For choosing the right safari

Safari expe­ri­ence

A safari is not just a hol­i­day. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime expe­ri­ence, a way for peo­ple caught up in the non-stop pres­sures of mod­ern life to take a step back and redis­cover a part of them­selves they have lost touch with. Safari has taken on almost mys­ti­cal spir­i­tual dimen­sion. It’s a con­di­tion of mind, a lifestyle, an atti­tude … It strip away all the unnec­es­sary stresses of life and bring us to the stark real­iza­tion than in a hos­tile envi­ron­ment, all the trap­pings of civil­i­sa­tion are use­less to pro­tect us. Since safaris are about watch­ing ani­mals, rather than hunt­ing them, this activ­ity has become more an obser­va­tion, a search for one­self. Each safari is a new story, unique and incom­pa­ra­ble. It dif­fers not only from one coun­try to another, from one sub­ject to another, but from one day to another. It’s always a new world that comes to life. So, we should talk about safaris only in the plural. Some tourists now go on safari expect­ing to see wildlife in the same Con­tinue read­ing

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An Immersion in the Wilderness

A camp in the mid­dle of wildlife 

Hwange Safari Camp is located north of the wildlife reserve hav­ing the same name, four hours drive from Vic­to­ria Zam­bezi Falls. Hwange Nature Reserve is part of the colos­sal project of “Kruger Park Trand­fontier” extend­ing from Kruger Park in South Africa to the Luangwa Val­ley in Zam­bia. Located around a water hole, half nat­ural, half arti­fi­cial, Hwange Safari Camp is one of the few camps offer­ing very close prox­im­ity with nature. No fence sep­a­rates from wildlife. Also it is quite usual that dur­ing the night, hye­nas, leop­ards, lions, buf­faloes and ele­phants come prowl­ing around the eight smalls houses that com­prise the camp. For­tu­nately, doors close very well! And it is a unique and intense plea­sure to hear, from the con­fort of his cozy bed, all the sounds of the savan­nah. Iso­lated on a pri­vate con­ces­sion, Hwange Safari Camp can enjoy the thrill of safari [with­out other vehi­cles dis­turb the feel­ing of immer­sion in the bush]. The camp also offers the unique oppor­tu­nity to go by foot, with qual­i­fied and expe­ri­enced rangers [Zim­bab­wean rangers are rec­og­nized to be the most pro­fi­cient in all of Africa], to approach the ele­phants or lions can be. We’re here, far from orga­nized safaris as pro­posed, most of the time, Kenya, Tan­za­nia and also South Africa. We are nature’s most authen­tic as we can still find in Zam­bia and some­times also in Botswana. For more infor­ma­tion about Camp Hwange: www.makila.fr

Un camp au milieu de la vie sauvage

Le camp de HWANGE se situe au nord de la réserve naturelle du même nom, à qua­tre heures de route des chutes du Zam­bèze de Vic­to­ria. La réserve naturelle de Hwange fait par­tie du colos­sal pro­jet de Park Trand­fontier allant du Kruger en Afrique du Sud à la Luangwa Val­ley en Zam­bie. Implanté autour d’un trou d’eau mi naturel, mi arti­fi­ciel, le camp de HWANGE fait par­tie des rares camps à offrir une prox­im­ité immé­di­ate avec la nature. Aucune bar­rière ne le sépare de la vie sauvage. Aussi il est courant que durant la nuit, des hyènes, des léopards, des lions, des buf­fles ou des éléphants vien­nent rôder autour des huit habi­ta­tions que com­prend le camp. Heureuse­ment les por­tent fer­ment bien ! Et c’est un plaisir intense et unique d’entendre, du fond de son lit douil­let, tous les bruits de la savane. Isolé sur une con­ces­sion privée, le camp de HWANGE per­met de goûter aux joies du safari [sans que d’autres véhicules vien­nent trou­bler l’impression d’immersion dans le bush]. Il offre aussi la pos­si­bil­ité excep­tion­nelle de par­tir à pied, avec des rangers diplômés et expéri­men­tés [les rangers zim­bab­wéens sont recon­nus comme les plus com­pé­tant de toute l’Afrique], pour approcher les éléphants ou peut être les lions. Nous sommes loin ici des safaris organ­isés comme le pro­posent la plus part du temps, le Kenya, la Tan­zanie ou l’Afrique du Sud. Nous sommes dans la nature la plus authen­tique telle qu’on peut encore la vivre aussi en Zam­bie et quelque­fois au Botswana. Pour plus d’information à pro­pos de Hwange Camp : www.makila.fr

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Deadly Drought in Zimbabwe-5

Good time for predators

Once more, we were faced with the inevitabil­ity of events. A few hun­dred meters from the camp, alerted by a group of vul­tures, we dis­cov­ered the car­cass of a young ele­phant, about three years old, it was one that we had res­cued from the sludge few days pre­vi­ously. He had spent the last few days feed­ing around the camp as if had found a safe haven. Hye­nas had killed him dur­ing the night. A few miles away, near the road­side, some thirty lions jos­tled around the car­cass of an adult ele­phant. The dif­fer­ence is, where lions kill their prey more often directly, hye­nas sim­ply devour them with­out wor­ries whether they are still alive or not. Con­tinue read­ing

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