A Safari Lodge Manager Can’t Be Perfect

Think before you write a bad lodge review
Imagine an idyllic, ten bedded lodge in the African wilderness. Before you booked your safari you might have seen images of the accommodation and you have seen pictures of the game drive vehicle. You probably also have seen photos of the food that gets presented. All in all [...]

Get Off On A Flying Start On Safari: Meet The Birds

Feathered doesn’t mean boring.
On average not a hell of a lot of people are interested in birds when they start their safari and unfortunately it is always the Big 5 that seem to take centre stage. You as a tourist will quickly find out that if you only have to rely on the Big 5, [...]

What You Can’t Do If You Depend On Tourism

Overlooking the direction where the money is coming from!
Price hikes of safaris
Last month it was announced that the VAT in Botswana gets raised from 10% to 12%. Still not bad if you live in a country where one pays 19%. Yet, there is an outcry from the international tourism industry about this announcement by the [...]

The Biggest Complaint During and After A Safari: Food

If you think you gonna lose weight, forget it.
Food. Not only is food a necessity in our lives, it is also something that we seem to be most worried about when we are to book a safari. Images of starvation and death unfortunately still reflect the general state of Africa and this is most likely [...]

PlanYourSafari Updates

It is the first of March and today I am going to make someone happy!
A while back it was announced that ‘a canvas image of your choice’ could be won amongst the subscribers of the PlanYourSafari blog.
It is my pleasure to announce that Melody Rutkowski from the USA has won the draw and that she [...]

Strangling The Safari Industry In Botswana

Environment should bring safari parties together
This morning I read an article about the tourism company &Beyond opening a semi-permanent camp in the Moremi Game Reserve. Big deal I hear you thinking. But hang on, there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye.
Moremi Game Reserve receives three different kind of guest: Those [...]

Safari Insurance Not Always An Assurance

There is a snake in the grass and I show you where!
If you book your safari through a travel-agent or tour-operator, the chances are almost 100% that insurances come up. Not in the first place because your travel advisor wants you to return in one piece, but more because they get a very nice piece [...]

Ticking It Off On Safari

Bird-and mammal checklists
Checklists can be found everywhere. In the room of your safari accommodation to the game drive vehicle that takes you out on safari. Most of the time these pieces of paper are need and clean, sometimes they are wrinkled and greasy from having been opened but not used. What is this obsession with [...]

What Is … A Bum Shot?

And how to avoid it
Numerous times I have seen it with people who for the first time enter the African wilderness: The contagious excitement when they encounter their first wildlife…. and the fierce battle for their cameras that follows.
Even when you tell them to keep cameras at hand, those things always seem to be in [...]

21 Non-Wildlife Related Questions For Safari Guides

Getting more value out of your Africa trip
When venturing out into the African bush, all eyes and ears are focused on detecting wildlife.
Most of the time you will indeed see species that were on your wish list or you see interaction that normally only occurs on your TV screen. But on every safari there will [...]

How Safe Is Africa?

One country is not the other
During a recent twitterview between Melvin Boecher of TravelDudes and Michael Thys from Africafreak.com, a person that followed the conversation asked ‘whether it is safe to travel to Africa’.
Our perception
We can’t deny the fact that AFRICA is often in the news and that this news does not always deserve the [...]

Doing Wrong By Being Generous

A habit that is hard to beat
When going on safari and traveling to Africa, it is nearly impossible to avoid poverty and seeing some misery. Since you just left the wealthy part of the globe, being confronted with adults dressed in rags and kids begging for money can be heart wrenching. It is therefore absolutely [...]

Making Love Under African Skies

11 Ultimate heartbeat accelerators of the wild
If you happen to be in love, want to spoil your partner and you have plenty of dough to afford it, than have a look at the following love-nests that can be found in the African bush.
Since I know that most blogposts are being read during working hours and [...]

10 African Capitals And Their Closest Wildlife

For the fast and furious
Not all of us have (or take) the time to visit the more remote national parks when visiting Africa. Time constraint can be one reason, but still wanting to see game but not for days on end, can be another. Even financial restrictions are a valid excuse.
I have therefore compiled a [...]

The Aardvark

Needless to say that quite a few ‘Unusual African Animals’ are nocturnal (active at night). Today I put the Aardvark in the spotlight. To read about all other animals in this series you can click here.
There are mammals that I have never seen in the wild, like for instance the gorillas and some localized antelope [...]

Steve Bailey’s Journey To Kgalagadi (Day 7 and last day)

To see all previous days of Steve’s journey you can click here!
The last night, sitting on the verandah at Mata Mata Tented camp I took this long exposure capture of the Kgalagadi night.

We woke early, no festive thoughts; today we drive south and out of the park. Nothing of great interest as we drove slowly, [...]

When Safari Websites Fail To Deliver

How to bridge the gap for Africans?
Yesterday morning a young man from Botswana contacted me through the Skype button on my homepage. Nelson, which I met a couple of times some years back, had found my safari blog, and was in desperate need of some help.
His request was if I could help him increase the [...]

Is Africa A Millionaire’s Playground?

The billionaire
An online friend of mine who is the proud owner of a company that specializes in upmarket-safaris, recently made an entry on one of the social media sites about a billionaire coming to see her for his next trip. Her entry made me start to think (yes, sometimes even I do that!).
Why did she [...]

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