Every moment we spend amongst wild animals is an adventure. Every Safari we embark on is full of promise and of danger. These traveller's have experienced their own epic safari adventures and kindly shared them with me. From being tipped out of a canoe by a hippo to watching a lion kill, I hope these safari stories inspire you to visit Kenya and experience the magic that is safari.
Leopard in South Luangwa National Park – Zambia
One of the main animals that I wanted to see while in Africa was a leopard. Although they live in several African countries, leopards are an elusive animal to spot. They are nocturnal, which makes seeing them difficult to see during the day when most game drives take place.
I decided to try my luck on a safari adventure at South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. It has the nickname ‘valley of the leopards’ due to its thriving leopard population. South Luangwa is also one of the few national parks in Africa that have game drives during the night, specifically for finding nocturnal wildlife.
I spent two days exploring South Luangwa National Park, going on two game drives a day. There were no leopards in sight the first day, until the last few minutes of our night time drive. I was feeling a bit disappointed after driving around for hours finding no leopards, then suddenly out of nowhere we saw one take down an impala. It was one of the most exciting wildlife encounters I've ever witnessed. The leopard proudly dragged his prey to the top of a tree where he could enjoy it.
During the next morning game drive, we returned to the site where the leopard had brought his prey. The impala was hanging over half-eaten, with optimistic hyenas patiently waiting below the tree. Nearby was the leopard, peacefully sleeping on the top of another tree, well-fed from the night before. I feel incredibly lucky to have witnessed such an epic safari experience, it's something I'll never forget.
Contributed by Lora Pope from Explore with Lora
BLOG: WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE A SELF DRIVE SAFARI IN KENYA
Elephant encounter – Okavango Delta in Botswana
Botswana is a country of people that pride themselves on the level of authentic safari adventure experiences they provide to the discerning traveller. So, while it is not the prime reason they don’t fence off their camps, the lack of fences does make for some pretty exciting wildlife encounters.
But firstly, it must be noted that animal wildlife in general does not care for us humans that much, as long as we respect and leave them alone. While I’ve always known this, it still gets me when I’m surprised by something as big as a 2 ton fully grown male African elephant standing close enough to me I could reach out and touch it.
It was one afternoon that I was standing on a small boat jetty at a camp in the middle of The Okavango Delta admiring the view when I heard some soft splashes nearby. As I turned to look where the noise was coming from, I soon realised it was from the above mentioned 2 ton gentle giant. He was on his way to graze inside in the camp, as most animals in the Okavango Delta frequently do at all the camps, but because I wasn’t seen as a threat he continued slowly on his way.
Now luckily I happened to have my camera in my hand, so I managed to take a quick discreet shot. But even without a camera, it’s memories like this that will stay with me forever, as a reminder that we can in fact live together in harmony with the rest of nature.
Contributed by: The Travelling Chilli
Photo safari adventure – Botswana
Chobe National Park in Botswana is known as one of the best safari adventure destinations in the world. It is home to the Big 5 and the largest elephant population in Africa. However, our photo safari ended up being much more about the smaller details.
After going on our fair share of traditional safari's in South Africa, we were eager to try something new at Chobe National Park. We didn’t want to speed through the park, ticking off wildlife encounters. Having already seen the Big Five, we were more interested in slowing things down so we decided to try out a photo safari.
As you may have guessed a photo safari focuses on getting the best pictures possible. Our safari operator, Pangolin Photo Safari, had a fully equipped boat with everything we needed to get great pictures like sandbags and gimbals for stabilising our cameras. We also had a photography guide to us with the right settings and snap the best shot.
Our photo safari ended up being less about chasing the big game, although we saw many of them, and more about slowing down and appreciating the beauty of the small encounters . It was an epic experience to spend time slowly observing the animals, looking for the best light, and shooting the big picture as well as the small details of every animal.
We had never been on a safari like this before but now that we have we can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in photography or a different safari experience.
Contributed by sustainable travel bloggers Oksana & Max from Drink Tea & Travel. Follow their adventures around the world on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Hippo Ahead! – Malawi
We visited Malawi during an overland trip through Africa in 2010. Safari adventure tourism hadn’t really taken off in Malawi, unlike some of the safaris we took in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana around the same time. We weren’t travelling with smartphones either so finding a reputable tour company was quite difficult.
