Thinking of going on safari?

We’ve been back for a couple of months since our two weeks in Kenya and Tanzania. Time to reflect the on the whole experience.

While I feel extremely privileged to have visited those places, seen the wildlife for real instead of on TV, watched lions and cheetahs hunting, observed herds of wildebeest and buffalo moving across the savanna, stayed in some very nice lodges, and photographed lots of animals ...I can’t honestly say this trip matched up to our other special holidays over the past 40 years (Costa Rica, Alberta/British Columbia, California, Yellowstone).

Why not?

1.       With an up-market safari you’ll get nice lodges and fewer fellow travellers (max 7 perhaps) which gives you more chance to influence what happens.

But if there are no other takers for the dates you book, do you really want to spend a whole week in the company of just a driver/guide (who thinks Robert Mugabi is doing a good job in Zimbabwe)? NO, NO, NO!!!

2.       Unless you are prepared to buy a load of stuff you don’t want, you are seriously going to piss off a whole lot of people. Get used to the idea or triple your budget estimates in advance

3.       Our experience of travel in Kenya was awful. There seemed to be nowhere to break a long drive that wasn’t a tourist “curio” shop where, if you didn’t buy, you were made to feel like a colonialist slaver. (Tanzania, in contrast, was fine – you could actually wander round the couple of shops we went in without being hassled.)

Expect to be harassed by vendors wherever you stop – entrances to the parks, borders, etc.

4.       If you’re a keen photographer, know that the chance to secure images that you’ll be pleased with is slim. You are shooting from inside a safari van, with no option to move around and compose a picture, little or no control over where the van stops, no control over when to go out or where. Time and again I saw THE shot just as we drove past it. No matter how many times you yell “Stop, please” your driver is not seeing what you are seeing and frustration levels will be astronomical.

Other times you may be waiting for just the right moment, or carefully videoing a sequence and your driver will suddenly take off to get to what he thinks will be a better position.

5.       You may be with fellow travellers who have not researched the country ...who don’t even watch wildlife TV programmes. So your driver/guide is quite likely to assume that your interest is limited to the Big Five ...which means more lions than a lorry driver could eat in a month, when you really want to see that elusive antelope you haven’t spotted yet, or to watch ostriches feeding, or to ID the big bird of prey circling overhead., or even to clock your first lesser mongoose.  Be sure to make it clear to your driver where your interest lies.

And if I was to go to Africa again I would be sure to include some safari walks. Walking and watching is the ONLY way to see wildlife properly. And if it means seeing animals other than ones that are likely to savage you, fair enough.

Finally don’t expect any female driver/guides. In the dozens of safari vehicles I saw over the 2 weeks all of the drivers were men.  Mug up on what Chelsea, Man U, and Arsenal are doing and you will always have a topic for conversation!