Walking in Africa is one of my preferrred methods of transport! A walking safari brings one really close to wildlife, being a part of it, rather than a bystander.  Follow the tracks of mammals, insects and reptiles, learning all about their behaviour as your guide reveals a story that unfolds before you, what animals were heading in which direction, whether they are adult or juvenile, how many there were, perhaps what prey they had caught.

Then learn all about the trees and plants and their medicinal properties, as well as the folklore attached to them. Hone your senses on the night sky, learning to identify the stars and planets.  More than anything else, it is this feeling of being at one with nature, that slight fragility and vulnerability – especially as one sees perhaps a lion at a distance.

We arrange walking safaris for private individuals and parties or you can join a set departure with a group of a maximum of six people,  in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.

With over twenty three years of experience and a team who have spent their lives in Africa, let us arrange your next safari of a lifetime

Gorilla trekking Rwanda has to be one of the finest and most immediate wildlife experiences for any intrepid traveller. Rwanda has a turbulent past but is well on its feet now and the people are friendly, the streets immaculately clean and the journey to the Parc de Volcano to see the gorillas only three hours drive from Kigali. There are super hotels and lodges in which to stay – from modest to upmarket lodges with stunning views; one of the first “wow factors” of the trip is actually the scenery and views.

Gorilla Trekking Rwanda - Virungas - With AfricanExplorations.com

This area, the Virungas, includes a line of seven volcanoes including Volcan Karisimbi (4527m) with its snow cap, Volcan Bisoke (3711m) with its two crater lakes, Volcan Gahinga (3474m), Volcan Sabyinyo (3634m) and the impressive Mt Muhabura (4127m).

For most people gorilla trekking is the prime reason for a visit (and activity), of course, but one can also trek to see the wonderful golden monkeys. This latter must also be booked in advance.  Outside the park there is also enough to do and see to fill at least two more days in country: village visits, a visit to Lake Kivu or trek up Karisoke to see Dian Fossey and Digit’s graves. There are also beautiful lakes and the bustling market town of Ruhengeri is well worth a stop.

Gorilla Trekking Rwanda - Gorgeous Montane Scenery - With AfricanExplorations.com

The actual gorilla treks start at 07:00 from the park headquarters. Having been allocated a gorilla group to which you will trek you will then be given safety briefings for the day.  Depending on the location of the gorillas, the treks can last from three to eight hours.  The forest can be thickly vegetated in places, so the going can sometimes be a little tough as the gorillas roam a limited territory to find their favourite bamboo shoots; they will also eat other foliage such as leaves, ferns and fruit. Gorillas tend not to have very large home ranges and can often be fairly accurately “guesstimated” as to position – higher or lower down the slopes – depending on the time of the year and the bamboo growing season.

Gorilla Trekking Rwanda - Family At Rest - With AfricanExplorations.com

Trekking through the undergrowth requires good walking boots, long trousers, long sleeved shirts, a hat and gardening gloves (nettles!!), a rain jacket and……a sense of adventure. Once one finds the group, actual interaction is done at a safe (but plenty close enough!) range due to the potential for disease transmission and one is allowed to spend just one precious hour in the presence of these magnificent primates. You are always accompanied by two guides/trackers. A maximum of eight people are allowed in a group.

Gorilla Trekking Rwanda - Youngster - With AfricanExplorations.com

This is a stunning, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The $500.00 for the permit is absolutely, 150%, justified!

We’ve discussed luxury and we’ve talked about the fact that Africa can be enormously “grounding”, reawakening many an instinct that lies dormant within us.  After all, staying at a luxury camp in a National Park or a closeup wildlife encounter – maybe whilst you are on foot! – are unforgettable moments in time.

We are always looking to enhance our client’s experience of Africa, wherever it may take place. Given that the one crucial factor that makes or breaks a safari is the quality and, arguably, intensity of the guiding an obvious way to make the absolute most of every day is to ask us to create a Private Safari.

