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From Away.com

A Safari Primer


By David Noland

The term "safari" is a broad one; essentially it means any activity in which you move about in search of animals (thankfully, the shooting part has morphed into shooting pictures, although forms of hunting do still exist). A safari can range from sinfully luxurious and totally sedentary to primitive, exhausting, and a bit scary. Here's a rundown of the various varieties of big-game safaris available in Africa.

Lodge Safari
By far the most popular style of safari among African visitors, a lodge safari is a stay at a permanent lodge or tented base camp, with daily game drives into the bush by minivan or Land Rover. There are literally hundreds of game lodges all over southern and East Africa, each with its own program of animal-watching excursions by vehicle, either in an enclosed minibus/Land Rover or a smaller open vehicle. A few lodges may also offer walking safaris and the other styles of safari listed below, but the bedrock activity of any African safari lodge is the game drive. A lodge safari is okay for a sedentary person or first-time visitor to Africa, but more active, adventurous people will almost certainly prefer one of the following.



Mobile Tented-Camp Safari
Instead of staying in a permanent lodge, you'll sleep in large stand-up tents and move from place to place each night or two. Obviously, this requires portable tents, but the level of luxury can still be ridiculously high--huge, multi-room, stand-up tents, with private shower and toilet, sterling silver tableware, waiters keeping your wineglass filled. More typically, there is a communal shower and toilet tent, but the food and service is still very good. Mobile safaris get you off the beaten path, away from the lodge vehicles, which tend to do standard loops, and make close encounters with game--an elephant strolling through camp, a lion roaring in the night just outside your tent--much more likely. Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Botswana are the best countries for the luxuries of camping out.

Walking Safari
Cooped up in a minibus, peering through a window or out of a roof hatch is still wondrous, but you are a mere spectator to the big game action. On a walking safari, you step up onto the stage with the main players. Although you'll probably see fewer animals--vehicles have the speed and instant mobility to chase down the game--the immediacy and excitement of walking among the beasts will more than make up for it. On foot, a mere rustling in the bushes triggers more excitement and adrenaline than a close-up sighting from the safety of a vehicle. Moreover, silent and fumeless, you'll often be able to sneak up closer to wildlife before it knows you're there.

Walking safaris can be taken from either permanent bush camps, or, better yet, mobile-tented camps. In either case, you will always be accompanied by a guide and armed guard. Zambia and Zimbabwe are the birthplaces of the walking safari, and are still the best places for them. In East Africa, many of the popular parks--the Serengeti, for example--prohibit walking safaris, but a few private game areas offer them.

Canoe Safari
Water is the magnet that attracts animals in Africa; sometimes the best way to see them up close is to take to the water yourself. There's also the excitement of close encounters with crocodiles and hippos in their native element. The Zambezi River, which runs along the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, is Africa's hotbed of nautical safaris. Canoe trips are a staple of the Lower Zambezi, especially in Mana Pools National Park. (Kayaks are typically used upstream from Victoria Falls.) Trips run from one to 10 days. Some canoe/kayak trips are supported by land vehicles, others--necessarily more Spartan--are self-sufficient. In a few places--the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Rufiji River in Tanzania--day safari trips in multi-passenger powerboats are available. And on Lake Kariba, formed by a dam on the Lower Zambezi, you can search for wildlife on a houseboat or even on a live-aboard sailing catamaran.

Elephant-Back Safari
Once available only in India, Thailand, and Nepal on small Asian elephants, the elephant-back safari was introduced to Africa in the early 1990s by American elephant trainer Randall Moore. Moore opened a luxurious base camp in the Okavango Delta with four adult African elephants that can be ridden, plus a "brat pack" of babies and adolescents that tag along on safari outings. Elephants make superb safari vehicles, with great visibility and unfailing traction in the Okavango swamps. And you'll see lots of wildlife. But it's the interaction with the elephants that most guests remember. Moore's operation is such a success that it has spawned a couple of imitators in Zimbabwe.

Horseback Safari
Not quite as exotic but much more practical is the horseback safari, which combines the advantages of Land Rovers (speed and mobility to search out animals) and walking safaris (immediacy and stealth). An American company, Equitour, runs five to 10-day horseback trips in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Day riding is available at a few places in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Kenya.

Hot-Air Balloon Safari
A fun accent to a stay in the Serengeti or Masai Mara is an hour-long float above the vast herds in a hot-air balloon. The balloon has the advantage of being quiet (except for the intermittent roar of the propane burner) and mobile, although you follow the whims of the wind rather than the animals. A couple of places in southern Africa offer balloon safaris as well.

Gorilla Safari
The gorillas of central Africa's Virunga Mountains, made famous by Dian Fossey, can be seen up close by hikers willing to tromp through dense underbrush for several hours in pursuit. The one-day excursions are currently available only in Uganda's Bwindi Forest, which has recently reopened after an attack by Zairian rebels killed a number of tourists there. (Rwanda's war has made trips there inadvisable.) Gorilla-watching trips are expensive and must be booked well in advance. But for many people, squatting quietly a few feet away from a mountain gorilla is the ultimate wildlife experience.



David Noland is a full-time professional freelance writer specializing in adventure travel, sports, and science. His book, Travels Along the Edge, published in 1997 by Vintage Books, is now in its fourth printing.