Trundle down the rails overnight to Kisiki station. Travel
on open safari jeeps through the village. Plenty of children waving at us as
they go to school and we go to Selous Game Reserve along rough dirt track
roads. Shake, rattle and roll is the theme for today. Once inside the park the
jeep roof is raised to afford better views and at least we can now stretch our
legs enroute. Spend the next 4-5hrs driving along bumpy dirt tracks looking for wildlife.
Don’t have a tracker so it’s wandering around aimlessly hoping for the best. On
a previous game drive in South Africa we had a proper guide and tracker with
animals around every corner but on this particular drive it’s a good hour
before we see anything of note and that’s a solitary giraffe a mile away.
Pit stop at Selous’s grave – he being killed in action by
animals rather than warfare. The only toilets are behind a bush.
Another few hours of driving around but this time we do see
more interesting animals. The highlight is 3 lions and a lioness. We’re up
close and personal about 10ft away. They’re lying down cooling off in the
shade. It’s too hot even for them to think about killing anything. Quick picnic
lunch by a lake all laid out on the bonnets of the jeep. Some other tour group
in the distance are fine dining with tables and chairs which all seems very
civilised. Glad to stretch legs though.
Back in the jeeps for another 4hrs of game drive but after
an hour of being bounced about in cramped conditions without really seeing
anything the consensus is we’ve had enough and instruct driver to return to the
train as we’ve all done much better game drives before. It takes a further 1.5hrs to reach the train such is the terrain.
Never has a cold beer been needed so much.
