HIGH PLAINS DRIFTERS
Recent incidents have made people jittery about taking to the African wilds with only canvas between them and the carnivores. Jeremy Seal makes camp in Kenya’s Masai Mara to quell the fears – and savour the unique experience of a mobile tented safari. Sunday Times, 20/2/2000
Confession; it was me who surreptitiously smuggled the camp woodaxe into my tent that first night. When there's only canvas keeping Africa at bay, courage can fade fast as the equatorial evening light across the grass plains of Kenya's Masai Mara. The mobile tented safari, where guests stay in temporary tented camps rather than in permanent lodges, may be billed as the authentic bush experience, but it can cause some guests, myself included, an initial feeling of... exposure.
Such misgivings are understandable, especially after the tragic death last August of a young Briton, hauled from his tent in Zimbabwe's Matusadona National Park by a pride of lions. The truth is that most people camping out in the African bush for the first time may find, when it comes to dinner under the stars, that the imagination's appetite is keener than the stomach's, gorging itself on the rising whoops of all-too-adjacent hyena and the low-slung dance of unidentified green eyes beyond the campfire. At bedtime, guests have been known to pocket the silver-service dinner cutlery for defensive purposes, and make a solemn promise to reaccommodate themselves first thing in a high-walled game lodge should they survive the night.
It should be emphasised, of course, that the Matusadona incident was wholly exceptional. Safari-goers in the care of recommended operators (see below) can be confident that lives and limbs are not at risk on this, the original African camping experience; all you stand to lose are the walls, doors, windows, noisy generators, light switches, gift shops and crowds that can characterise the lodge, hotel or even permanent tented camp stays - increasingly the staples of the African safari industry. The mobile tented safari, where camp ups sticks every few days before moving on to another setting deep in the bush, is about small-group simplicity, an intimacy with one's bush surroundings and the nighttime thrill of hurricane lamps, campfire eyes, wildlife snuffling around the tents and spear-carrying Masai moran (warriors) posted to keep watch.
Our camp, five spacious guest tents and a large dining tent backed by a mess and kitchen area, accommodated eight guests. For logistical reasons, the 'mobile' group is rarely more than twelve - or less than four, when the cost becomes prohibitive; as such, it especially commends itself to groups of family and friends. Camp stood before a spur of forest overlooking the plains of the Masai Mara, where Tanzania's Serengeti spills north into Kenya. The view from our canvas chairs was of scrawled, lead-coloured lines of wildebeest woven into the heat haze. The wildebeest, which had recently migrated north in search of pasture and were survivors of the crocodile-infested Mara River crossing, put up drifting plumes of dust. Superb starlings were blue and orange firecrackers in the thorn trees. A pair of warthogs stumbled surprised upon our camp and made off at an alarmed trot, their heads held indignantly high. Out on the plain, a secretary bird was stalking snakes. Somebody brought me a gin and tonic. There was talk of lunch. The sun was high in the sky, and I had never needed walls, doors or windows less.
I woke at dawn, when polite staff enquiries about a missing woodaxe reached me from beyond my tent-flap. To my shame, firewood supplies were running critically low. Still, there was hot water in the canvas washstand on the porch that fronted my tent, and a welcome tea tray on the table to see off my first-night nerves. It's an appealing paradox of the 'mobile' that it serves up back-to-nature simplicity in a full-on, pampering fashion. My tent was furnished - you wouldn't call it merely equipped - with a proper iron-frame bed made up with fresh linen sheets and sweet-smelling blankets. There was a table topped by a hurricane lamp and mosquito repellents. The tent connected with a private wash area consisting of a freshly dug drop loo and a shower - a tarpaulin bag punched with holes that the staff would fill with heated water upon request. On the porch were a table and chair, a washing mirror and even an umbrella. Lavish food was served from tureens, and there was even a bush laundry service; clothes were returned lovingly pressed after their brush with the old-fashioned iron, kept hot by the campfire coals it contained.
On a dawn game drive, we spied an approaching cheetah and her two young cubs. They had recently fed; it was a half-hearted swathe that they cut through the grazing zebra and impala. A confident cub walked right up to the Landrover and leapt onto the bonnet where it squatted to deposit the best part of a digested Thompson's gazelle before striding disdainfully away. Grey, hunched cattle filed past. Their two Masai drovers were shawled in black and red checks. We were on tribal lands adjacent to the Masai Mara Reserve. 'Many operators prefer to camp outside parks and reserves,' explained Craig, our guide. 'Giving revenue to the local people encourages them to look after the wildlife, which has the effect of expanding protected areas. It also allows us some contact with the local people. Moreover, there are no restrictions here on activities. Night drives and bush walks are permitted, unlike inside the parks. And the camping opportunities are often better.'
In the afternoon, one of the Masai spear-carriers led us to his manyatta, or village. His henna-coloured hair was brilliantly braided and he had stretched his holed lobes over the top of his ears (but on a traditionally beaded strap he wore a digital watch that reminded him of the time in New York, where his girlfriend lived). Those of us who had not been on foot in the African bush before, fearful of lion behind every tree, huddled zealously around the moran and his spear. At the manyatta, a ring of huts enclosed by a thorn boma barricade, villagers and guests regarded each other curiously. By and by, we loosened up and there was soon talk of the animals back home. Generations of Masai children are sure to grow up on stories of the white man who bounced around the manyatta one day, mimicking an animal that lived in his country, a place called Downunder.
