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"Safari" is the Swahili word for journey. It originally comes from the Arabic
word "safara" meaning to travel. More accurately, as a noun, safari means
a journey, and as a verb, to travel.

In common usage, safari is tied to Africa and refers to an overland journey in remote country in order to see, photograph or hunt wild animals in their natursl environment.

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.

Of course there is so much more to see on safari than just the Big Five. There's my favorite, the cheetah. And so many others. Like the elusive and nocturnal striped hyena, or the rare wild cat that I saw in the rocky "kopjes" at Kusini in the western Serengeti, or chimpanzee in the Kanyawara Reserve in the Kibale Forest near Fort Portal in Uganda. And let’s not forget the Mountain Gorilla found in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda along the borders of Rwanda and Congo.

Here, in the world's largest inland delta, the waters of the Okavango River disappear into the sands of the Kalahari Desert. This remote area is increasingly accessible to high-end travelers and, in my experience, you can see lion, leopard and cheetah each and every day, as well as a steady supply of hyena, elephant, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, and baboon. And, if you’re lucky, you may just get a rare glimpse of Africa’s most endangered large carnivore, wild dogs, also known as the “painted dogs of the Kalahari”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

One of the great safari experiences is to watch the Great Migration as it crosses the Mara River.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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