A walk on the wild side in Tanzania

Huge, elegantly furnished tents with polished wooden floors, big, comfortable beds, copper bathroom fittings and open-air showers beneath the vast star-splattered African sky; sensational views; food that wouldn’t be out of place in a smart London restaurant; game drives led by knowledgeable, experienced guides… really, you couldn’t ask for a holiday with more romance or more comfort.

Not that I was on honeymoon. Far from it – I was travelling with my mother, and all these magical experiences and indulgences were shared with her. We started at Jongomero Camp, high up in the Ruaha National Park, where thanks to the altitude and the time of year (February), the land was so green and lush it was hard to believe we were in Africa at all. The undergrowth was too thick to allow for safe walking, so we made our way by Land Rover, flicking cow-hair swats at the circling flies as we bumped and bashed along the unmetalled roads and dirt tracks.

But we still saw every kind of animal: more giraffe than I would have thought possible, accompanied by herds of skittish zebra; kudu, bat-eared foxes, warthogs, waterbuck, jackals, guinea fowl, eagles, hornbills, storks, geese, rollers, weavers. We stopped for morning coffee close by a herd of impala and on a full-day safari ate lunch by the Great Ruaha River, while on the opposite bank a family of hippos lumbered out of the water for their own picnic of juicy grass. We sat and watched a trio of lions settling down in the shade for a siesta, while a nervous clique of dik-dik (tiny antelope) shivered under a bush close by. We even, having broken down in the middle of nowhere and waiting to be rescued, found a praying mantis, stick insects and – heralded with a whoop by our wonderful guide Kimoro (I had early on put in the near-impossible request to see one) – a young leopard tortoise, perfectly camouflaged, ambling along at the side of the track. One afternoon we came across a great herd of elephant taking a bath in a huge puddle of red mud; every animal was hennaed from head to toe. We stopped the Land Rover and sat in their midst as they snacked around us, keeping half an eye on us at all times, the sound of their munching and rumbling conver-sation loud in our ears.

At the end of each day, after drinking sundowners served from the back of the Land Rover, we’d return to camp, ready for a hot shower in our huge ensuite bathroom, and to admire the view, gin and tonic in hand, over the Jongomero River (which in the space of one night, after a brief storm, went from a virtually dry sandy riverbed to deep and fast-flowing), on whose banks the camp stands. You are quite isolated, which makes it all the more surprising at mealtimes to be presented with a cheese soufflé (puffed to perfection), crispy prawn spring rolls, chicken curry, empanadas, or mango Napoleon.

Each night we were escorted to and from our tent by a Maasai ‘askari’ or warrior, spear in hand, who loped ahead of us in case we should come across an unexpected visitor. One night, the askari stopped us suddenly. We looked to where he was staring, but it wasn’t until an entire tree gave a great shake that we had any idea that there was an elephant all of 20ft from us, casually denuding the branches of their leaves. We passed quietly and cautiously by, but the elephant was so happy with his midnight feast that he didn’t bother with us. Thank goodness.

Flying down to Selous Safari Camp in a Cessna Caravan – aptly named – we had stopped to drop and collect passengers at one or two camps. At one, a pair of lions basked on the dusty runway, at another I lost count of the number of elephant and giraffe in the bushes next to the airstrip. Some 1,500ft lower than Jongomero, landing at Selous was like arriving on another planet. Down on the plains, the heat was intense and the landscape parched. I seriously doubted any game would be left in the area at all, but I needn’t have worried. Driving to the camp we spotted a pack of wild dogs, some of the rarest animals in this part of Africa; later, as we lay desperately trying to acclimatise to the shimmering midday heat on the shaded verandah of our tent, a line of waterbuck picked their way delicately along the edge of the lake, some 50ft away.

We took a boat trip on the lake and saw countless crocodiles, as well as fish eagles, kingfishers and other dazzlingly colourful birds. Giraffe and elephant came down to the water for an evening drink. The lake and surrounding channels are also home to an extraordinary number of hippos, several of whom took pleasure in chasing our little boat – leaping out of the water again and again in hot pursuit, jaws gaping – much to the amusement of our guide, who was entirely unperturbed, even though they are known to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. It wasn’t until one large hippo popped up right under our nose, nearly tipping the boat over, as we were racing the sunset back to camp that he stopped chuckling at our alarm.

Early one morning we set out on a walking safari with two guides, Gerald and Mashaka (and a rifle, though it was never needed), to experience the land in a very different way. In the still of the morning, before the sun had too much heat in it, we had a lesson in making every kind of remedy and more from the local flora, learned about hippo highways (in short, you don’t want to mistake one for a human path after dark) and came a little too close, twice, to the most dangerous animal in the bush, the lone buffalo, but managed to walk away without any dramas, if a fair amount of tension. The morning finished with us eating a breakfast of fresh mango and pineapple at the lake’s edge, while hundreds of zebra enjoyed a morning drink not far away.

Our final game drive was worthy of Attenborough. We passed yet more herds of zebra, wildebeest and antelope, but when Mashaka spotted vultures circling in the distance, we set off to see what they’d discovered. Even he was surprised by what we found: around the fresh corpse of a zebra were gathered hundreds of vultures, some already tucking into their prize while others crowded together, patiently waiting their turn. It was as gruesome as it was fascinating. We moved on to find a vast herd of grazing buffalo, but Mashaka had one final surprise in store. Taking us on a drive so bumpy that I wondered if we might be flung from the Land Rover, he at last brought us out on to a patch of open grass close to a shimmering lake. And there, scattered about between a shady tree and a patch of long grasses, panting in the heat, was a pride of 13 lions, resting before the evening hunt. They didn’t show the slightest interest in us but prowled around, yawned and dosed, while three young cubs played.

Our final stop was two nights on the white sand at Ras Kutani, just south of Dar es Salaam. This hotel, also part of the Selous group, was the perfect place to relax and indulge after nights in the bush. Our hilltop suite, up a steep climb of sandy stairs, had majestic views over the ocean, its own plunge pool and a daybed in the open air that was the perfect spot for an afternoon snooze. Down on the beach we watched ships pass slowly across the horizon and local fisherman haul their boats up the sand, as a girl from the nearby stables took a horse for a swim in the surf, and local children played in the freshwater lagoon we’d been rowed across to reach the hotel. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t get a much better honeymoon than that. ES

Jongomero Camp, Selous Safari Camp and Ras Kutani are all part of the Selous Safari Company (selous.com). Coastal Aviation is the preferred internal airline and has extensive experience in air charter and scheduled flying safaris. Available year-round and for selected departures from July to October, Rainbow Tours is offering a nine-night safari and beach experience with Selous Safari Company from £3,895 per adult, including British Airways flights, full-board accommodation at Jongomero Camp, Selous Safari Camp and Ras Kutani, daily game drives, internal flights, taxes and surcharges (rainbowtours.co.uk; 020 7666 1250)