We arrived in Liwonde National Park and the campsite we were staying at organised a canoe safari for us to spot elephants on the Shire River. We set off in high spirits, immediately spotting elephants and the odd hippo.
The guide in the canoe behind us, who seemed to be the more experienced of the two guides, suddenly shouted out to our guide. We had no idea what he was shouting about but then there was a bump and we were catapulted out of the canoe.
The moments that followed were a blur. We knew that there were crocodiles in the water as well as the hippo that had overturned our canoe so we were pretty scared. Local fishermen had seen the commotion and came over to help us out of the water and back into our canoe. As we paddled back to camp we realised how lucky we had been and how very different the situation could have been.
That wasn’t the most incredible part though. While we were drying out, we were asked to pay for the trip. We were still in shock but were even more shocked that we were still being asked to pay for the trip. We finally managed to negotiate a 50% reduction!
Despite this, we still love any type of safari and love to take the kids on safari, but we’re always aware that with wildlife, you need to expect the unexpected!
Contributed by The Flashpacking Family
The cutest elephant family – Sri Lanka
It was our second safari adventure in Sri Lanka, this time we were in Udawalawe National Park looking for elephants. Our jeep was driving for a couple of hours with no luck besides that one shy elephant hiding in bushes in the beginning. I started to feel tired but hoped that we will eventually see something that will make all of this anticipation worth it.
Finally, our driver took us to a small lake where he knew animals often come to bathe and hydrate themselves around that time. There were a lot of water buffalos casually chilling so we stopped and started taking photos. It was a cool experience by itself, seeing all those wild giants relax in the water and taking a bath together like a big family. But we came for elephants, and although cool and unique, this was not exactly what we hoped for.
As if they heard our hidden desires, suddenly a big mama-elephant came out from the trees with a small calf hiding between her legs. They started to drink water and totally ignored the jeep as if we were a part of their usual environment, like trees or those buffalos. We were mesmerized! This was more than we hoped for.
Taking a glimpse of a casual daily life of these huge mammals in their natural habitat was a truly unique experience we would never forget. How the mother used her trunk as a shower for both herself and the baby, how the little one came out from behind the mother's legs and started repeating what she was doing. Not many things in life can be cuter than this!
After they finished bathing, instead of going back to the trees they promenaded around the lake right where we stayed. This was like a bonus for us to remember this encounter! They walked just a few feet from our jeep and you can see our jeep's shadow on the picture. And then the curious baby elephant stopped to peek at us for a few seconds! This was an amazing memorable moment and a highlight of our whole trip to Sri Lanka.
Contributed by Juliet Dreamhunter from Live your dream TODAY
BLOG: VISIT ELEPHANTS IN KENYA – DAVID SHELDRICK TRUST
Lion Encounter safari adventure – South Africa
I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when I went out on a morning game drive on Amakhala Reserve in South Africa.
My guide had heard that a zebra kill had been made and so full of excitement we made our way to an area where a pride of lions was tucking into their meal.
Two lions were ripping the meat from the carcass while another female looked on waiting for her opportunity to feed. I was right in the middle of them and could hear bones being crunched and satisfied grunts coming from the lions.
They weren’t bothered that I was within almost touching distance of them, but I was worried they might see me as another course on the menu. Thankfully my guide assured me that while they were feeding, they were not bothered by my presence. They would see the jeep as a unit rather than us as individual bodies and would not bother attacking such a large object.
We stayed a while to observe their behaviour and then eventually returned to Quartermain’s Safari Camp, where I was staying, to spend the rest of the afternoon until we could return to the lions that evening.
Returning in the moonlight was an exciting experience. The lions were still feasting on the kill, but they seemed a lot sleepier than when we saw them in the morning, no doubt worn out from eating!
With the lights out on the jeep we sat very still and listened to the contented noises the lions were making; they had obviously enjoyed their banquet of zebra meat. It was an indescribable experience and a memory that will last with me forever.
Contributed by Angela Price from Where Angie Wanders
The Gathering at Minneriya – Sri Lanka
With poachers destroying elephant populations across the globe, its often the case that a trip to a national park to see these majestic beasts will only turn up a handful of the humble animals. Enter the Gathering at Minneriya, an altogether different experiences of elephants.
