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

Funnily enough, Botswana is no longer a country that one associates with walking safaris. There used to be an amazing walking safari offered over 3 days  about twenty years ago, but for whatever the reason, the market decided it preferred to get around in vehicles!

Botswana Walking Safari with AfricanExplorations.com

However – I am happy to say that a friend of mine offers a combination of walking and/or riding safaris in a truly lovely area of Botswana – and it has what I would term as ‘gentle’  wildlife – mainly plains game etc, but when one is on the back of a horse or indeed on foot, sometimes its quite a nice thought that nothing is going to eat you!For those hardier types, there is now the possibility to have a walking safari again in the Okavango Delta on the border of Moremi – which is all about sensational game viewing. You are accompanied by some of Botswana’s finest guides, though  and the experience is nothing short of thrilling!

Botswana Walking safari with African Explorations.com

I far prefer to view game on foot – one’s senses are more accute and one learns so much more too! Everything is taken in at a gentler, slower pace and there is no noise or pollution.

For a Botswana Walking Safari, do contact us as we are walking specialists for Africa!

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!

There is nothing quite like a walking safari in Africa and one country which really delivers this well is Tanzania.

What I love so much about a walking safari in Tanzania is the diversity and contrast that it allows.

Walking safari in Tanzania with AfricanExplorations.com

In Northern Tanzania, one can go walking in the Serengeti plains and the Ngorongoro Crater region, with a fly camp which is fully serviced, erected for you on an individual basis. There is no better way of discovering the bush, seeing wildlife, but also learning about the homeopathic properties of plants and trees as well as learning to identify spoormarks in the soil and get to know the birdlife and insect life (or entymology). You have a superb Tanzanian guide to share his knowledge with you!

Walking Safaris with AfricanExplorations.com

Then what about going to Lake Natron and spending time with one of the last hunter-gatherers, the Hadzabe tribe? This is a highlight for so many clients!

Finally, fly camp in the southern part of Tanzania – my favourite being Katavi, followed by the Selous and finally Ruaha. These are three very different and beautiful regions with not another soul. If you want to get away from it all, in areas which are so incredibly beautiful but also unbelievably diverse, allowing a great mix of wildlife – then this must be for you! Sleep beneath the stars, dine on the most wonderful food, beautifully prepared for you by your cooks and presented to you by your complement of staff, before finally falling asleep with the twinkling of the stars being your last memory! There is something wonderful knowing that you are the only people in the reserve, whilst the sun sets and the birds take up their night positions on the boughs of the trees.

Walking Safari in Africa with AfricanExplorations.com

Awake to a glorious sunrise, and to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the dewy scent of the sage plants before having a hot shower, breakfast and beginning your next day’s walk. What will you discover today? No two days are ever the same in Africa but one thing is certain – a walking safari is one of the best types of safari one can ever undertake! Call us to begin your safari of a lifetime here!

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

Walking Safari- Can there be any equal? This is one of the finest safaris that one can possibly experience on this earth! Every sensory factor comes into being and is heightened as one’s degree of vulnerability surfaces.

walking safaris with AfricanExplorations.com

No car pollution, no engine noise, exercise, being at one with the earth, learning about nature, about soil types, vegetation, homeopathic properties attributed to plants and trees, folklore attached to them and feeling at one with Africa. Just magical! Smell the sage plants and the potato bushes with the early morning dew. Watch the sunrise across the African plain. Learn to identify the spoormarks of animals – whether by faeces or by footprints left as stories of their presence unfolds.  What is important is here and now, and utter survival!Having said that, you are  in the presence of the most professional guides in Africa, and your safety is paramount and this is where their experience is demonstrated.

Feel your heart quicken as you see a matriarchal herd of elephant trumpet as they pick up your smell as the wind changes direction, or discovering a pride of lion in a clearing. Watch them from a level playing field, observing their every movement. Enjoy and embrace every single moment. For this is what Africa is really about. Not being apart, but feeling the rhythm of the continent as one – and this – is exactly what a walking safari brings to you.

walking safaris with AfricanExplorations.com

And we haven’t even talked about arriving at your camp, sitting around the fire, watching the dying embers  beneath a diamond studded sky and discussing the pleasures of life whilst the cacophony of Africa continues around you, lions emitting their territorial calls across the land, whilst hippos grunt in the river beside you and the sweet sounds of nightjars and owls serenade the night. Oh, but to be in Africa!

A walking safari is the most exhilarating way of experiencing a safari in Africa as one gets so much closer to wildlife without the noise of an engine. Of course there is a degree of vulnerability which heightens the senses but this is a good thing! How often is one called upon to use those senses today? Everything is so much more immediate – from analysing the urgent bark of a baboon, to the strong scent left by a predator or an elephant or simply enjoying the early morning smells of the sage plant, fresh from the  first dew.

walking safari south luangwa with AfricanExplorations.com

Walking safaris come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but broadly speaking, one country lends itself to the most amazing walking safaris, and that country is Zambia. It is an incredibly game rich country with the most amazing standard of guiding!

