It was while leading a portered walking safari through this part of the world in the 80s that Richard stumbled upon this particular bend of the Rufiji River.  Straightaway he knew he'd found somewhere special. 

He'd spent months crossing the whole African continent by river and walked extensively throughout the Southern Selous, so he had some grounds for confidence in his judgement.

Building a lodge was far from his mind at that point, but when - many years later - with many more miles of the Selous under his belt, the chance came to replace his beloved old (and by that time decrepit) base camp with something a little more permanent, he knew for a fact that there was nowhere better to be.

It's been a few years now since the first stones for Sand Rivers were laid at the beginning of the 90s and much water has passed in front of the lodge since then, but we like to think that the spirit of Sand Rivers remains the same.  This is somewhere that gets under the skin and rewards those with time to take things...well, a little slowly.

Watch Richard talking about the Selous today (take a look at our video) and what you'll see is a quiet sense of privilege at having been fortunate enough to get to know this place over so many years. Spend a few days here and you'll quickly see why he feels that way.