Safari Ideas
You may fancy the up close and personal style of a walking safari – a term used to describe a safari in which walking is the preferred mode of travel in game-rich areas – alongside an armed, qualified and experienced professional guide,.
This type of adventure holiday makes use of temporary bush camps or permanent lodges as a base from which vehicles and sometimes boats will get you into areas of game activity or specific interest. After that, you are led by a guide to sample all aspects of the environment.. They are without doubt the best way to experience the African wilderness areas.
They range from simple trails not far from camp - for example in Zambia and Botswana - to "fly-camping" with backup crews – found in the Mara Triangle. Or they can be complete backpack-toting expeditions, as can be found in Gabon.
You can choose your level of comfort, from luxurious to basic, with the key being the quality of the guides and location. Among the very best walking safaris are in the Luangwa and Zambezi Valleys in Zambia and in Kenya's Mara region.
The mobile safari (not to be confused with overland expeditions or minibus tours) make use of 4x4 vehicles, usually to cover larger areas or a variety of different habitats in a single trip. In Botswana and Namibia, in particular, the diversity and relatively large distances between the prime spots make mobile safaris the preferred mode of transport in these destinations.
More often than not, the driver is a fully qualified guide, so some of the better stop-over points can include some time exploring on foot.
Mobile safari holidays come with the gamut of accommodation options, from temporary fly-camps to luxury lodges but, more importantly, they enable far greater access to areas affected by constantly changing seasonal patterns. Examples would be Botswana’s Okavango delta, game movements across the Kalahari and the migration in Tanzania's Serengeti – all best experienced via a mobile safari, using semi-permanent tented camps.
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