| Bonham now has his own camp and concession on | | | | mosquito net. We spent a magical 24 hours |
| the North bank of the Rufiji - a small (just | | | | walking with Bonham and a game scout for |
| six cottages) and very up market camp called | | | | miles along the sand river which we had |
| Sand Rivers perched overlooking the Rufiji | | | | entirely to ourselves. |
| river so that you wake to the sounds of | | | | |
| snorting hippos, the cry of the fish eagle, | | | | We went to sleep watching packs of hyena |
| the bark of African wild dogs and the harsh | | | | coming to feast on the bones of a dead |
| racket of the hadeda ibis. | | | | buffalo by the light of the full moon and |
| | | | listening to that spine-chilling noise of the |
| You can fly straight into Sand River's own | | | | lion roaring in the distance. |
| little airstrip from Dar-es-Salaam or you | | | | |
| could do what we did, which is to ease your | | | | At dawn we breakfasted on scrambled eggs and |
| way in gently, divesting yourself of | | | | bacon and then set off to walk back to base, |
| metropolitan angst by degrees, by stopping | | | | climbing up small hills for better views, |
| off first at a charming tented camp called | | | | sometimes resting quietly beside lakes |
| Mbuyini. It sits on a little promontory on a | | | | decorated with drowned palm trees, watching a |
| bend in the river and you can spend happy | | | | Goliath heron balancing precariously on the |
| days tootling up and down the river learning | | | | back of a hippo and flocks of open-billed |
| to tell the grey heron from its black-headed | | | | stork circling high in the sky. |
| near relation, picnicking beside the lakes | | | | |
| fringed by Borassus palm trees and tracking | | | | All this is just a taster for the real treat, |
| the local pack of hunting dogs. | | | | the thing that makes Bonham's outfit special, |
| | | | which is his long portered walks into the |
| Then, if you are very very fortunate, Bonham | | | | Southern Selous. The Selous north of the |
| himself turns up to take you up-river by | | | | Rufiji is wild by most people's standards - |
| boat, drifting past the nesting storks and | | | | it has just six lodges (of which Mbuyini and |
| hippo pods, arriving in old-fashioned style | | | | Sands River are much the best) together |
| at the wooden landing-stage of Sand River. | | | | catering for no more than 100 people at a |
| | | | time. |
| At Sand River you go on game drives through | | | | |
| the 15 or so square miles of Bonham's private | | | | But that is crowded compared with the Selous |
| concession or you walk with a well-trained | | | | south of the Rufiji. This is serious |
| guide through the bush or you go on jaunts up | | | | wilderness country, the country that Peter |
| the river sure of seeing hippo, crocodile, | | | | Matthieson, Tom Arnold and a very young |
| waterbuck and buffalo and hoping for a | | | | Bonham explored 16 years ago on what they |
| sighting of the rare Rock Pratincole or the | | | | dubbed the "last real safari" (and which |
| even rarer leopard. | | | | Peter Matthieson wrote about in Sand River). |
| | | | Here there are no lodges at all - just a few |
| But, above all, you get the chance to sleep | | | | temporary tented camps in the hunting blocks |
| out on the sand river bank in a little | | | | and Bonham's occasional mobile camps. |