The truly untamed Africa.
To borrow from the words (not the spirit) of George Orwell's famous Animal Farm: "Animals all over Africa are equal".
At the heart of Tanzania's forgotten south is the Selous – a vast 48.000 km² wilderness area stretching over more than 5% of the mainland. It is Africa's largest wildlife reserve, and Tanzania's most extensive ecosystem, where the Ruaha National Park and the Serengeti come close.
It is also home to large herds of elephants. There are also buffaloes, crocodiles, hippos, wild dogs and an amazing diversity of birds, and some of Tanzania last remaining black rhinos live here. Separating it is the Rufiji River, the king of Tanzania's rivers which winds its way more than 250 km from its source in the highlands trough Selous to the sea, and boasts one of the largest water-catchments areas in East Africa. En route, it cuts a path past woodlands and grasslands and stands of borassus palms and provides the chance for some unparalleled water based wildlife watching. In the river's delta area, which lies outside the reserve opposite Mafia Island, the radish-brown fresh water of the river Moces, mixing with the blue salt water of the sea, form striking patterns and provide habitats for many dozens of bird species, passing dolphins and more.
In the northwestern part of the reserve the impressive Stieglers Gorge is located. It is named after a Swiss explorer who was killed here by an elephant in 1907 and has an average depth of 100 meters.
Although the number of tourists visiting Selous is gradually increasing, it remains low in comparison with Tanzania's northern parks, and the congestion of the north is refreshingly absent. The Selous wildlife concentration and diversity is also generally considered to be lower than in some of the northern parks – although it's hard to imagine this when you're sitting in a boat in the middle of the Rufiji River, watching elephants playing in the water just a few hundred meters in front of you, or when you are counting several dozen hippos along the river banks from the doorway of your safari tent.
Another major advantage of the Selous is that you can explore it by boat or on foot: a welcome change of pace if you have been cooped up in 4WD vehicles on dusty roads during other parts of your travels. Boat safaris down the Rufiji or on the reserve lake are offered by most of the camps and lodges.
Only the section of the reserve north from the Rufiji River is open for tourism, large areas of the south have been zoned as hunting concessions.
History:
Parts of the reserve were set a side as early as 1896, although it was not until 1922 that it was expanded and given its present name (after Frederick Courteney Selous, the British explorer who was killed in the reserve during WW1).
The area continued to be extended over the next decades until 1975 when it assumed its current boundaries. In more recent years there has been an ongoing discussion of plans to link Selous Game reserve with the Niassa Reserve in Mozambique with the first stages of the project including the establishment of a wildlife corridor, scheduled to start in the near future.