Tucked away in a corner of north-central Sri Lanka, the Minneriya National Park is nestled on the banks of the Minneriya reservoir, an ancient body of water built by a king over 1, 700 years ago. The park is actually relatively small but punches far above its weight when it comes to wildlife, teeming with spotted deer, lavender-faced monkeys and hundreds of birds including the grey heron and painted storks.
But its definitely the elephants that make this an epic safari experience. That’s since every year in the dry season, hundreds of elephants make the pilgrimage to this sacred site in an event known as ‘The Gathering’. It’s a spectacular wildlife spectacle: the herd of around 300 elephants moving softly through the grass as the sun starts to sink in the sky. The elephants are attracted to the reservoir where they spend time splashing about, drinking water and finding the fresh grass that has dried up in most other parts of Sri Lanka.
It’s said that there is nowhere else in the world that you can see such a huge herd of elephants converge into one place and its undoubtedly an incredible sight to witness: hundreds of elephants playfully racing to the water’s edge each day. Luckily, it’s relatively easy to find yourself witnessing this phenomenon, as The Gathering can be viewed most days in July and August, and done by simply renting a spot on one of the many jeeps departing from the park’s main gates each afternoon.
Contributed by James from The Travel Scribes
BLOG: EXPERIENCE WONDER AT THE GIRAFFE CENTRE IN NAIROBI
Safari adventures – Botswana
During 10 days I slept under the stars of Botswana, camping without fences in the most remote areas on a safari, and sharing the same space with wild animal. During this time, you can only imagine how many animals encounters I had, and some of them were really close experiences. One was with a hyena in the middle of the night.
Lying in my tent I heard the noise outside, and there she was, spying on me, and the funniest thing? With one of my sneakers in her mouth, which decided to take with her when she ran out in the middle of the night.
Another very close one was one day when I was washing the dinner dishes at my campsite, when a huge hippo crossed right in front of me, I just froze by this experience…it was really close!
Other experience was when I was cooking lunch at the shade of my tree at the campsite and a herd of elephants decided to go have some lunch too at my campsite, and it was gorgeous to be so close to them. And the most terrified one, was when I took a water safari in the Okavango Delta, our guide stopped the boat in the middle of the Hippo Lagoon to explain their aggressive behavior and for some photos, it was amazing as our boat was surrounded by 60 hippos. After a few minutes, he tried to start the boat without success. He had to call the rescue boat that took close to one hour to get to our isolated location – in cases like this when you are very close to wild animals, the best you can do is to remain calm and keep both eyes on your surroundings.
Wild camping at the safaris in Botswana offers endless possibilities to have epic animal encounters.
Contributed by Paula Martinelli from Paula Pins the Planet
Serengeti cheetah hunt – Tanzania
When we traveled to Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, in our wildest dreams, we couldn't have imagined seeing the most epic cheetah hunt! Thanks to our stellar guide, we saw dozens of incredible African animals. He is a true naturalist, perfectly in sync with the behavior and movements of everything around us.
On our drive, we happened upon a pair of cheetah brothers, Milk and Coffee, as they are called by the local biologists. Our keen guide knew based on their determinedness and slender bodies that they hadn't eaten in a while, and they'd be soon looking for prey. Content under the warm afternoon sun, we watched as the male cheetahs slowly made their way from the shade of one tree to the next, looking in the distance for their opportunity. After a few hours, that opportunity came. To our amazement, a horde of hundreds of wildebeest was headed right for the cheetahs. Milk and Coffee's luck couldn't have been better. Our incredible guide knew exactly the position to allow us to see the hunt head-on. And wow, was it a spectacular and humbling sight to watch the two brothers work together to take down a young wildebeest. We were grateful to the wildebeest for providing the cheetahs sustenance, particularly because cheetah numbers continue to dwindle throughout their entire range. With no one else in sight, we sat with the cheetahs, at a distance, and watched them eat their meal, just as the rain started to pour down. This experience is surely one I'll never forget.
Contributed by Christa Rolls at Expedition Wildlife
“Africa — You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the Hand of God. You watch the slope lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. In Africa, in the midday heart, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world.”
JOdi Picoult
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