Monday, Nov. 13 – Fly from Ikuka to Selous

We have a leisurely morning as we only leave at 9:30. Breakfast is at 8 with Mark’s family and Tanya.

We have a proper goodbye with the kitchen/bar staff. Pictures are taken and lots of hugs are exchanged. Lazaro is our driver. He is dressed in his typical Masai garb. He’d prefer to wear this every day, but Mark prefers that he wear the guide shirt and shorts.

This is the loo with a view. (there is no window pane) The main bathroom of the camp.

Msilu and Safe, our bartenders and servers. They were so amazing. 

Picture of the Ikuka camp on the top of the hill

On our drive we see Kudus, Horn bills, and a Rufos crowned Roller. We wait for about 45 minutes for our plane to arrive. It is a 12 seater and there are 10 of us, so very packed. One guy from Denmark is 6’9”, so he is very cramped. As we get close to Selous we notice a huge difference in the terrain. There’s so much greenery and the lakes and rivers are not dry beds.

A Rufous Crowned Roller

Here we are with Lazaro before our flight

Site from the plane

Also from the plane

Our guide and driver are waiting for us. Our Guide will be Zacharia for our 5 days at Camp Manze. Our driver is Kamkumba.

On our drive to the camp we see Wart Hogs and their babies. So cute. They are nursing when we stop to view them. There are lots of baby impalas. They are so tiny. The babies are born earlier in this part of the country because the rains have already started and there is lots to eat. We also see 3 Greater Kudus, one Bateleur on the ground, (we can really notice the colours, which you miss when they are flying high or siting high in a tree), and 2 Greater blue starlings.

A Bateleur

Wart Hog kneeling while eating. 

The drive is slow because the rain has caused many huge ruts in the dirt roads. As we are nearing the camp after a 45-50 minute drive, we see a pack of Wild Dogs. Again, we are so excited. They are lying under a tree trying to stay cool in the afternoon sun. There are nine of them.

It rest time as it is too hot to hunt.

Sean and Millie meet us at the camp. They lead us to the main area where a lunch is awaiting us. It is around 2 pm. There are boat and walking safaris here so we will definitely experience those. We are lead to our tent. It is warmer here that our other two camps. Our view is of the lake so we see many bird species, impalas, and elephants. So cool. Our tent is powered by solar for our water sources and candles and flashlight are used at night. The tents are the same as our first camp, Mdonya. This camp is owned by the same company.

At 4 pm we are off on a boat safari. It’s a short drive to the boat. Our guide is there waiting. We hop in and we’re off. The sight is absolutely amazing. We see Yellow-billed Storks, Pink-Breasted Pelicans, Spoon-Billed Storks, African Fish Eagles, Marabou Storks, Pied King fishers, Palm-Nut Vultures, Malachite King Fishers, Little Egrets, Intermediate Egrets, Yellow Weavers, Black-Necked Weavers, Jacanas, Immature Black-Crowned Eagle, Goliath Herons, Giant King Fishers, crocodiles, Monitors, Water Bucks, and elephants. WOW!!! Incredible. Oh and about 20 or so Hippos in the water. What a wonderful way to appreciate a different kind of safari, on the river.

Marabou Stork

A Pied King Fisher

A Malachite King Fisher, beautiful little bird

Water Buck

 

Egrets

Hippo yawning

Water bucks with elephants in the background. I never get enough of this view.

A better photo of a Malachite King Fisher

Hippo had enough bathing for one day.

The boat for the water safari 

Immature Fish Eagle

Black Necked Weaver

Immature Yellow-Billed Stork

A Jacana finding food

Marabou Stork

Hippos mating

Some pretty big crocs in the water but the birds have no fear

An immature Black-Crowned Eagle

African Fish Eagle

Beautiful Sunset while on the boat.

Wendy enjoying the ride

We return to camp and W and A are told that they can move to tent #4, near us, and with a good view of the water. They are very happy. We will also change jeeps as we prefer the bench seat. Our driver will change but we will continue with Zacharia. We are happy about that.

We go shower up and wait for the Masai to collect us at 7:30. (The Masai are there to make sure that wild animals like hyena, elephants, wild dogs, lions, etc don’t get close to us) 7:30 is when we tell Sean which activities we want to do the next day. We sit with an American couple from Seattle and exchange safari stories. They are really nice. They have covered a lot of ground in 3-4 weeks.

Supper is at 8, just like the other camps and we are sitting under the stars with a campfire at either ends of the table. There are about 14 of us. Food is good here as well with a soup as a started, then salads and meat, then dessert. Tonight we are happy to see frozen chocolate mousse. We were just saying how nice it would be to eat ice cream…

There are animals all around the camp so the Masai stay awake at night standing guard. We all have whistles in our rooms in case something should happen. There is activity during the night: elephants must be tearing off palm fronds and walking on them, we hear hyenas howling, etc. It’s impossible to sleep in as the birds start chirping around 5 am and there are a lot of them.