A British & Irish Rugby Tour is one of the greatest and most anticipated events in the sporting calendar. It only happens once every four years, the same as a World Cup, but due to the Lions dividing their tours between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it is 12 long years before the Lions play the same opposition again. This means that bragging rights for a series win for or against the the British & Irish Rugby Tour last 12 years. It is a long time to wait to get revenge. Some international players go their entire careers without playing a game against the British & Irish Rugby Team.
 
Due to the infrequency of the tours as well as the high stakes, the ferocity of the contests between the British rugby team and their opposition leads to legends being born. Every rugby fan can remember in minute detail what happened on a previous tour, 12 years ago. Who will emerge from the 2021 tour as a new legend?

The Springboks were the last team to beat the British in 2009. Who will ever forget the epic second test match at Loftus Versfeld, where the Springboks won the series after the hooter had sounded, thanks to Morne Steyn’s 50-metre penalty goal. Many players still rate that test match as the most physical game they ever played in. It is no wonder, considering eight players were hospitalised afterwards
 
12 years before that, The British & Irish Rugby Team upset the 1995 World Cup winning Springboks in equally dramatic fashion when Jeremy Guscott slotted a late drop goal in the second test match to clinch the series after a magical Matt Dawson dummy and an Alan Tait try had set up a win in the first test. In fact, the two previous times the Springboks have played against the British Isles Rugby Team, they were world champions, and it is the same this time around. That should certainly give the series a little more of an edge, given how the Springboks beat Wales and England on their way to claiming the crown in Tokyo. Will a combined British Isles side be able to beat the world champions on their own soil?

The best part about the tour to South Africa is that it is happening in the home of wild animals, beautiful cities, good wine and friendly people. The tour provides the ultimate excuse to take a holiday to South Africa and experience all that the country has to offer, from a safari in the world-famous Kruger National Park to days exploring Cape Town (regularly voted one of the most beautiful cities in the world.) Spend your time watching rugby, making new friends and taking in beautiful landscapes. I daresay there is very little more that a rugby fan could want.

With this in mind, we have scoured all of our favourite lodges to see which of them have space around match days and also which of them are offering specials. Many lodges offer winter specials in South Africa, including free nights. You can rest assured of their quality because we have visited them and wouldn’t recommend them if we didn’t rate them highly. And given the weak state of the local Rand currency compared to the British Pound, you will be pleased to see how affordable safaris in South Africa are. Many safari lodges are all inclusive, which means that all your meals are included, as well as two game drives per day to look for wildlife. Elsewhere in the country, such as Cape Town and Johannesburg, we are able to arrange day tours and activities to help you get the most of your time here, whether it is hiking up Table Mountain, visiting the penguins, or learning about culture in Soweto.

Every booking will generate a donation to the excellent Restart charity that does vital work in helping rugby players with career-ending injuries recover and adapt to life after rugby. You can find the main tour page here. ​South Africa is a rugby mad country and you will be able to feel the excitement everywhere you go. Check out our packages on our British & Irish Rugby Tour pages and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are rugby fans ourselves, even if one of us happens to be a Springbok supporter. But we tolerate him because he lives in Cape Town and will take next year's defeats without blubbing on about the refs or alleged food poisoning.

The main draw of Mahale National Park and Gombe Streams National Park are the chimpanzee sightings, whilst Katavi National Park, the country's third largest National Park, is a remote, untouched wildlife haven visited by less than 1,000 people a year. Often there are fewer than two dozen people in the national park, that covers 4,471 square kilometres.

​Located along the rift escarpment in Western Tanzania, the 4,471 square kilometre Katavi National Park is the third largest in the country. However, its remoteness and inaccessibility leaves it comparably untouched, with just a few hundred visitors per year. A land of great diversity, this untamed and wild area is in the heart of one of the largest and richest wildlife areas in Tanzania.
 
Home to the largest herds of buffalo on the planet, Katavi National Park is a wilderness paradise, situated in the western area of Tanzania. The park boasts a wonderful array of habitats, which range from flood plains of thick reeds and dense waterways that teem with hippo and crocodile to woodlands, open grasslands, forests and pristine seasonal lakes.
 

