Dates Visited: July 2016 and April 2017
Location: Selinda Reserve, Linyanti
Comments:
My stay at Selinda was brief but very enjoyable and I’m eager to return. Had my stay been longer, I would have liked to take a dip in the pool at the main camp or have a soak in the beautiful bathtub each tent has. The main camp and tents are beautifully decorated with wildlife photography from Great Plains founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert displayed throughout.
The Selinda Spillway runs beside the camp which brings hippos in close vicinity frequently. My partner and I were able to spot hippos on land both mornings of our stay, and at night we could hear them grunting and splashing not far from where we enjoyed our dinner. On our game drive we spotted a mother leopard and her two sons eating a freshly killed aardvark, and we watched one of the sons climb a tree to visit the corpse of an impala that he’d dragged up. We also saw many giraffes and birds including Southern ground hornbills and brown snake eagles.
Highlight of the trip: While sitting around the fire pit before dinner, we could hear a commotion in the direction of the kitchen. We were then told that dinner would be slightly delayed because there was a snake blocking the entrance to the kitchen. Along with the camp managers, we went to investigate and found a small python slithering along the ground. My travel partner and I were fascinated by the animal and though many staff members were frightened, we were able to laugh with them about it because we all knew we were completely safe from the baby snake. We didn’t mind that we had to wait a bit longer for our dinner- nature is unpredictable and these things happen in the bush!
C
