Friday 8 September 2017

The local villages and a River Safari

The Selous Riverside Camp is about 30 minutes drive outside of the Game Reserve and whenever we went to the airstrip of the Game Reserve, we had to drive through one of the local villages - Mloka.  

Road Hazard

The road was a dirt road which had recently been rolled to make driving it easier. There is little vehicle traffic and what there is can present their own challenges such as 12 foot pieces of timber being carried sideways on a motor bike

Traffic Jam

or two water tankers taking over the whole road.

Shop Mobile Phones

This mobile phone “shop” is typical of the design and construction of the house we saw. 

Shop for tourists

This one (selling paintings to tourists) is slightly more advanced in that it has some concrete around the veranda.

Village Houses

We were told that when you want to build a house, you just choose some land and get on with building it.  

Typical House

Your neighbours will help with the basic structure but it is then uo to you to build the walls, usually mud over a framework of sticks. 

Village House 

Although there are power cables running into the village, there is no electricity. The cables were erected two years ago but were never connected up at either end. Water is pumped up by hand from the relatively high water table and communal gatherings at water pumps were a common site. We came to the conclusion that the process and demands of living was almost a full-time occupation.

Concrete Blocks

We noticed a growing number of concrete blocks around the place 

Primary School 001

 and a few houses, the local primary school

Church

and this church had more of an air of permanence about them.

Primary School

Compared to Primary Schools in England, 

Primary Classroom

this classroom which was for the first year of primary school was very bare.

Primary Classroom 001 

We were told that some children cannot go to school because their parents cannot afford to buy an exercise book for them to write in.

Children and Sweets

We found the process of driving around the village and looking at its buildings slightly uncomfortable. We were obviously “wealthy tourists” and whenever we stopped, lots of children would run up to us shouting “Pipi” (the Swahili word for sweets) and we were expected to given them some.

We tried to ensure that the local inhabitants were not included in our photographs (other than that above) because it is considered rude to take someone’s photograph without their permission.

A River Safari 

River from Air

The River Rufiji is home to much wildlife 

River Safari Boat

and late one afternoon we went on a safari along it. 

Native Boat

Wooden Canoes were very common on the river. These are made 

Native Boat 2

by hollowing out (by hand) a tree trunk and are works of rural art in themselves. Apparently it takes two men about a week to construct one. We saw a number of ferries crossing the river which were in fact canoes such as this.

King Fisher

Bird life was in profusion along the river. 

KingFisher Malachite

This Malachite Kingfisher just sat there posing for us and was not at all perturbed when we got close.

Kingfisher Pied

 And this is a Pied Kingfisher.

Lizard

Lizards are very common and also a danger to birds because they are adept at eating whatever they find in a bird nest. 

Crocodile First

This was the smallest crocodile we saw, said to be about two weeks old.

CrocodileLarge

And this monster was the largest we saw. When it saw us, it lumbered into life

CrocodileLarge 2

and waddled down the shore into the river in our general direction. Fortunately we then moved on! 

Weaver Bird Nest Site

Yellow Weaver Birds live along the river bank and, as with their cousins in the game reserve, 

Weaver Bird Yellow

use local material to make their nests. 

Weaver Bird Yellow in Nest

Again quite unperturbed at out presence. 

Weaver Bird Nest 001 

Hippos watching

The river was full of Hippos with numerous Pods staying cool in the water.

Hippo

Occasionally they would rise up to show us how large they were 

Hippos 001

or spy on us to make sure we were not a threat. 

Hippo Path

I still find it hard to imagine an animal such as a 4 ton Hippo managing to climb up a steep river bank along a path such as this. 

Sunset

We waited in the middle of the river for the sun to set

Sunset 001

and when it did, it was time to go back for dinner.

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