One might argue that a safari-to-oneself is an indulgence, but that really isn’t so when one looks at value and benefit. A private safari for an individual with an over-riding special interest is an obvious case in point, allowing him or her to focus on that speciality with a suitable guide and not be overbearing for others. For a couple, it may be that they simply want to be on their own and take each day as it comes with a guide who is flexible and can tailor each day to their whim.  For a family the argument becomes even more compelling – a guide who is sensitive to adults and children alike can make each day as exciting or as relaxing as the participants require.  All this has value – after all safaris are hardly cheap and one wants to make the most of every pound or dollar spent. The benefit is, surely, obvious.

Riding With a Private Guide - Private Safaris With AfricanExplorations.com

If one wants an example of this particular point then look no further than being guided by Richard Knocker in Tanzania. We’ve known Richard for a Very Long Time Indeed and having him as a private guide is, frankly, a privilege. Utterly knowledgeable and totally at home in his element, Richard is a true gentleman and a superb guide, bringing humour, expertise and enormous fun to the time one spends with him. It is only at the end of the trip that you realise just what a vast ream of information he has shared.  A private safari with someone like Richard is a truly wonderful way to enjoy the bush!

Private Safaris - Mobile Camp With AfricanExplorations.com

People often think that a safari to themselves means a mobile camp or taking a whole property and, sometimes, obviously, this is exactly the point. There are some stunning private houses and lodges (oceanside villas, too, for one’s after-safari relaxation!) which we book for our client’s private use as well as taking entire camps or erecting mobiles in “just the right spot”. But there’s no reason why a private safari cannot mix private accommodation – say a mobile or series of mobiles in Kenya, Tanzania or Botswana or a private lodge such as Mukima House in Kenya – with other camps and lodges that might have “outside” guests staying at the same time. In this way clients can spend part of the safari on their own yet have more social interaction at certain times, thus ringing the changes. This suggests another benefit of private safaris:  the ability to throw the net very wide when one is at the planning stage. This is a hard thing to value – but it is precious!

Try it sometime! Private safaris are fantastic!

Private Safaris With African Explorations.com - Mukima House - An Excellent Private Base From Which To Explore

What is being “at peace”? A series of gentle-but-fleeting impressions or experiences that linger to make a lasting, more integrated, whole? Quietly sharing a special moment with family, wife, husband, partner, parent?  Being able to spend time doing what you wish in an environment that takes one back to one’s evolutionary roots? How and where to find “Peace” is, of course, a variable feast for all of us with a million-and-one possibilities but a luxury African holiday can provide this sought after, overlooked and (regrettably) often-ephemeral spiritual commodity.

Luxury African Holiday - Simple Happiness With AfricanExplorations.com

And, then, how to define luxury?!? To me, as I sit writing this, it would be luxury to just be in the bush; flycamping in Katavi or, perhaps, at Sosian knowing the camels are safely “done” for the night. Or to sit and watch Wild Dog for an hour that might stretch to several. Cantering down a sandy track in South Africa or (yes, I know, off subject on an African website but why not?) to be camped by a river in Canada with the call of the loon and wolf nearby are also, to me, simple, effervescent, life-enhancing luxuries. Thus, to myself (I hear my colleague, the wonderful Hashim, agreeing) the “luxury” is obtained from the experience per se rather than the accoutrements of where I stay. Again this is (and can only be) a highly personal opinion and I fully accept that, to many, “luxury” is Egyptian cotton sheets and towels in the middle of the bush or champagne for sundowners. Make no mistake about my own motives here, either, I’d say “Why not, indeed!” to such luxury and I certainly wouldn’t turn it down; we all have differing ideas and I have no axe to grind at all with whatever your own definition of “luxury” may be. But I do think that there is a peace that comes from being somewhere you really want to be, in an environment with which you connect, that gives you an inner feeling of luxurious satisfaction that is common to all these experiences.

