As many of you knew, I was tentatively planning on heading out to Africa for a 14-day safari with a friend of the site, Dan of Grass Track Safaris, but the timing ended up not working out so I had to go it alone. Anyway, Dan got back safely from the continent and had some time to put together some footage of what I missed out on. (He’s also beaten me to the punch by at least a few weeks regarding an Africa travel video.)

This clip follows the group as they head from Victoria Falls, through Chobe, and into the Okavango Delta. As far as wildlife goes, I have to say I’m especially jealous of the fact that there’s not one but two shots of leopard (1:25 and 2:30) in the vid (I had zero on my safari).

Also, nice choice of Amadou & Mariam for the music in the background, by far my favorite blind duo musical act from Mali, and I don’t say that very often.

With over 21 public reserves within its borders (not to mention the scores of others located in bordering Mozambique and Botswana), safariing in South Africa can be both accessible and affordable, you just need to know where to go.

The Sydney Morning Herald names their three top spots for game-watching and nature-gawking on the cheap.

1) Kruger: Home to the Big Five, Kruger is by far the country’s biggest park and has 12 camps spread about for you to crash in after a long day of hippo-watching. (That should be their motto, what do you think?)

2) Addo Elephant National Park: One of the only parks in the country where you have the chance to glimpse southern right whales and great white sharks, tents can be had in this Eastern Cape preserve.

3) Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: Emsbok (a big desert antelope) can be seen in this park located in the Kalahari; cabins running on solar energy are only natural in this desert outpost.

Perhaps the biggest barrier for those looking to go on safari is price, but there are options that are a fraction of your typical luxury promoters, like the bare-bones, camping-heavy trek taken in this Telegraph article. And don’t think you’re missing much by way of experience, as Victoria recounts:

Woken at 6am by my companions, I unzipped my tent to find Kilimanjaro standing majestically against a blue sky without a cloud in sight. A bucket of hot water had been left outside my tent for a quick wash before a full English breakfast. Then it was off to the Amboseli National Park and a day spent viewing herds of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and more against a sublime backdrop.

This morning I ate a bowl of Grape-Nuts while my excessively hairy neighbor hosed down his sidewalk while standing majestically against a backdrop of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s these memories we’ll cherish forever.

Companies like Porini Ecotourism even take an activist role in helping rural communities create conservation areas with proceeds from such trips. For more ideas on other ecotourism operators around Africa check out this link.

South Africa’s Kapama Lodge looks amazing, it just seems way out of my (and probably most people’s) price range, though this article over at GoNomad makes you kind of want to just forget about money and go anyway.

However, as noted in the article, the lodge is a private reserve, located next to the far larger, much more open Kruger National Park, which, on its website, reminds safarigoers that the “optimum safari season usually includes winter (May-August) and the hot spring months of September and October. The climate is comfortable in the dry winter months of May, June, July and August. Daytime temperatures are mild and the nights get a little cool.”

Looking for somewhere to stay? Well, how many trips have you had the chance to sleep in a hut? Well you can do it in Kruger, check out these great opportunities here. Or if you’re one of those snooty types, you can upgrade to a bungalow. Oh yeah, now you’re living the life of luxury.

On Safari in Tanzania means nights spent listening to lions and leopards growling as you go to bed, watching the annual 700-mile pilgrimage of 1.5 million wildebeest and zebra through the southern part of the country, and perhaps the rare occasion when you find yourself stuck in your vehicle during a thunderstorm whiteout with the fear that you’re going to be washed away and left as lunch for marauding jackals. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Penny experienced all this and more during her week-long safari spent sleeping in the bush in September, during the dry season (the best time to see wildlife but not the best time to see the the lush greens of the land associated with the wet season).

“Up to this point [before near death by way of rain], our eight-day safari through Tanzania had been exciting for all the right reasons: elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard, all up close and personal, surrounded by great swathes of bush inhabited by herds of zebra, wildebeest and giraffe.”

For an extensive list of safari operators, check out this good list I found, or for the budget traveler, check out GrassTrack Safaris run by my friend Dan who’s in the process of convincing me that it’s in my best interest to go myself (I’m having a hard time disagreeing).

Nestled against the eastern coastline of South Africa is Phinda Resource Reserve, a 57,000-acre reserve boasting the Big Five, 380 bird species and a coastline teeming with marine life.

The Independent Online has a great story of one woman’s trek into the bush to track down and catch a peek of one of the 50 rhinos that roam these grasslands. Apparently, to track rhino means you must be comfortable with both touching and smelling their feces, which is why I would probably never make it as a safari guide.

On safari in the Botswana bush in search of the elusive lion.

By Danielle Max

Modern hunters may shoot with cameras and not guns, but the adrenalin rush when the “prey” comes into view remains, as I discovered when I went in search of the elusive lion in Botswana. While elephants thrive in great numbers, I learned that spotting the big cats takes perseverance, endurance and, more than anything else, a whole lot of luck.

After nearly an hour of driving along rutted paths and seeing little more than a few birds and some wandering antelope — all of which I had nevertheless diligently ticked off in my safari guide: “Northern Botswana, Eastern Caprivi and Zambezi River” — Michael, my guide, finally saw what we’d been looking for. “Look, fresh lion tracks,” he said, leaning out of the side of our truck and pointing to the sandy road below. “Looks like they passed by here very recently.”

This was the final drive of my trip and it was exactly what I had come to Botswana to see. I rushed to the opposite side of the vehicle to study the footprints in the sand. While I, a mere novice, could barely make out the faded prints, an expert like Michael could read them as clearly as if following signs on a highway. After much patient gesticulating and pointing, we began to drive slowly forward and I followed the tracks as they made their way down the road. (more…)