​Katavi is a classic dry season reserve. From June to October buffalo herds of up to 3,000 graze on the plains. Game drives offer superb photographic opportunities, whilst walks beside sluggish rivers are exciting. Large crocodiles lie in mudholes, marabou storks pick over hippo carcasses and spotted hyena lope off into the distance. Elephants drink from tiny water holes in mud-cracked pans, roan and sable antelope hide in dense thickets, while vultures clean and dry their wings in small streams. As the sun falls low in the sky, a visit to the hippo pool, where 600 hippo live in dense formation and engage in fierce territorial battles, provides a perfect place for a sundowner.

In contrast to many other Tanzanian parks, night drives are permitted, and after, as the smoke curls up from the fire and the sound of cicadas becomes deafening. If you sit quietly you might see a pennant-winged nightjar flit across the purple sky or hear an eery owl.
 
With only three small upmarket camps, and only two expensive flights on 12-seater planes each week, this is no place for the masses, but for the dedicated safari enthusiast. 

​Mahale is both one of the most remote and most beautiful national parks in Tanzania. Mahale National Park encompasses a large mountainous forest rising from the white sandy shores of Lake Tanganyika, where you will find the only two lodges in the park. It is most famous for its chimp tracking and is arguably the best place in the world to see man's closest relative. The park was originally established to protect the large population of over 1000 chimpanzees and other primates. Over the decades since its establishment, researchers have managed to habituate a group of over 50 chimpanzees, allowing visitors to get very close to the chimps for unforgettable encounters.

​The hike to reach the Mahale chimpanzees can vary from a short stroll of 20 minutes to a more strenuous hike lasting up to three hours. The easiest time to see the chimps is during the dry season (August to October) as the paths are less slippery and the chimps tend to stay closer to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. During this time they occasionally venture very close to camp.
 
Getting to Mahale National Park is expensive, due to the distance from Tanzania's main airports and the fact that only very few people travel on this route. The flights take 4-5 hours from Arusha or Dar es Salaam and only go twice a week. On the positive side, this is the reason why Mahale has remained so untouched, which makes it a real off the beaten track adventure experience.

Gombe Stream National Park is a thin strip of ancient montane forest also bordering, Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world. This park was made world-famous for the primate studies conducted by pioneering British researcher Jane Goodall. With just one lodge in the national park, prepare yourself for a truly remarkable experience of chimpanzees and nature in one of the most untouched parks of Tanzania

Southern Tanzania is home to the very accessible Selous Game Reserve, the largest wildlife reserve in Africa, the beautiful and little-visited gem of Ruaha, the country’s largest National Park, Mikumi National Park, the Udzungwa Mountains, and the ancient trading port of Kilwa.
 
SELOUS GAME RESERVE
Selous Game Reserve  is on the coastal plains, with the Rufiji River running through it, supplying a system of lakes with water year-round, allowing for boat-based game and bird viewing too. Both reserves are linked by daily flights in light aircraft operating from bush strips within each reserve/park. Ruaha can also be linked to the superb and even more seldom-visited Katavi National Park in the west, three times a week. 
 
The enormous, 50,000 square-kilometre reserve (almost twice the size of Belgium and two and a half times larger than the famous Serengeti in the north) also prvides the most varied game viewing experiences in the country, with boat-based game viewing, mornign walking safaris, and standard game drives all an option. Some lodges also offer an excellent fly-camping experience. The landscape here has remained almost as it was before tourism began and the massive park has only a few accommodation options inside the reserve and low visitor numbers, which creates a more authentic experience than safaris in the northern circuit. 
For the more budget conscious traveller, there are some good-value options just outside the main gate that we have excellent relationships with.
 
Flora and Fauna
The reserve contains a great diversity of vegetation types, including rocky acacia-clad hills, gallery and ground water forests, swamps and lowland rain forest. The dominant vegetation of the reserve is deciduous Miombo woodlands and constitutes a globally important example of this vegetation type. Because of this fire-climax vegetation, soils are subject to erosion when there are heavy rains. The result is a network of normally dry rivers of sand that become raging torrents during the rains; these sand rivers are one of the most unique features of the Selous landscape. Large parts of the wooded grasslands of the northern Selous are seasonally flooded by the rising water of the Rufiji River, creating a very dynamic ecosystem. The reserve has a higher density and diversity of species than any other Miombo woodland area: more than 2,100 plants have been recorded and more are thought to exist in the remote forests in the south.

