Baker & Sons saw a need in the market, and we filled it with our take on a BackPacker Lodge. Newly built in the summer of 2024, true to our company’s reputation, the lodging is both affordable and top-notch in quality. CLICK TO BOOK
The rooms are spacious, designed with large groups and families in mind without neglecting those solo classic trekkers and explorers. Doors on the sides allow for adjoining rooms, giving parents the option to safely tuck their kids in one room and stay next door. A natural airflow system has been installed, with screened tops on the fronts and a large central fan moving the rising hot air out and promoting a cool night’s sleep. Transparent roofing in select spots provide skylights in the rooms and showers. Across the hallway are 3 shower rooms and 4 bathrooms, built with our customary Baker & Sons skilled masonry, rock wash basins, colored cement walls and other small details and fine touches. Bamboo walls line the rooms and upper vents, cut and sourced locally from the tropical hills of Pugu. Choice artwork, some famous painters in Tanzania, can be found on the walls throughout this special, upscale “BackPacker” Lodge.
Baker & Sons Safari co is known for having the best cooking along the river! Our base rates in the BackPacker Lodge include bed & breakfast. Guests have the option of adding lunches and suppers to their stay, to make it a Full-Board Accommodation. However, guests of the BackPackers also have the option of using the shared kitchen facility, fully-equipped food prep, stovetop, freezer, pots, plates and cutlery, at no extra charge! You can walk the short 2km trek into the village market and source all of your fresh local produce, prepare your own meals and make this an affordable safari getaway!
Finally, the BackPacker Lodge has a common room, ideal for relaxing and enjoying the nights, laughing and feasting at our bbq pit, always stocked with wood from the surrounding bush. Satellite TV is a fixture. Take in a premier league football match, a movie, a show. Step through the screened spring door. Gather in the evenings, sharing stories of the safari game drives and animal sightings during the day. Of course, Baker & Sons organizes day game drives, safari night drives, boat cruises, long and short of the wild-hippo-infested Rufiji River, tribal village tours and sport fishing in the reserve!
Is there anything more to say? Yes of course, the location! The setting of the BackPackers is in our back bush, along old routes cut in the day by elephants and at night by the nocturnal hippopotamus. SEE THE PHOTO BELOW. As this lodge was newly constructed, a juvenile tembo passed by the back of the building.
Not a pro photographer, just an amateur with a phone camera caught our first elephant passing by the BackPackers! It was an exciting moment for us, a tembo returning after construction and blessing the new building. The hippo video was shot on the bush trails where the BackPacker Lodge now stands. Even today, the hippopotamus (kiboko) come out of the river at night and graze like cows around the lodge as guests sleep!
What’s left, to book with us! Click to see our current prices for the BackPacker Lodge, and to reserve a stay at Baker & Sons (booking@bakersafari.co / whatsapp +255 69 246 0211)
Finally, the Selous, the largest and oldest game reserve in all of Africa, located in Tanzania, is not only accessible but Baker & Sons Safari co have made it affordable! God’s creation on the continent should be enjoyed by all, young and old, families, seasoned travelers, visiting teams and explorers-on-a-budget. We’ve spared no expense in bringing you the BackPacker Lodge, to compliment our lineup of cottages and cabins along the wild Rufiji River.