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

A Kenya Camping safari is one of the most rewarding ways of being on safari! Here one has the flexibility to spend the day exactly as one chooses, with ones guide.

One of the best areas is the Masai Mara – which offers world class game viewing – if not the best – especially at the time of the wildebeest migration from July through to October. Here one can have a luxury, private tented camp erected just for your party – whether two of you or a family or group of friends! Other parks which are superb are Meru and Samburu. I love a private mobile safari because it means that you have complete flexibility – spending as long as you wish at sightings and having your professional guide and vehicle all to yourself, so if you want to spend time learning about the behaviour of a bat eared fox or looking at a rare bird or even brushing up on your photographic skills, it allows you the freedom and comfort to do this and not worry about others in the vehicle!

Kenya Camping Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

The tents are large and luxurious, have en suite bathrooms with hot water showers and flush toilets and the meals served under canvas are some of the best! This is the very best way of being on safari – and far more intimate.

If you want to join a safari, then we do have one set departure safari which takes in the Masai Mara, Samburu and then staying at a private home in the Rift Valley with a great friend of ours who is a wonderful guide!

Kenya Camping safari with AfricanExplorations.com

Otherwise, we also do some lovely walking safaris for a week or less into the Loita Hills on the edge of the Masai Mara – where you camp out at night in a small pup tent, but everything is done for you and again, you have your own private guide who is just superb, hot water for showers and a short drop loo. Walking is one of the finest ways of being on safari! We also have a camp set up for our riding safaris in the Masai Mara and the Chyulu Hills – one hears the night sounds so much more clearly under canvas and the scent of the plants and the wind waft through your gauze windows – it really is lovely! Lastly, we have camel assisted walking safaris where one camps out at night, in the Laikipia and Samburu regions too which is also sensational and allows one to learn more about the tribal culture of the semi-nomadic Samburu tribe.

Coming from Kenya, we would love to assist you with your Kenyan camping safari!

What is a Luxury African Safari? It is many different things to many people! Perhaps this clip defines it in more detail!

An Africa Safari Vacation is one of the most amazing and rewarding types of holiday that one can ever imagine! With magnificent wildlife in abundance, incredible walking, scenery and top class guiding – as well as having such a variety of first class accommodation – all this contributes to having the perfect safari!See the video below to get an idea of which country might be right for you! We come from Africa and have been arranging bespoke safaris for our clients for 21 years – so, if only the very best will do – we would love to assist you in arranging your safari of a lifetime!

Safaris in Zambia are incredibly rewarding!

From the north and south luangwa which are some of the finest wildlife regions in Africa and also home to the best walking safaris in Africa, to the magnificent Kafue and the Busanga Plains, this country has it all! The Busanga is renowned for its concentration of wildlife unlike anywhere else in the country – and is affectionately referred to as the mini Serengeti with its open  plains and fantastic wildlife.

Safaris in Zambia with AfricanExplorations.com

Zambia boasts some of the best game viewing in Africa including endemic species such as thornicroft’s giraffe as well as being home to the rare shoebill stork. The camps range from simple  to luxury tented camps. The guiding is considered to be some of the finest in Africa. Then you have the upper and lower Zambezi – two completely different area offering very different experiences. Again, there is lovely walking in the lower Zambezi, but the river offers the most stunning backdrop imaginable! Livingstone is just lovely and the perfect place to end ones safari and we have some real gems for you to stay at.

Safaris in Zambia with AfricanExplorations.com

Perhaps combine Zambia with Malawi for some sailing or beach at the end of your safari and one has the holiday of a lifetime! Call our Expert from Zambia, Katharine Tetley now to design a gorgeous tailormade safari just for you.

A Zambia safari is truly unique – this country lends itself to some of the finest walking safaris in Africa! Whether it is in the south Luangwa, north Luangwa or a region that is always left out on people’s maps – Kafue. No Safari to Zambia should be complete without including Kafue and the Busanga Plains which must rate as one of the most beautiful regions in the country. And brimming with wildlife too – not spilling over with wildlife – there is a difference! Whether it is on a boat (where on my last safari I spotted leopard in broad daylight!), or by vehicle – this region is just so rewarding. The last visit to Busanga Plains heralded several prides of black maned lion, wild dog and a plethora of other animals. The birdlife is sensational – crowned cranes amongst many others!

Zambia Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

Add to that the lower Zambezi which is simply magical – this huge river with all its abundant wildlife on the banks of the river and some of the most beautiful camps and lodges with phenomenal guiding – finishing off perhaps with Livingstone – the Zambian side of Victoria Falls – and you have yourself the finest safari imaginable!

