The Selous & Ruaha National Parks Holidays

What you can find in The Selous and Ruaha that you won't find anywhere else?

Accessible by air, the Selous is still relatively untouched, and a wilderness of tangled jungle and meandering 'sand rivers', bar one - the vast Rufiji River - which winds its way majestically through the reserve all year round. The wild, rugged plains are home to everything from hot volcanic springs, 100 yard deep gorges and sporadic lakes to vast wooded escarpments and dry savannahs.

And that's just the terrain. With so much diversity the reserve is able to protect a phenomenally large mammal population including buffaloes, hippos, wildebeest, zebras and impalas. The local giraffe population is also so large that the Selous has been nicknamed Giraffic Park. Birders, too, will not be disappointed on their Selous holidays.

With all this food-on-the-hoof it's hardly surprising that there are predators aplenty in the reserve. The Selous lion are famous for their daylight hunting techniques, and wild dog, whose predatory needs have often led to them being shot by farmers, thrive in the boundless woodlands and savannah of the Selous.

Tucked away in the Central Highlands, the Ruaha National Park feels like completely virgin wilderness. Apart from a few isolated springs, the only real water source is the Ruaha River itself, meaning that during the dry season from June to November this acts as a major attraction for game.

Like the Selous, the real joy of Ruaha holidays is the distinct lack of tourists, and thriving varied wildlife. Ruaha has one of the greatest populations of elephant in any African park, and the dry open hillsides encourage antelope and buffalo to gather into large herds which are in turn stalked by some of the largest prides of lion anywhere on the continent. This terrain is particularly good for seeing not only lions but potentially leopards, wild dogs and numerous giraffes and zebras on a Ruaha safari holiday.