My Big Five Safari Destinations

You hear a lot about the ‘Big Five’ in terms of safaris, where the ‘Holy Grail’ is to see lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, rhino and leopard. Whilst its technically possible to see all of those on one safari, there are of course many other animals that are exciting to see in the wild like zebra, giraffes, hippos, wildebeest and when considering a safari holiday there’s lots of things to think about, especially if it’s your first time. To help you out, I thought I’d share my own experiences of five different African destinations.

Kenya

The Masai Mara is a great park to visit if you’ve never been on a safari before as you really are guaranteed to see lots of animals, especially big cats. There’s a range of accommodation available to suit different budgets and I would personally advise you to try to stay in a couple of different places, in different areas of the park – that way you get to see more variety of animals. Whilst it’s possible to fly into Nairobi, do a safari and fly out again, many people head to Mombasa on the coast for some beach chill time afterwards which is a perfect combination.

Tanzania

This destination offers a world of possibilities and in fact the Ngorogoro Crater is said to be the African continent in miniature, with its different landscapes including a soda lake which is home to flocks of dazzling pink flamingos. When it comes to animal migrations, Tanzania is the place to be as the animals are on the move all year round in this country and there is the possibility to follow that migration in a Bush Rover vehicle where your tent appears on the roof at night (yes, really!) There’s the possibility here to combine the wildlife parks with beach on the mainland or hop over to Zanzibar for some chill time.

Botswana

The big draw for me when choosing Botswana was the opportunity to experience three different environments in one holiday. This ranged from the Chobe River where we got up close with hippos on the river, to the Okavango with its maze of waterways where we stayed in a tented camp and were able to do a walking safari, to the Kalahari where the wildlife is generally smaller and more elusive but where the highlight was a night safari looking for brown hyenas. Accommodation here tends to be mainly higher end so potentially more suitable once you’ve got a safari or two under your belt.

South Africa

Whilst you have a high chance of seeing the ‘Big Five’ in the famous Kruger National Park and there is a massive choice of accommodation, I opted to do my first South African safari in Shamwari, near Port Elizabeth at the end of a holiday driving down the Garden Route from Cape Town. The beauty of a private reserve is that there are less crowds and so the whole experience feels much more personal. At Shamwari there are several accommodation options and some excellent guides – if you ever saw the BBC2 programme Safari School, where various celebrities learnt how to be park rangers, it was shot here.

Namibia

Namibia is somehow off the radar for most people in the UK but I don’t understand why as it's just fabulous, however you do need to invest some time on the road to enjoy it to the full as everything is very spread out. For example, the main wildlife park, Etosha, is around 4 hours drive from the capital, Windhoek, so it makes sense to plan to do a tour here and experience the fascinating and dramatic landscapes as well. My best experience here was tracking leopard at Okonjima. It might sound a bit too easy to go out to find animals when they are fitted with a radio collar but believe me when I say that there is nothing to compare to the thrill of sitting in a vehicle with the radio antenna bleeping furiously, knowing that a leopard is close by…except of course the moment when you spot her peeping through the bushes and then she emerges in all her glory.

I hope that has whetted your appetite a bit. The experiences you can have on a safari are many and varied and no two trips are the same so for more information please do get in touch!