Welcome to the first edition of Wild Footprints’ Adventure Newsletter - Shari (which means adventure in Swahili). Unlike normal periodic newsletters, Shari is safari based, and published after each specific adventure-safari regardless of time of the year. Our first edition comes to you with news about our recently accomplished Rufiji River Raft, from the western boundary of the Selous Game Reserve all the way to the eastern boundary. A first. Enjoy the adventure folks!
Having worked with the late Conrad Hirsch in the 1980’s and early 1990’s on the Rufiji River Rafting Expeditions, destiny brought us into contact with the very man who trained Conrad and founder of Sobek Expeditions, John Yost. In commemoration of John’s vision for Tanzania and celebration of Conrad’s life on the Rufiji, we embarked on a river rafting expedition never previously attempted. We were to navigate the Kilombero and Rufiji rivers from the western to the eastern boundary of the largest wildlife sanctuary in Africa – the Selous Game Reserve (55,000 km2).
In collaboration with Mountain Travel Sobek, who booked a group of six participants, John Yost, who recruited Jim Hendricks and Paul Cavanaugh (professional US river guides), Wild Footprints set-off on an adventure that will be a highlight in its history.
As always with set-date adventures, it was a great group of participants with a good mix of characters. The adventure began and ended out of Dar es Salaam, with the put-in at Riverside Camp (Kilombero) and pull-out at Rufiji River Camp (Rufiji). The first two nights at Riverside Camp were spent in comfort and luxury, with activities such as game walks and game drives as orientation to the wilderness that was to be our home for the next ten days. The riverine forest and various waterholes were visited on foot, with lots of signs and skills of the bush learned and sightings included: reedbuck, eland, baboon, hartebeest, warthog, waterbuck and birds such as guinea-fowl, francolin, dove, ground-hornbill, harrier eagle, lilac-breasted roller and a number of smaller species.
On day three everyone was ready to get on the river and move downstream. So we did and had a casual float into the reserve, where the game guards stopped us to check for permits and we in turn stopped at their guard post for a lunch break. The afternoon went quickly and soon John picked out a beautiful campsite abandoned by nesting crocodiles. The evening came fast and everyone got an idea of their responsibilities and duties when it came to camp life. Hippos kept up their melodies all night and it made for some deep sleep.
Early days on the river made for some serious hippo dodging as their numbers increased drastically. Our raft fleet consisted of two row boats and one paddle boat. On this particular day, Paul’s paddle boat got bumped by a hippo from underneath and Paul ended up in the water on top of the hippo. The hippo dived in fright and the raft turned immediately to get Paul back into the boat. It’s your guess as to what the main point of discussion was at the campfire that night. All in all, we made good time and covered a lot of river, but became wary of the abundance of hippos in the river.
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The next couple of days on the river were intense. With every island and rock formation in the river, came larger concentrations of hippo and with every hippo jam, came an incident. By day five on the river we had five bumps by hippo, two hippos surfacing right next to the rafts and two full-out attacks on the paddle boat, which put it out of use even after some good repair work by John. We were in a situation! There was no way we could navigate the Kilombero without further hippo attacks.
Expert leadership, excellent group decisions along with strokes of good fortune, led us to an abandoned hunting camp along the banks of the Kilombero, where we were met by an anti-poaching unit of the Selous Game Reserve. They assisted us in reaching our land fleet which was waiting for us further downstream and we managed to navigate on land around the Kilombero segment which proved too dangerous. Back on the Rufiji it was nervy but a relief to start at Stieglers Gorge where there were no hippos and some awesome current and rapids. The spirit of adventure rose. The hippos on the Rufiji are fewer, far between and a lot more accustomed and accommodating to rafts. From here on, there was only one incident which was easily handled by a warning shot from the .470 NE. The hippo dived and that was the last bit of hippo action that we had. Though by now we were all transformed into adrenalin junkies and simply could not finish a day without extraordinary adventure moments.
We set-up camp close to Lake Siwando in the heart of the Selous Photographic Circuit and enjoyed awesome game walks and leisurely days at the Impala Camp Bar where the sights and hospitality of cold drinks were just irresistible. Our adrenalin needs were eased by a VERY close encounter with a bull elephant in the dark – a mere 10 yards and a mock charge to go with it. A lioness used our open safari vehicle as a scratching post on one of the game drives and our last night had us up and lighting fires when a herd of elephants almost walked into Juma’s tent and hyenas surrounded Jim’s isolated tent. We kept the elephants at bay by lighting three fires at 3 am and moved Jim into the safety of the center of camp soon after that. A leopard kept sawing around camp throughout the night, but all was safe and cozy.
We rafted the last stretch to Rufiji River Camp without incident and pulled out in the heat of the day, knowing that there was a full supply of cold drinks at the bar. In the end, we could not have asked for a greater adventure and can proudly say that we did accomplish our mission. The expedition exposed us to many aspects of the Kilombero and Rufiji rivers that we knew little of. Now, better prepared, we cannot wait for the next adventure.
Cheers to Conrad, John and all the adventurers who have ventured into the unknown of the Selous Game Reserve - Africa as Livingstone saw it.
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