RUAHA NATIONAL PARK
The hidden jewel of Africa...
The rolling wilderness of Ruaha National Park, studded with the great baobab trees, and intersected by the Ruaha river, is known for its elephant population, large herds of buffalo, big lion prides, rarer antelope species, and its bird life. Park fees are lower here than in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, and visitor numbers incomparable. With only a dozen lodges and camps inside the park, which covers 24,000 sq. km, peace and tranquillity are assured. It’s not uncommon to not encounter another vehicle on a game drive.
 
Of all the reserves and national parks in Africa, Ruaha is in our top three favourites. Nothing can beat its variety of stunning landscapes and dry season wildlife action. Combined with only having a handful of lodges and being bigger than the Serengeti, if you really want to feel in the heart of Africa, Ruaha is the place for the ultimate safari.
 
Wildlife
As well as hosting 450 bird species in its abundant trees, Ruaha is also home to the elusive and rare, stinky but beautiful, African hunting dog. With a varied landscape there is also a good chance of spotting a cheetah stalking on the open savannah, encountering the majestic Sable antelope and its dry grassy areas make it a great habitat for cheetahs. Ruaha has unusually large prides of lions, and encountering a pride of 20 or more is not uncommon. As the river slows to a trickle in the drier months, the game concentrates on the dwindling stream, and the game viewing is superb. In the wetter months after the rains in March and April, the game viewing is still very good and the birding excellent.
 
Ruaha has the widest range of antelopes in the region, being a crossover/meeting point of southern African and eastern African species. Roan antelope, Sable antelope, Common waterbuck, Defassa waterbuck, Greater kudu, Hartebeest and Tsessebe can all be seen there. Ruaha is a sublime step into safari wilderness.

Mikumi National Park
West of the bustling town of Morogoro, Mikumi National Park is small reserve with some lovely scenery and offers a gentle game experience – ideal for a two-night stop and a good base for daytrips to the Udzungwa Mountains. Mikumi shares a border and its game populations with the Selous, so you'll find plenty here, including elephant, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, warthog, impala and buffalo. The vast Mkata plain is often a good place to search for lion, whilst the lucky will spot leopard or even wild dog.
 
The park is bisected by a major road, which detracts from its feeling of wilderness, but does make it easy to reach by vehicle; it's just four hours south-west of Dar es Salaam.
 
There are a few fairly simple camps here; all suitable for stopping at with your own vehicle and guide. The best in the area is Foxes Safari Camp with twelve en-suite tents. And the recently renovated Mikumi Wildlife Camp is also good with 12 simple, clean cottages made of stone and thatch. There is also Vuma Hills which is only 15 minutes from the park entrance and has 16 spacious en-suite tents. It's a convenient location for a stop-over and short safari en-route to Ruaha, but we wouldn't recommend more than two nights here. 

​KILWA
Kilwa – meaning ‘Place of Fish’ – is the collective name given to three different areas on the Tanzanian coast: Kilwa Kisiwani, Kilwa Kivinje and Kilwa Masoko. Exploring UNESCO-listed ruins that tell the story of close to a millenium of coastal history is the main draw.
 
Kilwa isn’t located on the usual tourist route, so the quality of accommodation isn’t as high, however, travellers who want to learn a little more about the colourful history of this area will find it an adventurous addition to an off-beat itinerary, with comfortable and well-hosted, if relatively basic, accommodation.
 
Kilwa Masoko
The most modern of the three ‘Kilwas’, Kilwa Masoko is where most people base themselves to visit the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani. There is little of historical interest here, but Jimbizi Beach – where Kimbilio Lodge is situated – is pleasant enough for a day or two relaxing.
 
Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara
Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara were Swahili trading cities and their prosperity was based on control of Indian Ocean trade with Arabia, India and China, particularly between the 13th and 16th centuries, when gold and ivory from the hinterland was traded for silver, carnelians, perfumes, Persian faience and Chinese porcelain. From the 9th century all the way up until the 19th century, Kilwa Kisiwani was a wealthy and powerful port. At its height, the empire stretched from Kenya to Mozambique, and Kilwa Kisiwani’s prosperity was crucial to the development of Swahili civilisation. Kilwa Kisiwani minted its own currency in the 11th to 14th centuries.  When the Portuguese took over the coastline in 1505 they assumed control of Kilwa Kisiwani. They murdered the majority of the residents and replaced the Arab palaces with forts. Today, a small number of local fishermen live on the island, but for the most part it is deserted. 

