That is why I encourage you to go on safari today. If it’s your first safari, I recommend you go to the Masai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania. If you’ve done that classic safari, then you should consider a gorilla safari to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, or what I consider to be the best safari in the world, a safari to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, in the Moremi Reserve and Chilwero National Park.
Twice a year, around January and August, the migration crosses into the Masai Mara, which is the northern extension of the Serengeti Plains in Kenya. Here they cross the Mara River en masse, in one or two well-defined crossings.
Whereas the classic Serengeti safari is a magnificent experience, my favorite African safari is to the Okavango Delta of Botswana.
One of the great safari experiences is to watch the Great Migration as it crosses the Mara River.
And if you can’t go on safari to Africa, you might consider a wildlife safari to America’s incomparable wildlife reserve, Yellowstone National park. Here you can see wolf and bison, elk, moose and so many other North American wildlife in their natural habitats.
Hunting safaris were practically a necessity in the early days of African adventure travel. Back before mobile refrigeration, travelers across the African heartland had to shoot meat as they went in order to eat.
In September 2002, President El Hadj Omar Bongo announced that Gabon would set aside more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) of land to form a national park system protecting 13 separate parks. These parks represent some of the last pockets of true wilderness in Africa ... I should know, I traipsed through them for 2 years from 1981 to 1983. The parks will protect pristine rain forests, mangroves, savannas, ancient forests, lagoons, marshes, rivers, and canyons.
Safari is one of the great experiences a family can share. Where else can a grandfather and his grandson, a mother and a teenage son, or a father and daughter share the joy and wonder of an experience that is novel for both?
And these new parks represent the frontier of African safaris because of the vital habitat and animal life they will eventually make available to travelers, offering everything from sea turtles and whales to forest elephants, rhinos, gorillas, buffalo, and numerous plant and bird species found only in Gabon. And up near Mvadi, and in other reaches of northeastern Gabon, there is the chance to develop gorilla safaris.
In the old days, hunters came to Africa in search of the "Big Five". The Big Five are Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo.
The classic African safari is a photo safari to the Serengeti Plains. The Serengeti are the vast rolling grasslands of Northern Tanzania. Here, in the lee of Mt. Kilimanjaro, travelers come to see the "Great Migration," a vast migration of 3 million wildebeest and zebra in search of fresh grass across these vast plains.
Over the years, travelers traded in their guns for cameras, and most African safaris today are photo safaris. This was made immeasurably easier when mobile refrigeration became commonplace in the 60s and 70s. And as the wild animal population has been threatened across Africa, more and more people prefer to shoot with their cameras, rather than guns.
The great difference in my mind between a hunting safari and a photo safari is that a hunter takes a shot, and the animal is gone forever. A photographer, on the other hand, takes a shot, and the animal is there tomorrow for someone else to discover in all its glory.
Millions of animals mull at the banks of the Mara River until they just have to cross the crocodile-infested water, with its swift-flowing brown river and its high, muddy, slippery banks. Many of the early crossers do not make it, taken by the crocs. But once the crocs are full, the rest have only the swirling waters to contend with.