Although constituting one biological and zoological
whole, the Selous and Mikumi are two totally different
safari experiences. Mikumi has the Tazara Railway Line
and the main national highway running right through the
middle of it, while the Selous is one of the most remote
and least visited parks in Africa. Together, they cover
a vast expanse of Africa.
The Selous, at 55000km², is the second biggest conservation
area in Africa, and the largest game reserve on the continent,
and a proclaimed world heritage site. To give scale to
these figures, the reserve covers an area more than twice
that of Denmark, is bigger than Switzerland and is nearly
four times the size of the Serengeti. Mikumi is 3,230km².
While most guests visit the Selous on fly-in fully catered
safaris, it is possible to drive in with your own vehicle
– but be warned, the roads are appalling and self-catering
visitors are not made particularly welcome by the operators
of some of the upmarket lodges. The Selous is a grand
African experience. Once home to the biggest concentration
of elephant on the continent (over 110,000), the ‘Ivory
Wars’ of the late 70s and early 80s had a devastating
effect on the herds, reducing numbers to an estimated
30,000 to 50,000 today.
The black rhino population was similarly laid waste,
and today there are perhaps 150 to 200 left out of a
population of 3 000 in the early 70s. It would be easy
to reduce the Selous to just a set of numbers – 120 000
buffalo, 150 000 wildebeest, 5 000 zebra, an estimated
half the African population of wild dog totalling some
4 000, 350 bird species, 50 000 impala, and a mere 2
000 visitors a year – but that would be doing it an injustice.
The defining feature of the Selous is the great Rufiji
River, which naturally splits the ecosystem into two
distinct parts. Stiegler’s Gorge, 100m deep and 100m
wide, is a magnificent natural feature with a rickety
and gut-wrenching cable car that ferries safari vehicles
across the river – not for the faint of heart. Adding
to the air of wild remoteness is that there are only
six lodges in the reserve. While the bulk of the reserve
is miombo (brachystegia) woodland, there are sections
of magnificent grass plains, wetlands and swamps and
areas of dense canopy forest.
Perhaps the most sublime way of exploring the reserve
is by boat, meandering through channels and swamps, and
exploring hidden lagoons where elephant often come to
bathe. Angling in the river for tiger fish and the giant
catfish (vundu), which can reach up to 50kg, can be an
exciting way to pass an evening, keeping a wary eye open
for crocodiles, hippo and lion. In the Beho Beho section
of the reserve, the hot springs at Maji Moto (said to
be the source of the water used in the Maji Maji Rebellion
– see history) is a great place to soak away the dust
and bruises of overland safari travel, but immersing
yourself in the waters of nearby Lake Tagalala is verboten
– here be big crocodiles.
Also in the Beho Beho area is the simple grave of Captain
Frederick Courtenay Selous, the British hunter, soldier,
naturalist and great eccentric who gave the reserve its
name. When World War I broke out, he came out of retirement
at the age of 63, left his native Surrey, and went back
to his beloved Africa to command one of the most extraordinary
units of that war – a ragtag guerrilla unit of French
Legionnaires, cowboys from Texas, tough southern African
hunters, Russian émigrés, acrobats and a Honduran general.
Here he waged war against the equally legendary Colonel
Lettow von Vorbeck, enduring incredible privations during
the campaign. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet in 1917,
an event later mourned by Von Vorbeck as being an “ungentlemanly
way” to end Selous’ life.