Kilwa Kisiwani is now an abandoned city covering much of the island, filled with crumbling mosques, remnants of once glorious palaces, and ancient tombs. Considered one of the most important surviving examples of the Islamic-influenced Swahili maritime trade, it’s quite rightly the main attraction for visitors to the area. The runs of the Sultan's 100-room palace are the largest palatial ruins on the continent, and the Great Mosque the oldest standing in East Africa. Constructed in the 11th century and considerably enlarged in the 13th century, and roofed entirely with domes and vaults, some decorated with embedded Chinese porcelain; the palace Husuni Kubwa built between 1310 and 1333 with its large octagonal bathing pool; Husuni Ndogo, numerous mosques, the prison constructed on the ruins of the Portuguese fort and an entire urban complex with houses, public squares, and burial grounds. In 1331-1332, the great traveller, Ibn Battouta made a stop here and described Kilwa Kisiwani as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
 
The ruins of Songo Mnara, at the northern end of the island, consist of the remains of five mosques, a palace complex, and some thirty-three domestic dwellings constructed of coral stones and wood within enclosing walls.

You can  out more on our Southern Tanzania pages here, or you can jump straight to some itineraries here.  Or you can email us for a bespoke quote. 

I first went to Namibia in 1998 and have been back many times since. In that time I have met, tried, and tested many different service providers, car hire companies, lodges, campsites and routes. I’ve done it in everything from a four-door saloon car to specially built 12-seater four-wheel-drives, one modified to take a wheelchair-bound client.
 
Namibia has a surprising variety of landscapes, the oldest tribes in Africa, and some rare and stunning fauna and flora, from desert-dwelling elephants and rhinos to 2000-year-old plants. There is a similar variety in itineraries, campsites, and lodges.
 
Namibia is easily explored on a self-drive basis, which gives maximum flexibility and even though the roads are 70% gravel roads, with a suitable vehicle the driving is easy; I’d always recommend a raised SUV or pick-up truck over a normal road car. There are also a number of set-date group guided trips to experience the main highlights of the country on a budget. And if you want to see more in less time and have a very exclusive experience, then a flying safari is the way to go.

Highlights
The sand dunes of the southern Namib Desert five hours from the capital, Windhoek.
Desert-dwelling elephants, black rhinos, and lions in the other-worldly wildernesses of northern Damaraland and Koakoland.
Abundant game in Etosha NP.
Leopard and cheetah tracking at Okonjima, three hours north of Windhoek.
In the far south, the supremely photogenic deserted mining settlement of Kolmanskop and the fantastic Fish River Canyon.
Amazing scenery throughout the country. 
 
Seasons
If it rains, it rains between November and March, the rest of the year is very dry. In the winter months of June, July and August, night time temperatures in the desert can drop to freezing. Daytime temperatures are 25-31°C. ​
​
​Namibia is a country we know extremely well; I have been there nine times, spending a total of 27 weeks in the country, coming it from north to south and east to west. Matthew O’Brien, one of our Senior Safari Consultants, used to guide overland tours there, and Ines Moosmann, our Sales and Product supremo, has spent over two months here too.
 
To paint a bit more of a picture of the many wonders of this beautiful and diverse country, we have put together a selection of our individual highlights.
 
Kicking off is Matthew.

Dead Vlei
It is hard to conjure up the adjectives to describe your feelings when you first set your eyes on Dead Vlei. I can remember the first time I saw pictures of Dead Vlei in postcards and thought that such a place couldn’t be real. The colours were too vivid and too contrasting. Those postcards had to have been manipulated. There was the whiteness of the salt pan, the sharp ochre colour of the towering sand dunes and the deep blue of the sky that you find in parts of the world that haven’t been touched by air pollution.
 
The journey to Dead Vlei is an exciting one. It is located 66km inside the Namib-Naukluft National Park on a stretch of road that winds through the oldest desert in the world, past some of the highest sand dunes in the world, all of which are bright orange, with the occasional Oryx and Springbok running on them.
 
About 5km before you get to Dead Vlei, the tar road ends and turns into a 4x4 sand road. If you have your own 4x4 and know what you are doing, you can proceed along the sand road yourself, keeping your revs up so that you don’t get stuck. Digging your car out of sand is not anyone’s idea of fun. If you don’t have a 4x4, you can either walk the last 5km, or catch the shuttle that will take you there. The shuttle is quite an experience as the drivers load you into the back of an open game viewer and roar through the sand like rally drivers while you cling to the roll bars.
 
Once dropped off in the parking lot, in the shade of the only tree there, it’s just 400 more metres to go and after one short climb up a tiny dune, you can lay your eyes on Dead Vlei and confirm to yourself that those postcards were not lying. Most people stop and stare for a few minutes to take it all in before finally heading into the Dead Vlei to marvel at it all and take their own post card pictures.

Swakopmund
It might seem weird to be writing about a seaside town as one my favourite places in a land of contrasts such as Namibia, but you have to remember what you will have been through to get to the town and the sights you will have seen along your journey. Most people who arrive in Swakopmund do so after bouncing along a corrugated dirt road for hundreds of kilometres. To those travellers from more developed parts of the world where everyone has a nice smooth tar road running past their gates, finding what actually amounts to a dirt highway snaking its way through the driest landscape in Southern Africa must be quite an experience. Then the corrugations end, the dirt turns to tar and you have arrived in Swakopmund, Namibia’s seaside playground. It is perhaps a weird place to have a seaside resort, as the Atlantic Ocean is freezing and the town is usually blanketed in sea fog every morning.

Namibia Rand Reserve/Wolwedans
The Namib Rand Reserve offers the most beautiful desert scenery, where mountains meet the desert that looks like a soft, orange and light green carpet and all that with no crowds of people. Activities are all private, guided by fantastic guides who not only find the bigger game like all the common desert adapted antelopes, zebras, giraffe and baboons, but also the invisible inhabitants of this harsh environment like hares, moulds, mice, moles, beetles, spiders, lizards, chameleons and other reptiles. A highlight is an excursion on horseback, which really makes you feel one with nature and brings you to the most special spots.

Etosha
Etosha is the only national park in Africa with an semi-arid environment and its main characteristic, the Etosha Salt Pan is so large that it can be seen from space. Despite this dry environment you can find an abundance of wildlife here, congregating around the many waterholes. Nowhere else can you find as many species sharing a waterhole as in Etosha, it’s usually a lively gathering of giraffe, zebras, wildebeest, elephants, rhinos, jackals, warthogs, lions, and numerous antelope species and all with the background of white earth and blues skies; beautiful and fantastic for photographers.

​Fish River Canyon
The second biggest canyon in the world might not be as spectacular as some of the other well-known canyons in the world, but it is still spectacular to see how the river has snaked its way through the rocks all the way from Seeheim to AiAis, on the border to South Africa. My favourite spot here is Fish River Lodge, where you will also be the only one around and your room will look straight down into the canyon, with incredible sunsets, which is pretty special. The hikes from there also take you down into the canyon, rather than just along the rim and you can even camp overnight in the canyon and make it a multi-day hiking excursion.

​I’ve got to say, these are pretty cool spots, mainly. Swakopmund doesn’t do much for me these days, though the size of steaks at Kuki’s are always impressive. Etosha has superb wildlife, Okaukuejo waterhole is a rhino magnet at night, and the elsewhere elusive blavk rhino is easy to see. Big cat sightings are common too, and it is the only place where I have seen Aardwolf in daylight, mating nonetheless. Wolwedans is s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g, both the reserve and the accommodation, I love it there, such a special place. And enjoying a sundowner round the fire (it gets cold at night) at Fish River Lodge having spent the day descending into the canyon and then bounding back up, is a delight.
 
But my favourites involve desert-adapted wildlife in Damaraland and Koakoland, where not only elephants, rhinos, and lions roam, but where the game is truly wild, not hemmed in by any boundaries. Giraffe, zebra, oryx and springbok can be encountered as you cruise along the gravel roads through the ever-changing and ever-stunning landscapes. 

Damaraland
Damaraland is a huge, untamed, ruggedly diverse and beautiful region with prehistoric water courses, open plains, grassland, massive granite kopjes and deep gorges. Along the coastal belt, the geography has vast sand areas that are able to sustain small, but wide-ranging, populations of desert-adapted elephant, black rhino, giraffe, ostrich and springbok. Elephant and rhino move through euphorbia bush country. It's also home to the highest peak in the country, Brandberg, and its  ancient "White Lady" rock art. 
 
Damaraland extends 600km south of Kaokoland down to the main road to Swakopmund at Uis, and extends 200km inland from the Skeleton Coast. Named after the Damara people in the area, the name is still commonly used, although the entire region has now been renamed; the southern section is in the Erongo region and the north forms part of the Kunene region. 