Luxury African Holiday - Surrounded By Africa With AfricanExplorations.com

There’s a point to these musings and I’m not going to even elaborate here on excellent food, great guiding (crucial) or super-comfortable beds in huge en suite tents in the most extraordinarily lovely locations, let alone stunning wildlife. That’s for other blogs and my point is this: I often get asked – sometimes in roundabout ways – to create a “luxury” African holiday.

Luxury African Holiday - Experiences of a Lifetime With AfricanExplorations.com

But we know that luxury is different things to different people so, in order to do my duty to you, oh esteemed client, I need to know who you are! What makes you tick? What is it about Africa that entices you – perhaps for the second, third or fourth time? Can I empathise with your own feelings, desires and passions so that I can create exactly the right safari or holiday for you, with all the right nuances? For this, to me, is another luxury; in the process of creating exactly the right balance within a holiday I have the privilege of conversing with (and, sometimes, getting to know rather well) a wide range of very special, often talented, individuals. Most have skills I can only dream of and all are totally different yet have a single unifying desire: to go to Africa. What a luxury…….

Luxury African Holiday - Life's Special Moments With AfricanExplorations.com

Africa, by its sheer size and the convoluted nature of the countries that make up this fascinating continent, can be slightly daunting when one is thinking of planning a safari or a vacation. Of course one wants to see as much as possible on what may be the “trip of a lifetime” but balancing activities and locations with the logistics of travelling around and making sure that the lodges, camps or hotels in which one might stay are “just right” can be a real task and a huge responsibility without essential first-hand knowledge of the destination.

I Left A Footprint In Africa - Africa Custom Vacation at Chada Katavi With AfricanExplorations.com

That’s where a long-established specialist like African Explorations comes to the fore. With over 20 years of trading as a specialist tour operator based in the UK, dealing with clients worldwide, we are experts in Africa custom vacations. Put simply: we know what we are doing. Our small team of dedicated, highly knowledgeable, professionals have all lived, worked in or otherwise have vast in-depth knowledge of the countries in which they create safaris and holidays for their clients. It is this knowledge, constantly updated, that is the anvil on which we forge your loose ideas into a gorgeous-but-workable end product that offers the correct balance of value and experience to ensure a superb vacation, whether it be a couple, a family, a single traveller or a specialist group. And there’s no downside for our clients because it costs no more to use us than it would if one was able to create the same trip oneself!

Camp Overlooking The Zambezi - Africa Custom Vacation With AfricanExplorations.com

An Africa custom vacation can engage with almost any client interest, be it wildlife, culture, a specialist activity or maybe some other reason for travelling to these fabulous destinations. We are proud to create vacations that are completely tailored to our client’s requirements, down to the last small detail to the extent that it is almost unknown for us to send two different clients on exactly the same vacation. This may seem surprising but every individual on this planet is different; ergo each safari – if truly personalised – will be unique and cater for differing desires and personalities!

Samburu - Kenya - Africa Custom Vacation With AfricanExplorations.com

Africa custom vacations are, simply, our life. Our only requirement is that the vacation we create is exactly right for you, our client!

How often do you hear the words: “not like it used to be”? More to the point, what emotions and memories does that sort of phrase invoke? For, in our modern world, life races by at speed and the basics are forgotten . The children’s day is full of school, after school clubs, extra lessons, swimming, Stagecoach, music, riding or whatever their interests (or their parent’s interests!) may be.  The parents, too, are equally busy rushing around earning  a living or seeing friends. This may or may not be such a bad thing but there’s a question – how much time do we really get to spend together, properly, as a family unit and together experiencing the world in which we actually live? And how often do we get to do – and appreciate – real things in a world where the DS, TV, IPOD, PC and the good old phone are constantly-pervasive influences and distractions?