Debs Tittle is one of the most wonderful guides in the south Luangwa in Zambia. She is simply amazing! Debs will take you out on fantastic walking safari on a completely private basis – whether it is just two of you or perhaps a group of friends. A fly camp is erected and these safaris are generally for just a couple of nights (although we can make them as long as you like as it is entirely flexible!). Some people will add this on to a more traditional lodge based game viewing safari which is experienced both by vehicle as well as on foot – with other people in the camp. However – this is for someone who is trying to get away from sharing this experience with others – who is looking for a more personal or exclusive style of walking safari.

Debs Tittle with AfricanExplorations.com

This is a fantastic experience and she opens up the entire world of the bush for you and brings everything to life – explaining the finer points of the ecological system – the termites, the dung beetles and their relationship with the soil and the environment. Then you also see wildlife in close proximity – follow their tracks and watch their behaviour. No rushing back in a vehicle or having to consider others – this is a privileged experience – just for you – with one of Zambia’s top guides! This truly is an opportunity of a lifetime and not to be missed!

Walking Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

San Camp must rank as one of my favourite ten camps in Africa. It is simply astonishing! First of all – take the location. It simply couldn’t be surpassed!

San Camp sits in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, which represent the last visible remains of a ‘super lake’ once known as Lake Makgadikgadi. This lake covered an area of 80 000 square kilometres and covered most of northern Botswana.

San Camp with AfricanExplorations.com

There are just a handful of  tents with white canvas on dark wooden platforms that command possibly the most incredible view of any camp in Botswana – hundreds of miles of white salt pan. The rooms are truly glorious and luxurious with a bedroom and sitting area, ensuite bathroom and a shower with a view over the pans. The tents are rectangular with octagonal ends and are elegantly furnished with a colonial feel.

San Camp with AfricanExplorations.com

Visit to a family of meerkats who have been habituated so that one can get very close to them; or a walk with bushmen who will show one how to light a fire with their traditional sticks, find water and track game and birds; quad bike excursions are also offered and there are wildlife researchers operating in the pans who are studying brown hyena which you can also see.

San Camp with AfricanExplorations.com

Luxury Okavango Delta Safari – these are some of the most magical safaris possible!

Luxury Okavango Delta Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

Flying across the delta, looking at the bejewelled waterway beneath you – landing on an island and immediately seeing a myriad of wildlife around you and you could be forgiven for thinking you had just landed in paradise – because that is exactly what it is!

There are so many very beautiful camps offering all sorts of different experiences in the Delta – from lodges with gorgeous architecture to a private tented, simple tented camp to a private camp which has persian rugs in your room and silver candelabra on the dinner table for night dining – with your own private vehicle and guide – this is all that awaits you!

Luxury Okavango Delta Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

Then you can go out on an elephant-back safari for three or four days where you watch and become part of the herd or even go out with a zoologist one day for a couple of hours, walking with his herd of elephant. There is even amazing riding in the Okavango Delta too.

Combine this with the Kalahari Desert and you have the safari of a lifetime!

An African safari needs to be tailormade in order to ensure that you get the most out of it. Just rationalise – how could one safari be right for thousands of people? It simply can’t – and one just ends up compromising hugely. And why should one? When paying this much money for a holiday (or anything else in life, for that matter), it has to be as perfect as possible – and the only way this is possible is to replicate an environment that you not only feel comfortable in, but indeed surpasses all your expectations and leaves you breathless!

African Safari Tailormade with AfricanExplorations.com

And that’s where we come in! We listen to you, ask lots of questions, analyse and disseminate that information and then send you a suggestion which we think  will be absolutely right for you! Whether its taking in photography lessons  with a film maker and guide in the Masai Mara, going up in a hot air balloon across the sand dunes in the Namib Desert of Namibia or flying over the harsh and beautiful Skeleton Coast. Perhaps it is seeing the wildebeest migration in the mighty Serengeti – or spending times with chimps. It could be spending time with a researcher, looking for wild dog in Botswana, or taking a houseboat on the Chobe River. Perhaps it is looking at gorillas or sitting on the back of an elephant on an elephant back safari in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. What about riding a horse across the Kalahari Desert in Botswana or sipping wine at some of the best wine estates in the Cape? It might even be canoeing along the Mighty Zambezi in Zimbabwe or viewing the Victoria Falls. It could even be undertaking a walking safari.

African Safari Tailormade with AfricanExplorations.com

These, plus a myriad of other ideas are available to you – we would love to share our knowledge and enthusiasm with you!