Kaokoland
The remote northwest corner of Namibia, the remotest part of the country, is one of my favourite places on the planet. Now part of the Kunene Region, it's rugged yet sublimely beautiful, with incredible craggy mountains, coastal desert, huge areas of sand in dried-up river beds full of trees and bushes, and the country’s only flowing waterfalls at Epupa and Ruacana. Stretching north from the Hoanib River up to the Kunene River and the Angolan border, the region is home to desert-adapted wildlife; elephants, black rhino, lions, giraffe, springbok, Hartmann's zebra and around 5,000 Himba pastoralists. The game is relatively sparse, but so rewarding to see it, and the backdrops make excellent photographs in the early morning and late afternoon light, when the pastel shades glow. From ragged mountain ridges, to sandy plains dotted with bushes or tufts of grass, the landscapes are postcard porn. Boating or canoeing on the Kunene, and putting a cheeky foot or two on Angolan soil is a bonus. Kaokoland is also the place from where the Skeleton Coast can be experienced in the most depth, if staying at one of the up-market lodges , like Shipwreck and Hoanib Valley Lodge.

Self-driving in the far north is for the intrepid, experienced, and prepared only. There is no cell phone coverage in most parts, and very few to no passing vehicles, depending where you are. Some of the routes involved driving through thick sand, navigating with a mix of GPS and dead-reckoning. It is possible to drive part of way, and then make use of a lodge transfer service or light aircraft for the final leg.
 
My final favourite place is also the last on a classic circuit, Okonjima Game Reserve, halfway between Windhoek and the Etosha National Park; only a two-and-a-half-hour drive or a brief flight into the reserve’s private airstrip. At the end of a trip, it’s a great last stop to give yourself the best chance of having a good encounter or two with leopard and cheetah, and potentially brown hyaena and pangolin, as well as the in-house patients of the AfriCat Foundation.

Too far west to be East Africa, too far north to be southern Africa, and not quite central Africa either, Zambia is not only a geographical anomaly when it comes to safari destinations, but also very different in other aspects too.
​
You may have heard of its reputation as the birthplace of walking safaris, or the adventure capital of southern Africa with Victoria Falls, or its excellent guides, the best on the continent, along with their colleagues in Zimbabwe. Compared to South Africa, Botswana, and Kenya, the lodges are generally more outdoorsy and authentic (a number of the seasonal camps are rebuilt every season), though there are some opulent options too. And compared to these wildlife tourism hotspots, Zambia has remained largely off the radar, for no good reason. It's my favourite safari destination, no doubt partly because of the lack of tourists in most of the parks, but also for the variety of habitats, the diversity of activities, the abundance of wildlife, and the quality of the guiding. 

Access is usually into the international airports at Lusaka or Livingstone, often via Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, or Dubai. The usual way to get around the various key locations is by light aircraft.

​Whilst Livingstone has one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls are immensely popular, the rest of Zambia has long since been something of a secret backwater. Despite being host to superb safari, arguably some of the best, visitor numbers remain low. Yet those to do make the effort to get here are rewarded with rare levels of intimacy and authenticity, often falling in love and returning time and again.
 
Lusaka, the capital, sits in the middle of the country, more or less. At seven o’clock, in the south, Livingstone and Victoria Falls have a wide range of activities, and a good mix of hotels, guesthouses, and safari lodge style places to stay. From chopper rides down the gorges and over the falls, microlight flights, rhino tracking on foot, bungy jumping, white water rafting the rapids downstream, or more sedate canoeing upstream, sundowner G&T cruises with sumptuous nibbles, there is plenty to keep visitors occupied. Oh, and you can also walk opposite the widest single sheet of falling water in the world. 

​The most frequented safari area is South Luangwa National Park, way over in the east of the country, up at two o’clock. South Luangwa has a range of lodges and bush camps, and it was here that Norman Carr pioneered the walking safari back in the fifties (watch the video below to hear about his legacy). Most of the lodges don’t have the same level of sophistication as the top lodges in neighbouring Tanzania, Kenya, or the safari mecca of South Africa, but the wildlife experience, thanks in part to the excellent guiding standards here, is top-notch.
 
