could hear the elephants continuing to feed.

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Outstanding photography, simply beautiful! Love the Kingfishers especially.

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Beautiful photos!

The elephants crossing the river and playing is a wonderful sequence, and what an excellent set of photos of the different kingfishers.

Quite an adventure at the end of the day as you were to return to your tent

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Those kingfishers are envy-inducing. Just gorgeous, as are all of your sunset shots. I also love your shallow depth-of-field photograph of the lioness walking away from the zebra kill.

 

What an exciting after-dinner experience! I don't think I could have slept until I felt certain the elephants were no longer in close proximity. Thanks for another great installment. I am enjoying your report tremendously.

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Selous has been hit hard by poachers, I am glad that you saw many elephants. Last time I were in Selous I did'nt see many elephants and they were very aggressive. Outstanding pics and great TR.

Thanks for sharing.

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Gorgeous photos.

I like the B Team - superbly named and photographed.

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Selous has been hit hard by poachers, I am glad that you saw many elephants. Last time I were in Selous I did'nt see many elephants and they were very aggressive. Outstanding pics and great TR.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Thankfully, we saw lots of Elephants in the Selous and none of them were at all aggressive. However, we did notice that there were very few 'big tuskers' around and that the adults were both slightly smaller (younger?) and with smaller tusks than you see in some of the older photos. Hopefully, they can be protected well enough to allow their numbers to fully recover.

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Monday 16th November

 

This morning it was raining, raining, raining. It was pouring – there were streams of water running across the paths. There were huge puddles of water on the roads. Game drives had been cancelled for anyone who was staying at Selous Impala. It was simply wet, wet, wet and it was our transfer out of Selous. We said goodbye to Gerard very sadly (sometimes you get a guide who just matches you – Gerrard has a huge amount of knowledge and experience, is very softly spoken and we adored being in his company – for us easily the best of the guides we had on this trip).

In an attempt to keep our luggage dry Selous Impala had wrapped it in a black bin liner, and they provided us with heavy duty rain capes. The luggage stayed dry, but even with the capes we were pretty much soaked through (the main cameras stayed safely tucked away, although we did take a few snaps with the waterproof one).

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By the time our plane took off the weather had cleared a bit, so we could at least see down to say goodbye to Selous.

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A rather bumpy ride later we landed at Ruaha. The transfer to Mdonya Old River Camp was fairly long and by the end I was feeling decidedly queasy, and was grateful to arrive. Andrea greeted us, and gave us the briefing before showing us to the tent (number umbele). Mdonya is set out very similarly to Manze. The tents are in a long row overlooking a green bank which may well have been a river at some point but has not been for a very long time. The tents are set out the same with the outdoor bathroom, and the same system applies with regard to the hurricane lanterns. Hot water is provided by solar power, but there are no fans. There is no electricity in the tents, but the office provides full facilities for charging whatever electrical kit you need to charge. Candles provide lighting for the evenings.

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After lunch J went out for the afternoon drive. I decided to let my stomach settle. The light was not great that afternoon, and according to J the tsetse flies were horrendous. Whilst out he saw a Nile monitor lizard and a small group of elephant.

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There was also a review of various animals dung and how to identify different animals from said dung. J tells me he managed to identify most of the dung presented but that no one identified the civet scat correctly.

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Tuesday 17th November

 

This morning we headed out early for our morning drive, with Kahimba our guide and Celestine the driver: first things first Kahimba sorted out the elephant dung burner (which hopefully deters tsetse flies).

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Driving along J spotted two bat-eared foxes, although they were at quite a distance. I was thrilled – I love these little predators, and I said that I would be really pleased to be able to see them closer and would love to see some pups. We found some of the usual suspects, giraffe, zebra, greater kudu and some baboons. A black mamba (at least ten foot long) headed across the road, interesting to see from the vehicle but I was glad we were not on foot

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Ruaha, and especially the area around Mdonya camp provided some really nice views of the lovely little kirks dik dik. These charming little antelope often watched us as much as we watched them.