In the south Luangwa national park, there is only one outfit which operates a true mobile safari – that is, over a five night period, walking from to three different camps with one to two nights spent in each.  Here one walks with nothing more than a pair of binoculars and this is no route march! About 7-10 kms is covered each day at an incredibly leisurely pace whilst learning about the homeopathic properties of plants and trees.  There are also static bushcamps in both north and south luangwa. The Kafue region also offers exceptional walking safaris with fewer tourists.

Chada Katavi Flycamp with AfricanExplorations.com

The Selous in southern Tanzania offers superb walking and flycamping on an individual basis and whilst not as game rich as northern Tanzania where there are walking safaris in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro highlands, it is more beautiful and pristine. The Mana Pools region in Zimbabwe offers sensational walking and the wild dog population is excellent. As does Gonarezhou.

In Kenya, in the Kakamega Forest and the Rift valley in general, there is some of the best guiding and birding with one of Kenya’s top guides. However you decide to undergo your walking safari in Africa, if you choose one of these places, you will never be disappointed!

Sand Rivers Selous Fly Camping with AfricanExplorations.com

Anyone who has an interest in conservation or luxury safaris to Africa (or India) in general as well as walking safaris, elephant safaris or special interest safaris will welcome the CITES decision late last month to uphold the ongoing ban on ivory trading. The story is well reported by CNN, which we precis as follows:

Quote:
(CNN) — Conservationists have welcomed the decision to reject a bid from Tanzania and Zambia to temporarily suspend a worldwide ban on trading in African elephant ivory so they can offload legal stockpiles in a one-off sale.
The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, voted to reject the proposal amid concerns about elephant poaching.
A petition from the two African countries to remove elephants from a list of animals “threatened with extinction” to allow trade in other parts of the animal was also thrown out.
“It’s welcome news, but my anxieties remain about the increased levels of poaching in Africa,” Save the Elephant’s Dr. Ian Douglas-Hamilton told CNN.
“There are huge problems ahead for the elephants,” he said. “I do see this huge demand which is emanating mainly from the prosperity of China. We have to win their hearts and minds for conservation and for the elephant so that they have more of an idea of sustainable use and not over-taxing populations.”
CITES banned the international commercial ivory trade in 1989 after elephant populations dropped dramatically across the world due to widespread poaching.
But in 1997 and 2002 it permitted Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to sell limited stocks of ivory to Japan, in recognition of the fact that some southern African elephant populations were healthy and well managed.
Five years later at a CITES meeting at The Hague further sales of stockpiled ivory were permitted in return for a nine-year moratorium on further sales.
Both Zambia and Tanzania claimed elephant numbers in their territories were on the rise after years of decline. They also said the proceeds from the sale of government stockpiles would be put back into conservation and enforcement projects. But wildlife experts in Kenya, part of a coalition of 23 African elephant range countries calling for an outright ban, say poaching has increased since the announcement of the last sale.
“Though Zambia’s anti-poaching enforcement measures are better than those of Tanzania, there is no justification for downgrading the elephants from the endangered list,” said Douglas-Hamilton, an expert on Kenya’s elephant population. Tanzania has increased poaching and increased illegal markets. Their main elephant population has decreased by some 30,000 in the last three years. In Zambia there were huge declines in the elephant population in the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas other elephant populations across Africa have recovered slightly since the introduction of the ivory trade ban, Zambia’s never have. They remain the same. In the mid-1970s the population was something like 160,000. It is currently estimated to sit at around 26,000.”
He added that the situation was particularly desperate in central Africa where there are estimated to be just 20,000 elephants left from a population numbering 1 million 30 years ago.
CNN’s David McKenzie contributed to this report.
Unquote

Naturally we are all delighted at the announcement but it is clear that charities such as Iain’s Save The Elephants, which can be visited as part of an itinerary to Kenya (and is a charity we support, as is the Sheldrick Elephant Foundation, see the video below), and those involved with our special interest safaris and Elephant safaris in the Okavango Delta need ongoing support, as do all those with a focus on elephant conservation in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia.

Financial Times Article

We recently sent the celebrated journalist Lucia van der Post on a luxury adventure safari to Mozambique. The trip has resulted in a superb four-page article for the Financial Times “How to Spend It” magazine, published on Saturday 3rd April 2010.

The article’s title, “Where The Really Wild Things Are”, encapsulates Lucia’s argument that Mozambique remains largely untrammelled by tourism and is a genuine and adventurous safari destination that is perfect for African aficionados. A considerable degree of comfort is also now available in Niassa, Gorongosa, the offshore islands and on the Mozambique shore of Lake Niassa so Mozambique is now at the forefront of African luxury adventure travel.

The article makes excellent reading. However the National Geographic Channel recently spent time making a wonderful film called “Africa’s Lost Eden” in Gorongoza and, for a taste of what Mozambique can offer, here’s the trailer: