I was wondering if anybody would have a general idea of what the weather would be like in the Selous from Oct. 1st to Nov. 1st? Am in process of booking a 30 day hunt, first time going to Africa. I realize that this is a big area, so just a general idea would be nice.

Thanks,
Bob

Warm.

And humid. What are you hunting?

Am going for a full bag, elephant, lion,buffalo,leopard, etc. Am going with Luke Samaras, booked thru Keith Atchinson, this is my second hunt thru Keith and his service has been excellent. Am booking for 2009 so can change the dates a little bit if I do it now. Was originally thinking Sept. 15th thru Oct. 15th, any thoughts?

Thanks,
Bob

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Depends on your definition of hot and humid! I was there in the first two weeks of Oct/06 and it was around 92* avg during the day. It was cooler than at home and Hell!, when your sweat evaporates quickly, its like heaven when you are used to saturating your clothes daily in Houston! I found it refreshing!

hunted there the first week in nov. 2003 and it wasn't that hot( 82-90 mid day) but be aware the rainy season starts about nov.10-15 and continues for months. roads quickly become almost impassable.

I was there right after Lee440 for a couple of weeks and while the thermometer said 96 on a few days I would've guessed 80. I was comfortable but am used to hot humid weather.

quote:

Originally posted by studdog:
Hot! Hot! Hot!

My kind of hunting weather in Africa

I almost died of the heat in the long grass in TZ in sept. 95 degrees F, no breeze, humidity 90%, chasing after young PH and tracker who just won the Tag Team World Marathon. You guys from HOT climates are NUTS! Then they made me get out of the truck!

Bob,
I was in LU-5 with Safari Trackers(Adam Clements) in 2003 Sept23-Oct. 10. It is hot and minimal wind at night. Heat causes swirling winds in the day time. If you have water it is a magnet for game. The advice on rain is real in Nov. We started to see clouds that looked like rain before we left. Your PH should be able to give you some idea, but mother nature controls the weather and she can be finicky. We had access to a lot of cooling showers which were wonderful.
Robert

It was hot (100-ish max) but bearable last-week Oct / 1st- week Nov (01), daytime nothing much moved and everything did that National Geographic "wavy-savannah-heat-thing", although we had the clouds starting. The PH said they boiled in the previous two hunts (Oct) as there were no afternoon clouds yet. I like the heat as long as there is water.

It will be hot. But later is better for elephant and lion in the Selous, as long as you avoid the early rains. So if I were you, I would not change those dates.

Somebody above talked about trying to keep up to his PH/tracker tag team. That's a darned good point! Don't be too macho to tell the PH to slow things down if you feel the need. #1, you're paying the bills. #2, you're no good to anybody if you're huffing and puffing and unable to hit the barn from the inside when you spot a good animal. It's supposed to be fun, not an ironman contest. If you're pushing 60 or beyond, like most of us here, it's not reasonable to expect to keep up to a couple of thirty-year-olds who do it every day. I had a private tete-a-tete with my PH a few years ago for this very reason. I enjoyed the remainder of the hunt much more because he talked to the head tracker who had been setting the pace. There were no hard feelings evidenced because of my little talk.

Thanks for all the replies, its a little hard to think about how hot it will be, as a couple of weeks ago it was 36 below zero here in Montana. It is now a balmy 10 above, snowing and blowing, this will be our high for today. Iam going to let the dates stand as they are.

Thanks again for the advice.
Bob

Note to self----avoid Montana in February.

Gentlemen,

You have not experienced hdeat if you have not hunted Chete in October/November time.

Temprature is normally around 115 in the day. Slightly lower at night, and absolutely no wind whatsoever!

We used to wake up in the middle of the night, jump in the small pool, and go back to bed wet in the hope of being able to close our eyes for an hour or so.

Most of the nights I used to spend awake - and look through the open roundel I was in with my night sight.

Elephants, hyaena and some of the cats we could see less than 50 yards from our huts.

The only time I actually thought "and to think that I am actualy PAYING to do this?" was one afternoon we were following a sable. It was so hot, everyone seemed to move as if we were knee deep in mollasses!

This was so much fun, we did it 5 years in a row

On our last safari, we had to search for some sparse spots of shade to get as cool as 115.



In the sunshine, it was a bit hotter.



And that was not even the hottest day. It was just the hottest day we happened to be in camp in the early afternoon and were able to take a picture of our official camp thermometer.

But never fear, bob-mt, the Selous in October will not be that bad.

You can google Tanzania weather in October and get the Yahoo satellite picture and forecast.