I allude to “connection”, not only with one’s family (although that has to be the ultimate point) but the actual world which spins beneath our feet. Not a world where everything is seen through a glazed window, on a screen or bought from a supermarket but a world where things are real – where the land, animals, culture and life all there to be lived, enjoyed and, crucially, experienced together at first hand and without barriers.  This is the joy of a Child Friendly African Safari – it brings families together in one, huge, ongoing and never-to-be-forgotten, life-enhancing adventure.

Enthralled - Child Friendly African Safari with Experts AfricanExplorations.com

Connection comes from simple things: The sigh of the wind through a whistling thorn bush; the roar of a lion; the stellar clarity of a Serengeti night; the smile of a child seeing his or her first giraffe; the complete assurance of a nomadic tribesman alone on vast plains; a game of cards in camp; messing about in a mudhole where no-one cares about being covered in mud; the smell of breakfast cooked over an open fire after an early morning walk; the determination of a dung beetle; a genuine grin of welcome; the midnight rustle of “something” moving through the bush just a few metres from your bed…….the list is endless but the theme is the same: simplicity, raw connection to the world around you and of which you are now truly a part.

Children naturally understand all this, of course. Preparation for adulthood erases much of the basic instict with which we are born but, if one takes children to Africa and allows them to free their sense of adventure and fun, and, at the same time, allows adults to reconnect with simple enjoyment and the instincts that live on in all of us what a holiday that becomes! What an experience! What a homecoming! What enormous fun! And how fabulously bonding the whole experience can be.

An Ol Malo Moment in Kenya - Child Friendly African Safari with Experts AfricanExplorations.com

A child friendly safari in Africa can achieve all this. However (or in whatever country) one might “do” Africa – and the possibilities are almost endless so long as one leaves electronics and preconceptions behind – the people you meet will be welcoming and fun, the places you see and stay will be awe inspiring and the experience will be real. This is magic for children and adults alike and is,  surely, not only how things should be – even if just for a short while – but also, perhaps, just a little, “like it used to be”…….

A Kenya Luxury Holiday can have many facets. Clearly most visitors will want to experience the bush and the wildlife for which Kenya is so well known but Kenya also has a plethora of other attractions such as wonderful culture, scenery, activities and, of course, a stunning coastline.

To make the most of a Kenya luxury holiday one will wish to enjoy the country in style. If one is on safari then there are superb guides and authentic, small, camps (both permanent and semi-permanent, or “mobile”) that will fulfil all the requirements of the most discerning client. However private houses are another way to stay in Kenya and, from such wonderful locations, one can not only enjoy wildlife and other activities but have the benefit of an entire house to oneself for the exclusive enjoyment of your family or perhaps a group of friends. This has another, normally overlooked, upside – the ability to stay in one location and have a real holiday whilst also being “on safari”.

Kenya Luxury Holiday With African Explorations.com - Wonderful Mukima House

One such property is Mukima House, a thirties settler mansion constructed on a grand scale which has recently been beautifully reclaimed and luxuriously refurbished. It is situated in the heart of prime safari country with spectacular views of Mount Kenya to the fore, surrounded by 360 acres of private woods, dam and grassland. The fully staffed house has 8 large bedrooms, a dining room that can seat 18, and matching reception areas. There is a swimming pool, tennis court, croquet lawn, safari vehicle and guide, boats and a sauna (there is a resident masseuse) and the kitchens are excellent, featuring local produce and home grown vegetables and eggs. Mukima also has wonderful birdlife and a growing menagerie of bush animals!

Kenya Luxury Holiday With African Explorations.com - View From Mukima House

Mukima is therefore a luxury, private, retreat perfectly placed for Africa aficionados to settle into and, crucially, relax or take excursions and do activities of their own design in their own time. Helicopter trips up Mount Kenya and horse riding expeditions are amongst the most popular but almost any activity can be catered for – this is the real way to enjoy a stunning Kenya luxury holiday!

