Joe Bella

Bonham now has his own camp and concession on the North bank of the Rufiji - a small (just six cottages) and very up market camp called Sand Rivers perched overlooking the Rufiji river so that you wake to the sounds of snorting hippos, the cry of the fish eagle, the bark of African wild dogs and the harsh racket of the hadeda ibis.

You can fly straight into Sand River's own little airstrip from Dar-es-Salaam or you could do what we did, which is to ease your way in gently, divesting yourself of metropolitan angst by degrees, by stopping off first at a charming tented camp called Mbuyini.