Ruaha and Selous - Festival 2009 Extension

7 days Arusha - Nairobi

Please note that this is an example of what you can do in the Southern Parks. This is not a set itinerary with an expert guide, it is tailor made to suit your needs. Please contact your Wildlife Consultant for ideas and a quote.

Friday 29th May 2009

Check out the Festival camp after breakfast. You will be transferred to Seronera airstrip to connect with your flight to Selous. This flight will touch down in Arusha. Flight time is approximately 2 and half hours. On arrival at the airstrip you will be met by Selous Safari Camp and transferred to this tented camp overlooking the Rufiji River, which will be your base for the next three nights.

Selous Game Reserve is named after Frederick Courtney Selous, the famous 19th century hunter and explorer whose books were bestsellers in Victorian England. The Selous is the largest wildlife sanctuary on the African continent covering some 54,600 square kilometres of southern Tanzania. It consists of vast tracts of archetypal East African wilderness containing perhaps the greatest concentration of big game left on earth. Only in its northern extremity in the area of forest set around the Rufiji River, has the Selous suffered the incursion of man, and it is still home to a bewildering array of birds and mammals. Careful management and conservation schemes in Selous have brought healthy numbers of African Wild Dog, back to the area, together lion, leopard and many species of plains game. Selous Safari Camp is an excellent tented camp where you would want for nothing. The service is superb the food is just out of this world and for us the guiding is excellent. Tanzanian guides compliment an already highly experienced bush guiding and hosting team

Saturday 30th May and Sunday 31st May 2009

Spend the next two days exploring the Selous from your base at Selous Safari Camp. Safaris are either on foot, by open sided vehicle or by boat, whether it is a 10 km walk followed by breakfast in the bush, or an evening safari drive ending with sundowners at an escarpment viewpoint. This is the Africa experienced by many of its early explorers - raw and untouched. Your gamedrives may take you to the lakes where, the herbivores gather to drink and the carnivores lie in wait. Walks accompanied by an armed guide offer the opportunity to see buffalo, elephant and perhaps a lion, and a boat safari provides you with the thrill of getting close to hippo and crocodile. A Selous Safari Camp experience offers plenty of wonderful memories that will last you a lifetime.

Monday 1st June 2009

Following breakfast transfer to the airstrip to connect with the 0800 hours fight to Ruaha National Park. On arrival a guide will meet you at Msembe airstrip. Drive slowly though the park to arrive at Kwihala Tented Camp.

You will spend the next three nights in the comfort of Kwihala. Kwahila is a relatively new-tented camp; it has been sited on a hillside site away from the park roads in deepest bush and enjoys wonderful views and superb sunrises and sunsets. The camp consists of six individual and privately located tents. The spacious tents are fully furnished with comfortable beds, integral bathrooms with power showers and flushing toilets. Each tent has a covered veranda area, which is mosquito proofed. The separate dining and relaxing areas create a homely feel, although canvas walls and open sides leave one with no illusions that one is camping in the bush.

Ruaha National Park is Tanzania's second largest park, and one of its wildest and best-kept secrets. Only the area around the Great Ruaha River has been developed for tourism, and because of its remote location even this sees relatively few visitors, thus preserving a massive chunk of raw African wilderness in a totally unspoilt state. Activities centre on the river, which during the dry season is very low, with the remaining rock pools swarming with huge crocodile and grunting hippo fighting for space.

Ruaha protects a wide variety of habitats because it is an important transition zone where eastern and southern species of flora and fauna overlap and in all some 1,650 plant species and over 450 bird species have been recorded. Ruaha is known for its large elephant and buffalo herds, Greater and Lesser Kudu, Sable and Roan Antelope. There are high numbers of predators including: lion, leopard, cheetah and the increasingly rare African Wild Dog. Ruaha is a great park all year round due to its excellent all-weather road network and the fact that the park is particularly stunning in the green season with huge numbers of migrating birds from both hemispheres. The southwest area of Tanzania where Ruaha is located has the lowest rainfall in Tanzania. June to November is driest with the focus of wildlife viewing around the river courses and permanent waterholes. Ruaha's rugged bush is the real Africa; teeming with game and empty of tourists.

Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd June 2009

For the next two days we will arrange for you to enjoy early morning and evening game drives to explore the further reaches of Ruaha.

Thursday 4th June 2009

On this your last day in Ruaha check out drive slowly back to Msembe airstrip to connect with the morning flight to Dar es Salaam. On arrival at the airport we will arrange for a day room where you will be able to relax before connecting to the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi and home.

Friday 5th June 2009 - Arrive back in the UK.