Safari Recommendation? Anyone here done one?

B

Beancounter1980

Active member
Hi Guys,

I've booked off two weeks next July for a Safari jaunt with the missus.

My boss went to Kenya, and thought it was great. However, I gather Kruger Park is meant to be good also...

Budget is around £3k (i think) - tbh, i don't have the faintest idea how much it will cost! Still have to start my research.. :oops:

Is a Safari worth it? I took one year out and travelled the world in 2005. Loved it, but a Safari was never on the cards then.

However, i would not mind seeing a bunch of lions kill a wildebeest! :evil:
 
Kruger is now no longer a real park - it is now a case of a traffic jam of jeeps following eachother.

Kenya and Namibia are now the places to go, that is if you want to be semi- on your own rather then in an organised circus.
 
What kind of Safari are you looking for? Camera, Plains Game or the the Dangerous game? I priced a Plains safari for one person, It was up at a base price of about $6000 USD incl airfare from North America. That's without shooting anything. Plains game isn't too costly but the dangerous game gets you up there in a hurry. I have a couple of friends who have shot Cape's and various other things and the costs averaged about $10K by the time they were done( a few years ago). A girl at work has just been on her second Safari, she goes for the experience and the photos, her man goes to shoot stuff, I'll check out the costs for both Camera and Shooting today if she's in.

If you have any friends with connections in South Africa etc. it can be much more reasonable.

edit: she used these people twice and is looking at going again http://www.kukuzans.co.za/
I was going to go with these people but had to cancel due to Gf trouble http://www.lalapasafaris.co.za/
 
We did one in 2004. Flew into Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania and spent 6 days in the bush with just my wife and I and our driver. It was wonderful. Literally saw hundreds of thousands of animals. We went in Feb. and weather was perfect and many baby animals at that time of year. We used 2Afrika.com and they treated us great. Good luck....do it you'll love it!
 
Safari-wise. Just looking for a 10 day sight-seeing trip really. Want to see lions, rhinos, elephants etc. Maybe look at a few other locations and i hear there is a crater in Tanzania.

Don't really want to go shooting or anything.

We are going in July, I gather the migration is happening during this period. And there will be a high concentration of game in the Masai Mara,

I have a few close south african friends who live over there and they really rave about Botswana.

I want to see lions mainly!!!
 
I've seen the photos from 3 different camera safaris that friends went on, they were all incredible. You will love it. :thumbsup:
 
I surf safari all the time. I find it much better than firefox. Although I have to figure out why clicking the back button makes me return to the begiining of my browsing history.
 
pvr said:
Kruger is now no longer a real park - it is now a case of a traffic jam of jeeps following eachother.

Kenya and Namibia are now the places to go, that is if you want to be semi- on your own rather then in an organised circus.
Click to expand...

pvr, When were you in Kruger last and how many times have you been? Which rest camps do you usually stay in?

I go to Kruger National Park every year, my last visit was in October 2009. We saw lions five times during a nine day visit. We slept at Satara, Mopanie and Lower Sabie rest camps. Did not see any "jeep traffic jams" and have never seen any over the last 25 years. Saw at most 10 Jeeps during our stay - they are not really popular in South Africa. Or did you perhaps mean SUV traffic jams? Sorry, did not see those either.

Beancounter1980, the only thing to keep in mind if you plan to visit South Africa in 2010 is that the Soccer World Cup will be hosted here and you may wish to visit before or after that period. Should you wish to avoid Kruger and all those jeep traffic jams :roll: , there are many other game reserves where you can see the Big 5 and lots of other species. Most are very affordable and if you have a tent and are willing to camp you will spend GBP10 per night for a camp site. Chalets are probably between GBP50 and GBP100 per night, for two people, uncatered. Food is cheap in SA and you can get by on GBP10 per person per day if you buy and cook your own food. For GBP20 per person per day you can eat three meals in a restaurant. Red wine in a liquor store is GBP5 per bottle and in a restaurant twice that. You can however also spend four times this, if you feel like it - I can give you specific pointers on this subject later. :) Tip 10% on all meals. All the global car hire companies operate here - Avis, Budget, Europcar etc. Type the web address with ".co.za" at the end, so for example http://www.europcar.co.za A small car will cost you GBP20 per day and fuel is GBP 0.65 / litre. If you are "lucky", the hire car may even turn out to be a Golf I - which was still being manufactured and sold here until a couple of months ago. As you probably know, we drive on the correct side of the road (as opposed to the right side of the road).

For a really unique experience I recommend any of the Conservation Corporation private game reserves - all over Africa and now apparently in India too. Their website is http://www.andbeyond.com. But they are rather expensive and your budget mentioned above will only get you (roughly) 3 nights for 2 people at say Phinda Game Reserve, but fully catered including drinks and all your game drives. I did that over a weekend last month with the wife and three other couples and it was simply incredible.
 
I spent 4 days in Thornybush, South Africa:

http://www.thornybush.co.za/

Had an amazing time - a real once in a lifetime experience. They limit the jeeps to 2 per sighting so it doesn't get crowded didn't feel like a bun fight to see the animals as others have mentioned. Staff were great and the whole package was very well done. Can't recommend the lodge enough if it is in the right area/budget. Here's a snap from the trip:

_MG_3254.jpg


And some more here:

http://www.davidgowenlock.co.uk/galleries/safari-gallery

Feel free to send a PM if you have any Thornybush specific questions!
Dave
 
Honestly, I'd rather not be that close to an animal that is quite a ways higher on the food chain than I am.


Which is odd, because I do enjoy hiking/backpacking through woods. Of course the worse I've had to worry about was wolves/coyotes.
 
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