Add to that the picturesque floodplains, the lovely Luangwa River, and you get my personal favourite location for a green season safari, and in my top five over all. You can choose from classic 4x4 game-watching, day or night, half-day walks, walking between camps, a combination of walking and driving, or, between December and April, boat-based game-viewing too. South Luangwa is very strong for cat sightings, and the usually elusive leopard is a common sighting here. I’ve seen at least one on almost every day I’ve spent there, and on one three-night trip, 2 lion kills and a leopard kill.
 
My beloved Wild dogs are also well-established here, and some of my favourite Wild dog sightings are from South Luangwa. Watching them mess around with Zebra one sunset, and give the run around to an elephant mum and calf at a waterhole one afternoon were endearing moments.  Access is via scheduled flights to Mfuwe.

Another top safari area is Kafue, at nine o’clock from Lusaka, a huge and little-visited reserve well worth considering. The size of Wales, it’s a magical landscape but one that receives substantially less attention than both the Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa. The wildlife viewing isn’t as abundant, but few places can match them, however with a little bit of patience and an appreciation of beauty and solitude, Kafue can be ideal. In actual fact, the park has a larger variety of species than anywhere else in Zambia, including cheetah, sable antelope and the elusive roan antelope, and it’s the only area where hot air ballooning is possible. With a mix of forests, plains, savannah, and the Kafue River, canoeing and boating are on the menu alongside day and night drives and walking. Out to the west, Busanga Plains attract huge herds of plains game from July to November. Other parts of the park are open year-round. 

​For those seeking more solitude and a step back in time, North Luangwa, with a focus on walking safari, might be your cup of chai. 50% bigger than Luxembourg, with just three small camps, including three-tent Mwaleshi, and two-chalet Takwela, located at the honey pot; the junction of the Mwaleshi River with the Luangwa River. The lion along the Mwaleshi River are known for their confidence and walking safaris can get great views, you will feel like a true explorer of old. Open only in the dry season between June and October, there are very few vehicle tracks, though more are being created to enhance the variety of game-drive areas. With enormous herds of buffalo, ever-present predators, remarkable birdlife, the rare Cookson’s wildebeest, and few human visitors, North Luangwa is one for the safari purists’ list.

​At just 254 km², Luambe is one of Zambia’s smallest national parks. Situated on the eastern bank of the Luangwa it lies in the heart of the Luangwa valley between North and South Luangwa national parks. The park was declared in 1938 making it one of the oldest conservation areas in Zambia.
The wildlife found in Luambe is similar to that of its larger neighbouring parks and includes all the typical large herbivores, carnivores as well as some less well-known species, but they are generally present at lower densities than in the bigger parks. The advantage of Luambe is visitor density. With one small losge, you will have the place essentially to yourself.
Habitat diversity in Luambe National Park is enormous and within a few kilometres the vegetation ranges from riverine forest, cathedral mopane woodland, floodplain acacia thickets to the sausage tree-dotted open grasslands of the Chipuka plains.
There are over 200 species of bird in Luambe and elephant populations as well as those of lion and leopard are said to be on the increase – so it’s well worth visiting now before everyone else catches on. From the south it’s a three to four-hour drive from Mfuwe on dirt road through the Nsefu sector of South Luangwa National Park. From Lundazi it’s a three-hour drive on dirt road to Luambe’s northern entrance making it easy to combine with either or both of its neighbours.

So, there you have Zambia, in a nutshell. Loads to do, not enough time to do it all. So if you want to go, have a read of our Zambia pages here and check out some of the sample itineraries we have, or drop us a line here.
It’s not a budget safari destination though, so if you are on a tight budget, check out our African safari specials to other countries here

The Kruger, possibly the best-known safari destination in the world, synonymous with safari. Established in 1898, The Greater Kruger Park extends over some 22,000 square km (8,500 sq. miles). That’s the size of Wales if you are European, and Massachusetts if you are North American. (If you are neither, it’s flippin’ big).  It supports a total of 500 bird species, 145 mammal species, and 110 reptile species, including an estimated 13,000 elephants, 40,000 buffalo, 2000 lions and more rhinos than any other protected area. We aren’t allowed to say how many, but it is lots and lots. The only decent wildlife reserve with a higher density of rhino is Hluhluwe-Imfolozi in KwaZulu-Natal.
 
What's the difference between the Greater Kruger Park and Kruger National Park?
 The Greater Kruger Park is comprised of the Kruger National Park (KNP) and a number of private reserves next to the KNP. The fences between the private reserves and the KNP came down 23 years ago allowing the animals to move freely..
 