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Tucked back in the rocks, a long way from the road was a large male leopard with its kill. Although you could see it through binoculars, it was simply lying there guarding its impala.

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Today we had lunch back at the camp – and hopping around investigating the bar area was this rather unbothered green-winged pytillia (which we previously knew as a melba finch and which my brain insists is a peach melba). Rebecca, the other camp manager arrived back from her leave which she had spent visiting her family.

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After a rest we headed back out and saw more giraffe and some lovely elephants. Located high up in one of the trees was a bees hive, luckily the bees ignored us and let us on our way. Among the birds was a white-headed buffalo weaver and saddle-billed stork.

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The road signs in Ruaha are actually pretty good, with most places well signed. They are all written on green metal animals, some more appropriate than others. You see green elephants, kudu, crocodile’s hippos etc. However there is one junction that stands out from all the others where there are two wooden painted signs of a kudu and a sable antelope. We had heard of numerous people who seeing this sign at a distance had got very excited thinking that there was a real sable antelope ahead.

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We had a lovely evening meal and headed off to bed early, tomorrow would be a full day drive.

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Wednesday 18th November

 

A full day game drive (at the moment the majority of the game is a bit away from the Mdonya Camp, so they recommend full day trips which allow you to get to the main game areas, and also get out of tsetse fly area). This meant we had both breakfast and lunch out in the bush.

As we drove out of camp, aiming to get out of the tsetse fly area, we suddenly became aware of a leopard lying right by the side of the road. Unfortunately we saw it too late to approach a bit slower and clearly startled it. It leapt up and disappeared into the thick bush. Although we looked for it, the elusive leopard lived up to its moniker, and we could not find it.

Not much further on we came across a large group of vervet monkeys, they were getting ready for the day, sitting on an old tree that had fallen down and enjoying the morning light. There was a really tiny baby who was being carefully watched to ensure it did not fall off the tree.

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Driving into a clearing we came across a teenage male elephant. Further back in the bush, just within sight there was quite a substantial herd. Kahimba said that the juvenile elephant had probably been kicked out of the herd recently but at the moment was still tagging along behind them. Being kicked out had obviously left him feeling a bit grouchy, or maybe he just wanted to pretend he was one of the big boys. After sizing us up, he set off at a determined trot, ears out, trumpeting – and charged straight at us –and then when we did not move altered his target to the nearest bush – where he stopped flaring his ears and waving his trunk. The guides, J and I laughed, but it did unnerve the other couple in the vehicle who had a little less safari experience.

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So this morning Kahimba had set up a nice surprise for me – clearly having taken on board my earlier comment regarding bat-eared foxes, we approached a road junction, Celestine switched off the engine and we coasted down the hill to stop opposite a bat-eared fox den, and …. they had cubs, ….. and they were within reasonable photographic distance. I was absolutely thrilled. In my view you can never get enough of this charismatic little hunter. The adults were sitting outside having been out and about all night, and the cubs had been allowed to come out of the den to start getting to know the world and stretch their legs. I am not sure you can actually get cuter than a bat-eared fox cub. There were three cubs who would pop out of the holes like one of the old arcade games (whack-a-croc), you would see the ears, and then the head, and occasionally the rest of the body would follow, or a sudden noise would lead to them disappearing entirely for a few minutes before their curiosity got the better of them and the ears would appear again. We spent around half an hour watching these little creatures, before it started to get a bit warm and they headed below where it was cooler.

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Breakfast this morning was in among some of the beautiful rock formations that dot Ruaha. We had done a fairly careful scan of this area before it was chosen – I don’t know what can be found here some days, but later experience of picnic sites confirmed you need to check carefully. This was also the spot where the maker of the documentary Lion Battlefield had camped. Kahimba stated that the producer had spent two years making the film, and that he had acted as a guide for him. He showed us where the tents had been set, and where they had stored their food. There was also evidence of people who had lived here long before Ruaha had been made a National Park, with a number of quern stones (which had been used for grinding grain) lying around.

