written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Oct 1997, Vol. 2 No. 1
Pazi approached me carrying a double-barrel, high-powered Russian-made rifle. He wanted to escort me through the bush of Mbuyuni Camp to my tent located on the bank of the “mighty” Rufiji river in the Selous Game Reserve. He stopped abruptly, motioning several of us to halt. Walking behind the others, I missed seeing a spitting cobra slither across the path.
The Rufiji River winds through Tanzania and is referred to as “mighty” because of its size. During the rainy season, the river is the largest water catchment in East Africa. It dumps huge amounts of silt into the Indian Ocean. When flooding subsides, the water level of the river drops exposing large, sparkling white and golden sand banks.
The camp is not a place to forget any belongings prior to making the 300-yard (escorted by guards) trek through the bush going to and from the dining tent. You don’t want to have to retrace your steps. The animals, primarily hippos and elephants, have the right of way on this path through thick bush. Pazi’s job is to protect the guests from grazing wild animals. I coaxed him pause for me so I could admire the silk web of a golden orb spider and a parade of driver ants, “soldiers” guarding the ranks, as they marched along the trail.
The tides of the Rufiji have seasonal ebbs, so our secluded mosquito-netted tents were built on stilts. The front porch offered river views. The interior had two cot beds, a flush toilet, a solar shower, and a generator provided several hours of light for evening reading.
We were told to expect grazing hippos and elephants near our tents during the night. Even during the day, I could hear snorting and splashing of the hippos in the river, and branches crashing from grazing elephants.One couple had so many hippos and elephants visit their tent during the night that a guard, Hamis, was dispatched to instructed them to lie quietly in a back corner.
Our game drives were by boat along the river. We enjoyed many closeup views of hippos. Large crocodiles sunned themselves on sandy banks, while bushbucks, impala, cape buffalo grazed along the banks. We saw the goliath heron, crowned hornbill, saddlebill stork, african fish eagle, and colorful nesting white-fronted bee-eaters.
A pack of the endangered African wild hunting dog were sighted by the Camp’s game trackers. We left our breakfast on the table, and climbed into a land rovers. We drove along a “mbugas” track of “black cotton soil,” mud that mires car tires during the wet season. While our search was not successful in locating the dogs, we saw the brindled gnu, a larger variety of the wildebeest, lions, elephants, giraffes, and the greater kudu.
The bird life and thick vegetation of the Selous added another dimension to our safari. This region looked similar to a rainforest in its dry season. In the evening, we smelled the “cooking potatoes” fragrance of the potato plant. The yellow blossoms of the “Scrambled egg” cassia, and the red bottle brush of the combretum added splashes of color along the dark track.
Manager Sal Arsene, takes great pride in the cuisine served in this permanent camp. Pleased that Americans were arriving, he had a turkey flown in on his supply plane from Nairobi. The majority of his 2000 annual visitors arrive by driving approximately 200 miles from Dar es Salaam. Others, including Charles, Prince of Wales, charter small aircraft to land on the 3000 foot dirt airstrip carved in the bush.
Four of us stopped to fish on a sandy bank for the elusive tigerfish. Lacking wire leader, our efforts were hopeless as this mysterious fish snapped our dacron lines. A cape buffalo grazing at the edge of the bush stared at us from about a 100 yards away. We kept watch to be sure he kept his distance. The rest of the group joined us on the beach as we watched the sun set behind the tall boum palms edging the muddy Rufiji.
At Mbuyuni Camp we enjoyed conveniences like running water, flushing toilets, and solar lighting. The rainforest allowed us to see water species that we did not see in the Serengeti. We marveled at the diversity of Tanzania.