Where is the new safari frontier? For my money, it's in Zambia, the Selous of southern Tanzania, and perhaps most tantalizingly, in Gabon in West Africa.
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.
I've had the great fortune to travel on exotic vacations to far-flung destinations across the globe, including safaris to Africa, expeditions to the Antarctic, voyages to the Galapagos, cruises down the Nile, luxury trains across North America and so much more.
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.
The present day safari owes its origins to European military and exploratory expeditions of the 1800s across Africa. From Speke and Burton's quest for the source of the Nile, and Stanley's search across central Africa for Livingstone, safaris morphed into hunting trips for rich European and American aristocrats. Including, notably, Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt.
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.
In the old days, hunters came to Africa in search of the "Big Five". The Big Five are Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo.
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?
Why is Gabon such a fresh and exciting safari destination? Because Gabon is home to some of the wildest, most unspoiled wildlife habitat in all of Africa. Though threatened by logging and mining, there are still large tracts of land that are untouched by modern man. That’s why many a traveler there comes back entranced, saying parts of Gabon are what Africa must have looked like before the first white man got there. I agree with that estimation, and I say that from experience, having lived two years in the remote reaches of northeastern Gabon, some 300 miles from the country’s capital.
Zimbabwe used to be home to some of the most exciting safaris in the world, but recent troubles there have kept all but the most seasoned adventurers away. One of the classic safaris there is a raft or canoe trip down the Zambezi River to Mano Pools.
One of the great safari experiences is to watch the Great Migration as it crosses the Mara River.
Today, the word safari is used to refer to any kind of journey, in Africa or elsewhere. We speak of hunting safaris, or photo safaris, river safaris, mountain safaris, gorilla safaris and so on. In many ways, it now is synonymous with an exotic vacation in a remote, wild place.
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.
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.