WILDLIFE SAFARIS : THE FACTS

When considering a safari to one of South Africa's National or Private Reserves there are a number of options available to you.

OPTION ONE: NATIONAL PARK SELF-DRIVE
The first is a self-drive in a National Park such as Kruger of the Umfolozi / Hluhluwe Game Reserves where you pick-up your rental car on arrival at the airport and stay in "public rest camps" in Kruger / Hluhluwe and you drive yourself around the reserve looking for game. We do not recommend this option as being a stranger and not knowing the reserve and animal behaviour you wont know where to go, where to look and when you do find game, what you are looking at and all its habits and characteristics. In order to get the most out of your South African wildlife safari its best to have a registered guide who knows the soils, vegetation, birds and animals etc.

OPTION TWO: GUIDED
The second option would be to be met on arrival at the airport and to be transferred to a public rest camp in either Kruger or Hluhluwe and from there go on game drives and walks which are conducted by the parksboard rangers. They have daily 3 hour morning safaris in open safari vehicles which depart camp at daybreak. They also have evening/night drives, also of a 3 hour duration, which depart camp at about sunset and get back to camp after dark. They also offer 4 hour bush walks with an armed ranger and tracker. These depart camp at dawn to take advantage of the cool morning before the sun really starts to "pull water"!!. Between the dawn safari or bush walk and the evening game drive you are pretty much on your own. Accommodation can be on a bed only basis and can be in either tents, or air-conditioned bungalows. Each rest camp has an a la carte restaurants or a fast food outlets for meals and there is also a convenience store for provisions should you want to self cater. 

OPTION THREE: STAY AT PRIVATE CAMP
The third option would be to stay at a private camp. You would arrive at the airport and be transferred to the camp of your choice. These are up-market and are all inclusive of accommodation, meals game drives and bush walks. The programme at these camps all follow pretty much the same routine. Early morning wake up for tea and coffee before you set off for the dawn safari. You return to camp at about 09h00 for breakfast. The rest of the day is free to either go on a bush walk with your ranger. go to the pool to "chill out" during the heat of the day, go to the water hole to watch the animals come down to drink or to just relax in camp. Lunch is served at about 13h00 and the evening game drive departs at about 16h00. At sunset you stop "somewhere in the bush" for sun-downers and then you carry on into the night looking for the nocturnal animals with the aid of a powerful spot-lap. The nocturnal animals are the cats such as lion, leopard, civet, serval, genet etc which you don't see during the day. You return to camp at about 08h30, depending on animal activity, for dinner which is usually in the "boma" under the African stars beside a roaring log fire. This is the way most people imagine an African Safari and is definitely the way to get the most out of your visit to Africa.

These private camps obviously differ in price as they range from "average" to "ultra luxury" from tented accommodation to air-conditioned chalets with your own butler and private plunge pool. We can also offer a combination of 2 nights vehicle based game viewing combined with 2 nights walking and with the third, last night, a "sleep out" in the bush, under the stars. But all these private camps are not "hammock & camping" type operations, but expensive fully inclusive operations.

After your safari you would then transfer back to the airport where you would connect with your flight to one of our magnificent dive locations or to connect with your return flight home.