Going Wild in Africa

Going Wild in Africa
Well, we’ve finally done it! At long last we’ve fulfilled a dream and visited wildlife Africa.
However, far from satisfying our desires it’s just whetted our appetites for more of this fascinating and friendly continent.
Never having been to central Africa before but wanting to make the absolute most of our trip, we researched each and every country before deciding on a mix of Botswana and Zimbabwe – from a wildlife perspective – with a dash of Victoria falls and civilisation to offer a contrast.

Geoff, my husband, is a keen photographer and wanted to maximise every opportunity to see and photograph wildlife in its natural environment; whilst I love the great outdoors I don’t necessarily want to spend twenty minutes looking at one bird – so I was keen to find some lovely locations to enjoy the surroundings.

As Africa is so vast, and even Botswana covers a huge area we didn’t want to spend all out time travelling and eat into the wildlife experience side, so we opted to hop between tented camps in little Bush aeroplanes, which meant we could be in the next camp within thirty minutes instead of a whole day and also get a really good idea of what the country looked like from above. There’s something really thrilling about landing on a tree-lined dirt airstrip after the camp guides have cleared the runway of elephants; giving you a real sense of safari.

We tried to cover a cross section of terrain and wildlife so opted for the Makgadikgadi Pans, Moremi National park, Savuti/Chobe, the stunning Okavango Delta area and lastly Hwange Natonal Park in Zimbabawe – all within a sensible eighteen day tour with approximately three nights ( an absolute must to really appreciate the area) in each location.

The camps varied from the quite basic – tented accommodation with outside private bathroom which made us feel like more like explorers – to the more luxurious tented and thatch covered lodges with en suite facilities, which made us feel quite decadent and pampered. Without exception they were outstandingly comfortable and superbly catered for in terms of cuisine and hospitality. Both the people of Botswana and the camp staff were friendly and helpful to a fault, dispelling many of our concerns about travel in Africa before we went.

You can plan whatever type of holiday you wish (as these holidays are truly yours to design) but we chose to be awakened at the crack of dawn each day to maximise on early light for game activity and photography, followed by brunch at about eleven thirty and another game drive in the mid afternoon before returning to a sumptuous dinner in the evening with drinks around the campfire. 4×4’s are de rigueur throughout the parks and you’ll often find your vehicle wading through waist high water or shifting sands to get across areas between tracts of land, which all adds to the experience of true adventure. On one stop we chose to float serenely in a Mokoro (canoe) to just absorb the tranquillity of the Okavango without the noise of engines, just the lapping of water against the hull as we viewed the beautifully coloured birdlife and swaying papyrus grasses along the banks.

Wildlife abounds and although you have to go looking for it nevertheless we saw virtually everything we had hoped for – from magnificent leopards, one of which was with his Impala kill on a tree branch not more than fifteen feet away from us; a pride of lions hunting Wildebeast with their recalcitrant cubs in tow who didn’t yet recognise the need for stealth; more lions on a zebra kill which we sat as fascinated observers with for more than an hour surrounded by the sound of crunching bones; and of course herds of Zebra, ‘jennies’ of Giraffe, wild dog, jackal, antelope, belligerent hippos and water buffalo, as well as individual tuskers and large groups and breeding herds of elephant.

Our trip became as much a social event as a wildlife experience and we’ve returned with a handful of new friends that I know we’ll keep in touch with from all parts of the globe. Our brief stay in Victoria Falls gave us enough time to walk the length of the Falls, fly in a helicopter over them (much to his irritation, I took a better photo of them than did my husband, as I could point my i-phone out of the open window whilst his flashy bazooka lens could only take pictures through the slightly cloudy cockpit plexiiglass – one up for simplicity!) and lastly high tea at Victoria Falls Hotel to underline our aspirations of travelling in colonial style.

Hwange provided us with another different terrain of open grassland and grazing wildlife as well as a memorable night in a tree house; in the bush a couple of miles from any
other human contact – all very romantic until we heard lion roaring not far away which reminded us that lions do occasionally climb into the lower branches of trees!

As if to cap this, our very last night in camp was disturbed by roaring lion yet again, but this time virtually outside our tent, with a trumpeting elephant competing for volume – from either of which canvas would be scant protection – but wrapped up in our huge double bed with hot water bottles for warmth in the early June winter nights we couldn’t help but marvel at what a fantastic experience every aspect of this holiday was.
As if to tease us, we stopped for coffee on our drive back to the regional airstrip the next morning and the car that passed us whilst we sipped saw Cheetah and her cub – the one species that had eluded us on this trip. Far from being a disappointment – it just means we’ve now got the perfect excuse to return to Africa – perhaps to the Serengeti, or Namibia or…

Cherrie and Geoff stayed at:
Meno a Kwena tented camp near the Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana
Camp Xanakaxa (pronounced Kakanaka) in Moremi national park, Botswana
Savuti Safari Lodge, near the Savuti Marsh, Chobe national park, Botswana
Shinde camp, in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
Safari Club at Victoria falls, Zambezi national park, Zimbabawe
The Hide, Hwange national park, Zimbabwe

If you have any questions about Botswana & Zimbabwe or want to talk to me about the perfect itinerary to suit your preferences & interests, please do get in touch. You can call me on 01202 232335 or e-mail me on cherrie@worldwideholidays.co.uk