Selous National Park, Tanzania is one of the biggest confined wildlife areas of its kind in the entire Africa. A UNESO World Heritage Site – Selous National Park covers the area as big as a size of Belgium. Most of the Selous safari camps are located at or along the banks of Rufiji River that flows here. You can find beautiful focal safari camps along Rufiji River fed by local lakes and lagoons. A big amount of travelers get attracted by the game safaris at Selous Game Reserve as the sheer joy of watching wild animals pass you is worth having.
Travelers have options of choosing a way to experience these wildlife creatures in various ways, three common ways are game drives, walking safaris and boat safaris. All of these are certainly fun and extremely enjoyable. Certainly game drives are the popular choices among tourists visiting this game reserve but walking and boat safaris are also extremely fun and are certainly loved by people. You have to have a very experienced guide while on an open safari that can guide and make the most of your selous safari by pointing animals that you generally don’t notice and by protecting you against any threat. These guides are best guiding you with the names and history of different birds and animals, which you may come across for the first time in life.
As this is a game reserve and so you are certain to get encountered by the ‘Big Five’ – Lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo being attraction of game safaris. Selous does not have 4 seasons like other parts of the world, you can refer to the seasons as dry or wet here. You can easily spot the birds, game and the bigger predators as there is less foliage and most water holes dry out in the dry season. The game viewing is at its best during the dry season that generally lasts from June up till November. Rest of the year it is a wet season here and so game safaris are not as good; however, the early parts of wet season, which is during December to February are also good for game safaris but can feel a bit humid.
If you are a sheer bird lover, January to May is the best time to watch these; however the rains can be hurdle and most lodges and camps are closed during March to May. Selous game reserve is also popular for having world’s third largest African Wild Dog population. The wild dogs also known as Painted Dogs are social animal but are endangered and hunt in a heap. The river banks at Selous attract large masses of birds and the attractive fish eagle soaring high in the sky, which is certainly a treat to watch. You can also expect to see a lot of wading birds such as heron, storks. The water also contains some crocodiles and perilous hippo that can be seen occasionally bobbing their heads out of the water.
You need to spend at least 3 nights to make sure you make out the most of Selous Game reserve and then move to other nearly attractions such as Mikumi safari, which is also a great treat to visit. Click here to get more information on Tanzania Safari.