Safaris So Good! Six Amazing Destinations for an African Adventure
Eastern Africa is vast almost beyond imagination, comprising millions of square miles of territory. You won’t cover it in a day trip!
Given the enormity of this part of the continent, and its breathtaking diversity of flora, fauna and topography, how do you explore it?
That depends, of course, on what you’re seeking to explore. But for most Road Scholar participants, the goals are to observe the incredible (and increasingly endangered) wildlife, to explore the natural wonders and World Heritage Ssites that abound here, and to learn about the people and the cultures that call the region home.
We’ll focus on six, spread across four countries — Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. In these places, you’ll encounter nature on an epic scale and have some simply unforgettable experiences.
Okavango Delta, Botswana
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta in northern Botswana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, as declared in 2013. Known as “Africa’s Eden,” it is created by annual spring flooding of the Okavango River, covering about 5 million acres.
The delta is home to tremendously varied fauna, including the “Big Five” — lions, leopards, Cape buffalo, elephants and rhinoceroses — as well as giraffes, cheetahs, hippos, antelope and over 400 species of birds. According to Scientific American, the delta is also where recent (and hotly debated) studies suggest that modern humans quite possibly originated.
Chobe National Park
East of the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, too, is home to elephants — a lot of them. Numbering over 100,000 by most estimates, the elephants coexist uneasily with lions — also numerous — who hunt their calves and juveniles. Zebras, giraffes, hyenas, all manner of antelope and other mammals share the space, along with crocodiles and an astounding variety of bird species. Chobe has four distinct ecosystems, making it one of the only parks in Africa where both land-based and water-based safaris are possible.
Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls
About an hour north of Chobe, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, lies “the smoke that thunders.” That’s the Bantu name for incredible Victoria Falls, so called because of the heavy mist that rises — sometimes more than 1,000 feet in the air — from the gorge where the Zambezi River concludes its plunge. The sound of the falls can be heard from as far as 25 miles away. Water flows over it at a hard-to-imagine 130-million-plus gallons a minute!
Lower Zambezi National Park
This exceptional, remote park — part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is one of the few untouched areas left in Africa. That’s largely due to its interesting history. Prior to being designated a national park in 1983, it had been the private game reserve of the Zambian president. Visitors today can see elephants roaming the floodplain, along with Cape buffalo, hippos, lions and leopards.
Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Amboseli National Park
If you’ve ever been impressed by the iconic photos of elephants grazing beneath majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, imagine what it’s like to be there in person! Amboseli National Park in Kenya has breathtaking views of the mountain, and while you’re looking up, you’ll likely also see a good representation of the 600 bird species that call Amboseli home. As for elephants, the large herds make sightings virtually guaranteed, and all the other usual suspects — hippos, lions, impala, cheetahs, zebras, etc. — are also present in abundance.
Maasai Mara National Reserve
Maasai Mara, in addition to being home to elephants and a variety of big cats, also holds the distinction of hosting the annual Great Migration, yet another of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa. This incredible spectacle involves some 1,300,000 blue wildebeest, 200,000 zebras, and hundreds of thousands of antelope. And while the larger mammals get most of the press, smaller species also proliferate year-round, including such exotic creatures as aardwolves, honey badgers, jackals, weasels, servals and more, not to mention avians like the enormous Secretary bird.
In an immense region of an immense continent, those are six places you can see Africa’s wonders. Any one of them would mark the adventure of a lifetime, and Road Scholar can take you. In fact, if you’re up for adventure on a truly epic scale, you can have the remarkable experience of exploring all these places on a single journey. Our Iconic Africa: Journey Across Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia & Kenya program uses a series of strategic flights to crisscross this vast expanse efficiently over the course of three weeks. Are you ready?