Continuing our southern roundtrip in the south, our guide took us from Kilwa Masoko to Kibiti (about 180 km) on the B2 road before turning west. On the map it looks like turning west at Ikwirir would be better, but apparently a bridge was out of order. From Kibiti it’s dirt road for 70-80 km, and it's a lot of heavy traffic due to the construction of the giant hydroelectric power plant.

It took roughly 5 hours to the Mpingo Lodge a few km outside the Nyerere National Park, which is the part of Selous Game Reserve you can visit without a hunting license. The lodge is run by two local tough girls which really make your stay special and the place has a wonderful overview og the Rufiji river. As at our prior lodge we were the only guests which suited us just perfect.

Still early afternoon, we managed to arrange a visit to the nearest local village, Mloka. While enjoying the local life we couldn’t help noticing that this village recently has been drastically changed. Heavy trucks were parked everywhere, either to be fixed or the drivers simply having a break. The enormous “clouds of dust” these vehicles make is devastating to the plants, animal life and the local villages.

Early morning next day we started with a river safari upstream on the Rufiji river. Since this wasn't our first ever river cruise we had expectations and they werer fulfilled. WE really appreciate this kind of safari. It’s rather a quiet way of enjoying animal life and it’s wonderful. Halfway we registered at the park gate, then we continued the river cruise until lunchtime. There our driver/guide picked us up and continued the safari (land) the rest of the day.

We had one more day with a full day (land) safari which took us to remote corners of the park. We met our first lions in the wild ever. A fantastic moment. Later that would become more of a habit.

As this was our first safari on this journey, we didn’t have anything to compare it with, but later we could. The good thing is that this park is very relaxed, you don’t meet many other safari vehicles (as long as you get away from the trucks). Being “on your own” out here is a good feeling. In addition, the river cruise makes the difference (combined with “standard” safari).
Driving offroad gives an ambiguous feeling. Sure, you can go almost anywhere but the impact on the delicate environment must be substantial. Maybe that’s why they decided to ban it.

On the last day of this roundtrip we headed back to Dar by another dirt road from Mloka heading northeast. Some places the road is really bad, but our experienced driver manged it without any trouble (and I think we would have managed it too). The landscape rises when leaving Nyerere Nation Park so it’s time to get a good overview photo.

After 3-4 hours we were let off at Julius Nyerere Airport of Dar es Salam. Our first roundtrip of Tanzania was completed.