Selous Game Reserve

Selous Game Reserve is located in south-east Tanzania and is the largest protected wildlife reserve in Africa. It covers 5% of all Tanzania, over 50,000 square kilometres and has within its boundaries a huge diversity of terrain and habitat. Because of its size and location, it is largely unspoilt, allowing the visitor to experience safari in the true wilderness far from civilization. Created in the early part of the last century, Selous reached its present size in 1975. Perhaps the most striking feature of the reserve is the Rufigi River Delta, a large area of wetland that is home to a large variety of animals and birds. It is one of the most beautiful landscapes in Africa, a paradise for the photographer. As well as the wetlands and waterways, it also offers ancient forest, scrubland and hills. Most visitors view its northern areas, nearest to Dar es Salaam leaving vast tracts almost untouched to the south.

In the Delta the Rufigi River meets with another, the Great Ruaha River, to create a fascinating system of waterways. This includes the Stigglers Gorge and along their courses hippos and crocodiles can be seen. Because of this terrain, boat game-drives are becoming a popular alternative to the vehicle ones, giving the visitor a different perspective on the reserve. As it is a Game reserve rather than a National Park more activities are allowed, meaning that you can enjoy hiking safaris and even fly-in to remote areas for overnight camps.

With plenty of hippos and elephant enjoying the abundant water and lush grazing, there is plenty of large game to view. Because of this abundance, there is also a good population of lions, as well as cheetah and leopards. It is still home to the endangered black rhino and has large herds of many of the grazers. Because of its position in the south of East Africa, it offers the bird-watcher an interesting mixture of both Eastern and Southern African birds.