After a late breakfast we left camp for the drive to Rufiji River Camp, initially driving over the same road as yesterday and then through mainly acacia woodland ().

The prospects for game viewing weren’t looking very good, but we then took a diversion, in the direction of Lake Manze, to look for a reported lion pride. And what a treat it turned out to be!

When you come across a pride of lions taking it easy like this, close to your route, then the photo opportunities are prodigious. As a total lion freak I could happily have uploaded all 67 pictures taken at this stage, but have reluctantly restricted (?) myself to just the six shown here ().

           

As can be seen, there were no males present - just several females and cubs. I just had to be restrained from getting out of the vehicle to stroke them.

Rufiji River Camp, as it name suggests, is located on the banks of the fairly substantial Rufiji River (), and consists of 20 tents all with en-suite facilities set under makuti roofs and with shady verandas () facing the Rufiji River so that you can sit and watch the daily flow of animals coming down to the river to drink, or just enjoy relaxing in the heat of the day.

Since The Selous is a Reserve, rather than a National Park, it is possible to undertake walking here, although perhaps the major attraction is the opportunity to take a boat ride on the river (), which is what we decided to do in late afternoon.

Although we saw a large number of hippos, enjoying a late afternoon wallow (), it was the bird life that took pride of place. After getting our best shot yet of the African Fish Eagle (), followed by one of the majestic Goliath Heron (), we got a marvellous shot of a group of pelicans sailing along in formation (), below.

           

To round off a great day all we then needed was a delightful open air dinner on the riverbank (), before an early night.

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