Siwandu Camp

Siwandu blew us away on arrival.

- Great reception from Wilson & his team.
- Great Banda. Couldn't get our heads around how much we got. Bigger than expected.
- Fantastic food, service, and gaming experience.
- Christian was our guide and amazed us with his knowledge and professionalism. Best guide that we had at the two camps.
- Loved the location. Greener and wetter than we expected, which meant we saw an abundance of animals. Overall, more animals than Ruaha, but different types. The lake is infested with crocs and hippos. Unbelievable.
- Game drive breakfasts and sundowners were amazing. Bacon breakfast each morning in the middle of the bush, with silver service! Crazy.

- David and Lorraine, September 2019
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Starting with Siwandu, what an amazing place. Everything was perfect, the landscape, food, staff, accommodation, activities. There was nothing you could fault.

- John and Josephine, June 2019
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Siwandu Camp exceeded my expectations. The staff and food at both properties were excellent. We had fun and knowledgeable guides on both safaris and we had fantastic luck with the game viewing!!! Saw everything and more.

- Douglas and Michael, July 2018
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I am struggling to find anything negative to say about this camp! It is managed by Conrad and Rita and everything runs like clockwork. The tented accommodation is great with plenty of space both inside and outside to relax in. Impressive views over the lake and it wasn’t uncommon to have giraffe and impala wander within 10 metres in the afternoon.

The dining room and lounge/bar are on raised platforms and offer great views over the lake. Pre-dinner drinks were served in front of a camp fire and every evening elephants and hippo could be seen at dusk walking along the lake frontage. Tent 7 where I stayed is located pretty close to the”Hippo Highway” so plenty of hippo noise during the night! The bush babies can make a bit of a racket too but that is all part of the bush experience.

Food was fabulous and the service from every single member of staff was exceptional. As a solo traveller I am perfectly ok to eat by myself but I think it would enhance the dining experience if everyone ate together.

With it’s lake access, Siwandu can provide boat “drives” which provide a completely different perspective to life in the bush and watching the sunset from the lake was just fantastic.

I am not sure if there could be a better camp in Selous!

- Gurth, June 2018
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Lovely camp with gentle kind staff and very knowledge guides..

- Jacqui, October 2017
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I think Siwandu and the level of service we received there was the highlight. Amazing game! We saw lions pretty much every game drive we did. Very knowledgeable guides and amazing staff with lots of attention to detail!

- Maheeka and Shanindra, January, 2017
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Hi Nick

Trip was a lot of fun. The safari was excellent, really pulled out all the stops. All the little extras they did made it truly 5 star. We saw some good animal action as well. I liked the variety of safaris on offer river, walking, game drive. Food was excellent as well. This was the highlight of the trip and I didn’t expect it to be.

Thanks for your help along the way.

Gordon

- Gordon and Zoe, August, 2015
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For this trip, to the Siwandu in Selous, my feedback would be that we loved the experience of the camp - lovely tents, located near the water with regular visits from impala, Kudu, and monkeys… However, we felt like the park, Selous, did not have the variety of wildlife that we found in Tarangire - obviously our first trip set very high expectations for future trips.

The camp tried VERY hard to accommodate everyone - we had one early morning game drive where we met for a hot breakfast along the water’s edge - but there was no way they could materialize game that were not present. Our one leopard sighting caused such excitement that quickly there were 4-5 vehicles chasing the leopard. In Tarangire, we never saw another vehicle while watching the animals….

- Preston and Katy, November, 2014
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Our first stop on our safari holiday was Siwandu Lodge. We had expected it to be lovely but were blown away from the moment we were greeted with cool towels and a refreshing drink to being taken to our tent. The tent was incredibly welcoming and beautifully set up with the opportunity to look out on all sides of the tent including down to the lake where often impala were grazing and, if you were very lucky, (our neighbours were) to see a hippo making its way back to the lake in the early morning.

The tents were situated at some distance from each other and we had a real sense of privacy without feeling so far away that were abandoned in the bush! The thing that made this stay so very special was the incredible attention to every possible detail by Ricus and Pietro - they seemed to have the ability to provide something before you even realised you wanted it! They were on hand either to greet you at the end of every game drive (again with cool towels) or n the evening over the camp fire, sharing experiences and talking to each group one to one to make sure they had everything they needed and to plan the following days activities.

Absolutely nothing was too much trouble for them. We chose to go on a walking safari and a boat safari and are really pleased we did so as it gave a different and more intimate perspective of the wildlife and flora. Our guide was Mpoto who was incredibly knowledgeable (especially on bird life which was a real bonus for my husband). The food was wonderful and served on individual tables either on the look out or at night under the stars. I cannot think of anything that could possibly have improved our three nights here.

- Pam and David, June, 2013
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The only slight disappointment was in the selous. Whilst a very smart camp, we thought it had lost sight of the fact that people are primarily there to see wildlife and the accommodation / dining experience runs secondary to that purpose not vice versa as they now seem to be running it e.g. So that people can have a full breakfast first, the game drives do not go out until 8am which is the latest I have ever encountered across all of africa and the drives always seemed to kill the first half hour to an hour around the same circuit just along the lakeside, where there was little to see other than hippos and crocs, thereby reducing all chance of more varied game viewing esp as the sundowners invariably took place in the same spot.

The lake trip was thoroughly enjoyable but at this time of year the channels are closed due to the low water level so there was less water based activity on offer than we had expected - just one 2.5 hour sunset trip. We would therefore only recommend this camp for first time safari goers and birders (but only in the greener season).

- Joanne and Colin, Sep, 2012
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