Day 8 - A Full Day in Selous

This morning Christine and Olaf are off to Mafia Island. We decide to get up early and have breakfast in camp with them so we can say goodbye.

So today it is just us, Kalisti and Ally in the car. We leave camp about 7.30am and spend the first part of the day focussing on the birds, which means we see some new ones for us. We start off by heading to one of the lakes.

Lots of Pelicans this morning

Great White Pelicans

African Golden Weaver

Grey Heron

Lanner Falcon

Red-Necked Falcon 

Whilst watching the birds we come across a small herd of zebra and a giraffe with a leg that has clearly suffered some sort of injury in the past. The leg looks very strange but the giraffe seems to walk on it ok, which is good.

Nice to see some zebra again

Giraffe with the leg that had been injured

The front leg has been injured in the past

We see a few more interesting birds before Kalisti points out a large number of vultures circling in the sky - we are off to investigate.

Tawny Eagle

Fire Lilies

African Grey Hornbill

We follow the vultures and soon come across an impala carcass with one vulture eating. This is a Lappet Faced Vulture and he is not letting any other vulture share his meal. It is really interesting to watch. There are lots of Ruppell's Griffon Vultures and a few Hooded Vultures who are all watching desperate to get something to eat but anytime one of them approaches the carcass they are chased away. As we watch the Lappet Faced Vulture continues to eat for a good 15 minutes whilst constantly scaring the others away. Eventually he has had his fill and leaves and then it becomes a real free for all with all these other vultures pushing and shoving each other in order to get to the food. We really enjoyed watching the interaction between these different birds.

Lappet Faced Vulture

Other vultures would like some food

Just liked this picture

Eventually the Ruppell's Griffon and Hooded Vultures get to feed - it is mayhem!!

The rest of the morning passes quickly and we see a few more birds and mammals. We drive past a man made pool which has been dug out when the workman have quarried stone to make the road. It is now full of water and home to some hippos.

Hammerkop

Striped Kingfisher

Man made pool with hippos

One of the inhabitants of this pool

"Hello"

Boo!!

Baby and mum

Again Ally finds a nice place on a lakeshore to stop for lunch. As we arrive we notice a baboon drinking at the waters edge - he runs away as we approach.

Another nice spot for lunch

baboon drinking

After lunch we come across a buffalo sat in the mud by the lake edge. In the water is a black egret doing it's "umbrella" dance as it fishes.

Enjoying the mud

Yellow Billed Oxpecker

White fronted Bee-Eater

Black Egret

The black egret uses it's wings to create some shade to help it fish

Brown Snake Eagle

About 4pm it started to rain. At first it was just light but it soon got heavy. Kalisti gave us raincoats and asked if we wanted the sides put down on the car. We decided to say "No" as you really can't see much through those plastic windows. Ally did a sterling job driving on as the roads which had quickly became rivers. Obviously spotting wildlife in the pouring rain is quite difficult but it wasn't long before Ally spotted a hyaena. This was our first sighting of a hyaena this trip so I was determined to get a photo.

Hyaena in the pouring rain

And in one of the rare moments when the rain eased up a little

We were all wearing these raincoats but we still all got soaked

Not sure if this guy was enjoying the rain

Flooding

And more flooding!

Despite the weather we did manage to get a decent picture of this Red Billed Oxpecker

There is black cotton soil in Selous  (as in Tarangire in North) and you don't want to be trying to drive through this after heavy rain or you are likely to get stuck in it. So earlier, before the rain actually arrived, Ally decided that looking at the sky, it would be prudent to  drive back across this area to make sure we were on the "Camp Side" if any rain did arrive .......a very good decision.

Once the heavy rain arrived the guys asked if we wanted to go back to camp and at that time we said "No".  But over an hour later when are back quite near camp and the light is not good and we are all soaked,  Kalisti asks again and this time we say "Yes".

However we are still in for one last surprise. Shaun and Millie are waiting for us when we get back to camp and tell us that there are elephants in camp. Despite being soaking wet we rush to have a look and sure enough there is a herd of about 10 elephants.

Elephants in camp

Me - Rather damp - but still taking photos

When you have an itch.....

We watch for a while but then decide we really need to get out of our wet clothes and have a shower so we walk back to our tent. However within 5 minutes of  getting back there we notice the elephants have walked our way as well and pass in front of our tent.

We can see the elephants approaching from our terrace

They walk by and go on their way

 Tonight it is still raining in camp and we need walking boots and umbrellas just to negotiate the very wet muddy path to the dining area. Not surprisingly we are eating under cover tonight. The rain has encouraged all the bugs to appear and Shaun has great fun showing us all sorts of different ones. The most impressive by far is a huge rhino beetle!

After dinner we slip and slide our way back to our tent and sleep well after another fun day.