Ruaha, June 2010
 

Photos from my stay at Kwihala Camp. Ruaha NP in June 2010.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drjos_p...7624468418482/

Click on a set and run as a slideshow.

Great photos! A few titles or captions here and there would added to the enjoyment of these pics particularly for to-be safari goers.

Your point is well made, I will try and work through with titles/captions. It's taken me 6 weeks to get the June 2010 Selous & Ruaha shots online.

DRJO, didn't mean to come off quite so "heavy". I really enjoy seeing pics of others and with so many to-be safari goers coming on line all the time, it does whet their appetite as well. Sorry for being so selfish. Looking forward to sharing your pics with my safari wife tonight.
Dick

Dick
Absolutely no offence taken!
As I've posted these, I've taken advise on some of the birds i.d's, so I have no excuse not labeling them! I will also spend a little (justified) time putting some labels and notes together. Your point was very well made!
If you enjoyed the Ruaha shots, could I lead you to the Selous stuff?
Regards
Dominic.

Dominic
Your got more? Sure, yes, by all means. We enjoyed Selous back in 2007 so yes!
As to availing pics (in this case, labeled ones) I went thru the experience of mis-identification. Whether or not our guide told me wrong, I tried to verify via own bird book but one or two got thru until a sharp eyed viewer was kind enough to point out my error. That openned up a great dialogue that will be quite useful should we ever get back to Tanzania. In a few minutes I will show my wife your Ruaha pics. She really enjoys birds (we are not twitchers--finally learned what that term means, but really appreciate the variety Africa has to offer)and I know she will relish seeing your pics. Thanks. Dick

Dominic, we found them by exploring a bit on the flicker website. EXCELLENT! Think you really outdid yourself especially with birds of Selous. Wife was quite excited when she saw the African Hoopoe and then the LBRs. Wow! Thanks again. Dick and Darla

Dick & Darla
You are very kind and thank you for your comments.
I am now being challenged to identify all the Selous birds! I've agreed to try, but will refute any suggestions that this will turn me into a Twitcher! With a quick Google search, I've also managed to open up a good dialogue a nice guy called Bo on fatbirder.net

DRJO--how was the weather in June. Were you cold? Would you say that kenya/north Tanz in June is okay to travel? i'm so torn about which month to go. i'm travelling from the mara-amboseli-manyara...

Those lion cubs playing around in the sand are adorable. Great elephants too. How many nights did you stay in Ruaha and which camp or is that posted somewhere and I missed it?

Lionlove, I'm sorry, I have only been to Selous, which was warm at night, and the Ruaha,which got chilly after dark and needed a fleece for the first fe hours of the morning game drive. Both were very comfortable and reached about 33 deg C during the day.
I have not been in the North, but you would be several hundreds of miles closer to the equator!
The attached link has good 2-week weather forecasts by destination in Tanzania. I think it also shows averages for each month.
zoover.co.uk/tanzania-and-zanzibar/tanzania…
Click on the "more destinations" on the left hand menu, select your destination, then look at the tabs for "Weather Forecast".
Scroll down and this should give all the 2-week info a traveler needs.

Leely2. I spent 3 nights at Kwihala camp and unfortunately I do not have a write up or photos of the camp itself. I would highly recommend it, particularly for style and panache of the guides. Their webpage is pretty good and I can vouch for it's content.

Still looking at the photos. How many vehicles do they have at Kwihala? Looks like a nice place. Is it as "manly" and photography-oriented as it looks?

Kwihala "manly", no, not at all! (Oh, I see what you mean from the photo's on the Kwihala webpage!).
When I was there, the guide, Pietro had his parents and their friends there, plus me. With his Mum around, you can imagine how "manly" he was allowed to be!
My specific interest was improving my photography, so they kindly focused on that. The benefit of a place like Kwihala is that the guys that run it are very very experienced. They made a clear efforts to find out what I was after and wanted to experience, what level of knowledge I had and then tailored the drives to fit that.
The head guide is also the camp boss. This means that they have taken the best ideas from other locations and used them at Kwihala. He works very much as your "host" for the trip.
One evening, we all decamped from the vehicle with a bottle of fizz & nibbles and very quietly watched a +30 matriarchal family of elephants for an hour (see the picture of Mum and baby from behind, the youngster suckling). They were quietly socialising and settling in for the night the other side of a dry sandy river valley. Perfectly quiet, very intimate and a lovely memory.
The food was the best I've had on safari, it was inventive, tasty, with quite a degree of thought put into each dish. I don't mean that the food was Michelin star quality with service to match, I mean that it suited very well the ambiance, location, appetite and climate that we were in. Never too much, never too little, and perfect for a slightly chilly morning or hot, dry day.
From what I saw at Kwihala, there were 3 vehicles for what I think are 6 tents. I do think that they try hard to manage the minimum number of guests per vehicle. I would also highly recommend getting onto the head Guides vehicle, as the other local lads were less experienced and slightly more formulaic. That is unless given a gentle push to be more expansive.
My overall impression of the camp was that it was very contemporary in thought, with a nice "retro-" feel to the tents. The privacy, space, comfort and style was great.
Although definitively not “camp”, you would not describe Kwihala as being testosterone driven!
Ruaha is a National Park, so Kwihala does get a full mix of safari goers, with diferent levels of interest & knowledge. They were fully aware that they have to tailor their service to suit the diferent clients they have.
Hope this helps....

Thanks for the excellent information.

As someone contemplating a visit to Ruaha, I found your report and lovely photos very helpful. Thanks.