Selous & Ruaha Southern Circuit

Meet at your Dar es Salaam hotel or airport for a light-aircraft flight to Selous Game Reserve (recently renamed Nyerere National Park) — Africa's largest protected area at 55,000 km². Arrive your riverside tented camp for lunch. Afternoon game drive introduces you to the reserve's healthy elephant and buffalo herds, plus the greatest concentrations of African wild dog in East Africa. Sundowners on the deck above the Rufiji River as hippos snort in the shallows.

Morning boat safari on the Rufiji — a completely different game-viewing experience where you glide past elephants at the water's edge, watch fish eagles snatch tilapia mid-flight, and count the vast crocodile population sunning on sandbanks (some over 5m long). After lunch and a rest at camp, an armed ranger leads you on a walking safari focused on the small things game vehicles miss: tracks, dung, insect behaviour, and medicinal plants.

Full-day exploration with picnic lunch — you're deep in the reserve, too far from camp to return. Selous is famous for its healthy predator populations: watch for the endangered African wild dog moving in packs of a dozen or more, lion prides that use termite mounds as vantage points, and leopards resting up in the tamarind trees. Sundowners on a hidden ox-bow lake as hippos begin to move onto land for their nightly grazing.

Morning bush flight north to Ruaha National Park — Tanzania's largest but least-visited park, and one of Africa's true remaining wildernesses. Arrive your tented camp for lunch, then afternoon game drive along the Great Ruaha River. Elephant herds, Grant's gazelle, and both greater and lesser kudu are common; if lucky, you might see sable antelope, one of Africa's most elegant and elusive animals.

Ruaha's remoteness rewards exploration — you can drive for hours seeing extraordinary wildlife without meeting another vehicle. Focus on the river-line for elephant and predators; explore the baobab plains for giraffe, buffalo, and the huge lion prides for which Ruaha is famous (some over 20-strong). Optional walking safari with an armed ranger for a completely different perspective — you'll notice the wilderness in a way you cannot from a vehicle.

Final morning game drive, brunch at camp, then flight back to Dar es Salaam. Day-room available if there's time before your international departure. Transfer to Julius Nyerere International Airport for your onward flight.