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After breakfast we headed out along the dried out Great Ruaha river. We found lions (the first of many today). A small group of lions were lying in quite dense bush, but these two were in slightly clearer ground and seemed to have cuddled up for the day.

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We found some lovely giraffe today, firstly sitting and then standing under the baobab tree, and then this pair that we nicknamed the crisscross giraffes (for obvious reasons).

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Fish eagles are usually difficult to photograph, they have a habit of sitting really high up in a tree. So it was useful to be up high on the bank, and almost level with this guy, who thought he was a lot higher up as he looked out over the river bed.

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Now we pulled into one of the spots that is often used for lunch, we weren’t ready for lunch yet, so having looked around we pulled back out. And then we noticed something, tucked deep under the roots of a fallen tree; in a shady cave was a lioness and her pretty much full grown cub. Five minutes earlier we had been asked by a vehicle going the other way if we had seen any lions. It was quite clear they had driven straight past this lovely lady without seeing her – good job they had not stopped for lunch!

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A couple of minutes further on, we found more lions - a male lion and two female lionesses. Kahimba suggested we hold on for a few minutes even though they were a bit of a distance away. Within a couple of minutes one of the lionesses got up. She stalked to the male, lifting her tail, curling along him, teasing – he got the idea, and ………….. After he was finished she snarled and wandered off to lie down next to the other lioness, but twenty minutes or so later the same lioness was up and curling round him again, but this time they were facing us and we could see him gripping her nape with his teeth as they mated, with her pulling extraordinary faces. We weren’t sure if he was actually mating with both females or if the other lioness was there as some kind of duenna (not doing a good job of it if that was the case).

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Just across the road, was yet another lioness, probably part of the same pride as the lion with the two lionesses, but she obviously did not fancy joining the orgy.

After this we found a quiet (non-lion) spot near the Mwagusi River for lunch – and sat out in the bush listening to the sounds, waiting for the main heat to dissipate a bit.

After lunch we found, guess what, more lions. This was a pride of around a dozen, some of whom were lying under the bushes, and were pretty much invisible, but some of whom were lying on the edge of the river bank (where they could see anything interesting coming down the dry river bed) including some really photogenic cubs. One of the cubs had positioned himself so that he could use a dead tree limb as a pillow, and he watched us sleepily.

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A herd of elephants, with some quite small junior elephants trekked past us. The juniors were keen to learn how to control the palm leaves but didn’t quite seem to have mastered it yet.

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Coming round a bend, Kahimba said “lesser kudus”, and we looked across to see tails disappearing into the trees. One of the other guests asked Kahimba how he knew they were lesser kudus, and he started explaining about the white neck patch. I said “because they leg it as fast as possible out of photographic range”. J laughed, Kahimba looked at me but did not disagree, and then finished his explanation of the white neck patches. Nearly every single lesser kudu we saw, and we did see quite a few, legged it out of sight the second we saw them. However these two clearly thought they were out of photographic reach or that we could not see them, because they actually stood still for a few minutes before disappearing off into the bush.

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Other animals and birds seen today included greater kudu, dik dik, impala, tawny eagle and grey kestrel. We had seen ashy starling almost every day in Ruaha, but this was just about the only occasion when these very frequently seen, but very active birds let us close enough to get a photo.

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Coming back to camp we could see a very large rainstorm approaching, in fact we could actually see rain falling off to the side of us. Kahimba gave directions to Celestine and we veered off along some side roads and managed to get back avoiding the storm, arriving safely back at camp in time for dinner.

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Beautiful, beautiful pictures again - thank you! The Fox pups are uber-adorable, what a fantastic sighting. They are one of my favourites as well.

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So many truly fantastic photos.

I like all of them, perhaps the close-ups of the malachite kingfishers are the one s that I like best - stunningly sharp detail and colours.

What lens was you using for those?

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