Gorge Sand River Hyraxes Rivers

In the northern part of the reserve the character of the Rufiji changes enormously, with the greatest change between the Sumbene Sand River just below Sand Rivers Lodge and Stigler's Gorge.

The Gorge is absolutely worth visiting as a full morning river safari from Sand Rivers Lodge - leave early and take a picnic breakfast and you'll be back for a late lunch. Alternately you may choose to flycamp on an island in mid stream and visit the gorge from there.

The river gradually narrows as you enter the mouth of the gorge until at the rapids it's a mere 50 yards or so across the turbulent stream. The sides of the gorge are strewn with enormous smooth boulders, which make the perfect place for leopard to sit and survey the scene. Higher up the near vertical sides are covered in dense riverine woodland, which is home to tree hyraxes, blue monkeys, baboons and black and white colobus. This is also where you find monkey-eating African Crowned Eagle, whose huge nests are visible in the forks of the tall yellow barked sterculia trees in the gorge.

The best part about a visit to the gorge is the return journey, when the noisy outboard engine is switched off and you drift with the current slowly spinning around and listening to the eery sound of tree hyraxes calling on the banks. It's quite a good way to creep up on game and you can often approach a sun bathing crocodile to a few metres before he slips into the water and disappears.

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