The ‘Big Five’ and the other lesser known – but just as important! – ‘Little Five’ are words synonymous with a safari to Africa. The Big Five are Buffalo, Lion, Elephant, Leopard and Rhino and can be found together in many national parks, game reserves and privately owned conservancies in Southern and Eastern Africa. In South Africa the best known park is, of course, the Kruger National Park. Nearly two million hectares in extent, the Kruger was gazetted in 1898 to protect the South African lowveld wildlife. A plethora of environmental techniques and policies makes the region an ongoing conservation success. There are also privately owned reserves contiguous with the Kruger which feature beautiful and often luxurious safari lodges and camps. Such areas include the well known Sabi Sands where seeing a huge variety of animals is almost guaranteed on an African Big Five Safari.

Elephants on the Chobe - African Big Five Safari With AfricanExplorations.com

Many of these properties accommodate children and offer specialist children’s programs, so an African Big Five Safari is not just for adults! Children’s guides keep children happy and enthralled, including trying to find the ‘Little Five’: buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and rhino beetle as well as tracking and identifying animals, birds, and insects. Children are kept occupied for hours with short bush walks and spotting “creepy crawlies”, whilst other staff might teach them how to bake animal-themed cookies in the camp’s bush oven (for everyone’s afternoon tea!) whilst adults are busy on a game drive.

For those who like ‘lists’, how about the ‘Birding Six’? These include Ground Hornbill, Kori Bustard, Lappet-faced Vulture, Martial Eagle, Pel’s fishing Owl and Saddle-bill Stork. And then there are the “Little Six Antelope”: Grey Duiker, Sharpe’s Grysbok, Steenbok, Klipspringer, Livingstone Suni and Oribi.

The Rare Pels Fishing Owl - African Big Five Safari With AfricanExplorations.com

An African Big Five Safari is, surely, only possible on land? Not so! For those with a love of the sea and who visit South Africa’s gorgeous coastline there is also the ‘Marine Big Five’ which includes the Southern Right Whale, Cape Fur Seal, common Dolphin, Great White Shark and African Penguin. The best time for whale watching in South Africa is between July and November; several places on the Garden Route feature marine activities although the Walker Bay/Hermanus region is especially well known for easy access to marine wildlife with excellent guiding.

Cape Fur Seal - African Big Five Safari With AfricanExplorations.com

Mozambique Safaris are absolutely unique and more akin to the old style of Africa. Think of parks as large as  42 000 square kilometres with just one tented camp taking ten privileged guests – then we start talking about Mozambique! That is what I love about this county! The diversity of safaris – with amazing walking and game viewing in the Gorongosa National Park, coupled with perhaps canoeing and walking and flycamping in the Niassa region which is even larger – and then flying to one of the islands where one can stay in absolutely luxury on one’s own desert island or simplicity! Visit one of the fascinating islands of either Ibo or Ilha for a deep insight into the country’s past – (and it is quite riveting – there are some gorgeous places to stay, too – learning about the history of the country) and there is also a wonderful dhow safari along the Quirimbas coast that one can undertake for a week.

Altogether this offers a very different, interesting and exciting safari away from the crowds!

An African Trekking Safari would otherwise be known as a walking safari. These in my opinion are some of the finest ways of being on safari! On foot – one’s senses are heightened and one learns so much more – such as the medicinal properties of trees and plants, how to read the prints (or spoormarks) in the sand, which animals they are, which direction they are heading (pretty important!), as well as learning to walk downwind whilst keeping pace with an elephant herd!

African Trekking Safaris with AfricanExplorations.com

One also learns all about the insects and butterflies and the ecological role of the dung beetle – so many things and all so fascinating and vital to the continuation of this extraordinary continent!

Walking Safaris with AfricanExplorations.com

We offer walking safaris on the outskirts of the Masai Mara and in the Laikipia region of Kenya, in southern, western and Northern Tanzania, in Namibia and South Africa.  There is also walking on Mount Kenya. We have the most comprehensive range of walking safaris in Africa – contact us for specialist knowledge!