The KNP is managed by Sanparks, a government-run organisation, and covers about 80% of the total area. Tarmac roads run through the middle of it, there are numerous large rest camps, of which at least half a dozen have over 100 one to four-bedroom units, camping sites, and fast food restaurants catering to self-drive clients. The private reserves are managed by groups made up of small lodges and camps. Many lodges and camps only have between six and twelve one-bedroom chalets or luxury tents. No self-driving is permitted, there are no tarmac roads, and vehicle movements are carefully managed.
 
From a fauna and flora point-of-view, there there is not much difference. The parks are next to each other and there are no fences between them, so the animals and birds who call the area home can roam freely, and are found in both. In saying that, however, the area is large, so habitats differ and of course animals gravitate toward whichever habitat is best for them. Some areas are better known for their leopard sightings, others for elephant, and so on.

From the end of February to the middle of March, I spent three weeks on St Helena escorting three groups of divers and snorkellers to one of the remotest permanently inhabited islands in the world. Although my third visit, and my longest, in three years, the island continues to enchant with its mix of history, stunning and varied landscapes, endemic and iconic fish life, and friendly village atmosphere. 

Dinners at the Mantis Hotel were as popular as ever, and I got the chef to concoct “Saintviche”, a local derivative of the South American fish dish, Ceviche. Getting coriander is almost impossible, there is little local agriculture, despite the island’s temperate climate with good rainfall, as the steep terrain makes mechanised farming impossible. Lime is also not commonly imported, so we used lemon, grapefruit, mint, parsley and some just-caught tuna. The result was universally popular, and hopefully it will be added to the menu on the next update. Fresh fish is abundant, yellowfin and skipjack tuna and wahoo are the most common, and we also sampled Soldierfish, Bullseyes, and Grouper at Annie’s. I also bought some fresh spiny and slipper lobsters from our excellent skipper, Duffy, and had them grilled at Annie’s. All in, the lobster dinner cost us £11 for two half lobsters, salads, and chips.
 
Next year’s trips are filling up already, so if you want to join, don’t dally. We have a budget week in self-catering accommodation five minutes from town, and a week in the Mantis Hotel in the heart of Jamestown, that can be found here. We also create bespoke itineraries tailored to your requirements any time of year. ​

We moved off the islands to the mainland, and had a night to check out the beautiful boutique retreat called Santorini, 12 kilometres from Vilanculos. With just five suites in the main villa and lots of lounges and salas to chill in, it is a great place for couples to relax and unwind after a safari. There are also 2 private 2-bedroom villas available, Villa da Praia and The Chapel.
​The villas sit on a hilltop, looking out over Kingfisher Bay, deserted beach as far as you can see, the island of Benguerra on the horizon, a few dhows sailing across the bay.
​Activities include SUP, kayak, sun downer cruises, snorkelling and visiting the islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago, catamaran cruises, and fishing. Scuba diving can be arranged, Fat tire bikes will be available soon. Or you can just relax with a book and let your butler bring you a glass of wine.

&Beyond Benguerra Island is a mix of classic chic in the spacious and beautifully appointed 'casinhas" and simple safari elegance with it's dhow bar on the beach, evening beach dining by paraffin lantern light, and star-gazing around the fire. 
The casinhas all have their own infinity pool, shaded outdoor lounge on a private deck, beach loungers, and a shaded outdoor double bed swing. The food was absolutely top-notch, Ines' vegetarian needs were deliciously catered for, and our butler Gilario was charming and on the ball. For our last meal they set up a private beach lunch on the wild side of the island, at the foot of the Red Dune, and we had as far as we could see of the 11k of coastline to ourselves. 

Some images from our stst at Azura Retreat Benguerra Island, our current location on a 7-week recce across southern Africa.
Azura prides itself on its cuisine, and rightly so, it is delicious. We have a butler called Jonas assigned to look after us when we are not checking out the marine life.
​This barefoot luxury resort has been built with local materials, by 450 subsitence fishermen islanders trained by rhe resort in building techniques, from making the bricks, raising the roofs, and crafting the furniture. The resort now employs 100 locals, has built a primary school for 400 kids, sponsors secondary school education for island kids on thr mainland, and has just built the island's first clinic all through the Azura Rainbow Fund.