After four days in the Mara, we would move on to our next camp in Laikipia, spending two nights in lodge accommodation en route. Mobile itineraries typically include short stays at permanent camps to allow time for the logistical miracle that is the mobile to be restocked and erected at the next site. We were travelling by vehicle, but mobile safaris have been developed that allow guests to move between camps by a variety of transports; on foot in Zambia or horseback in Kenya or Botswana, on quad bike in Botswana, by canoe in Zimbabwe or alongside a camel in Kenya.
On our last evening in the Mara, an excited Craig dragged me into the forest directly behind my tent. 'Look,' he exclaimed with relish. He was pointing at fresh scars on the bark of the acacia trees. 'There's been a leopard here, and very recently.' Once, the news might have sent me crawling up non-existent walls. But after a few days on the mobile I had learned many things, not least that fear backs off in such conditions, and soon gives way to exhilaration.
ENDS
The author was a guest of Worldwide Journeys and Expeditions in London and Cheli & Peacock in Nairobi.
UK's mobile tented safari agents
Aardvark Safaris (01980 849160)
Abercrombie & Kent (0171 559 8666)
Africa Connection (01244 355330)
Art of Travel (0171 738 2038)
Carrier (01625 582006)
Cazenove & Loyd (0181 875 9666)
Okavango Tours & Safaris (0181 343 3283)
Roxton Bailey Robinson (01488 683222)
Safari Consultants (01787 228494)
Scott Dunn World (0181 672 1234)
Southern Africa Travel (01483 419133)
Theobald-Barber (0171 221 0555)
Union-Castle Travel (0171 229 1411)
Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions (0171 381 8638)
MOBILE SAFARIS FOR FAMILIES
The safari holiday is widely regarded as hostile to children, with few lodge- or hotel-based safaris accepting children under 12. But private mobiles, which do not operate an age restriction, are far more family-friendly. Mobile operators are adept at tailoring activities to suit most ages; while the adults opt for lengthy game drives, children may prefer village visits, educational bush walks, boat trips in areas like the Okavango, Botswana or Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, or simply to spend time at camp.
Most operators caution, however, against taking children younger than eight, or ten in some cases. 'Once they've seen an elephant for five minutes,' explains Jane Durham of Okavango Tours and Safaris, 'they tend to want to go home and watch telly.'
A few operators, mostly top-end ones in East Africa, offer discounts for children. Under 12s pay 50% with Cottars Safari Service in Kenya while Cheli & Peacock, also in Kenya, give $US100 reduction per day on each child under 12. Gibb's Farm Safaris in Tanzania offer 50% discounts on children under 16. Add the 50% airfare saving for children under 12 and you may even lull yourself into believing the family safari can be cheap. Generally, don't.
MOBILE TENTED SAFARIS; THE BEST DESINATIONS
Prices quoted include flights from the UK except where stated.
KENYA
The classic mobile safari was born in Kenya, which remains the place to play at being Ernest Hemingway or Karen Blixen. Cottars Safari Service, which has been running bespoke safaris since 1919, is renowned for period-piece mobiles on the grand scale including bush-dining by candlelight with port and cigars, Persian rugs, antique side tables and even a 78rpm gramophone. But the prices are not old-fashioned. A ten-night Cottars mobile safari, spending four nights on concession land adjacent to the Masai Mara and four nights in the remote Shaba National Park, with two nights in lodge accommodation while camp is moved, costs from £6111 per person, based on a party of six, through Cazenove & Loyd.
Abercrombie & Kent's mobile camps feature superbly equipped 28' by 14' tents with ensuite bathrooms, and fresh flowers, linen and liveried staff at dinner. On their two-week 'Wild Fig Tree' safari, camp moves from Amboseli, beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, to the rhino-rich Lewa Downs Conservancy and thence to the Masai Mara, with guests being flown and driven between destinations (from £5254 based on a party of six through Abercrombie & Kent). Cheli & Peacock's 12-day 'Private Vintage' mobile safaris favour the Masai Mara, the little-known Meru National Park, the Aberdares and private concessions on ranchland in the Laikipia Highlands (from £3700 per person based on eight sharing through Worldwide Journeys).
For experienced riders, Offbeat Safaris run horseback safaris in Masailand and Laikipia. Expect to spend six hours per day in the saddle of these polo-trained horses, covering up to 50 kilometres per day and staying at comfortable mobile camps that will have been set up en route prior to your arrival. (From £2200 per person for ten days, not including flights or transfers, through Union-Castle Travel.) Ewaso River Walking Safaris offer camel-assisted walking safaris north of Samburu Reserve into the Northern Frontier District. Follow the luggas (dry river beds traditionally used as transit routes by both wildlife and local people) on five-day trips through wild, vehicle-hostile country where you may see elephant and even rare kudu antelope (£1443 per person including light aircraft transfers but excluding UK flights based on a party of four, through Art of Travel).
TANZANIA
Manageable distances separate Tanzania's northern national parks, which also offer a wealth of excellent private camping sites, making this classic mobile safari country. Tarangire and its elephants, Manyara's memorable lakeside setting and the Serengeti's vast plains are a particularly popular itinerary. Mark Houldsworth's NomadSafari Guides offer top-end, tailor-made itineraries into remote areas of the Serengeti including the Gol Mountains and Loliondo (from £1900 per person for six nights based on a party of four, flights not included, through Roxton Bailey Robinson). From their lodge near Manyara, Gibb's Farm Safaris have a sound reputation for tailor-making mobile tented safaris for groups up to14 (from £3586 per person for a two-week package, based on a party of four, through Okavango Tours and Safaris.) Book early for Tanzania's wildebeest migration, best experienced during December to March on the southern plains and June/July in the Serengeti's western corridor.
For scheduled departures, particularly suited for singles or couples, mid-range operators Hoopoe Adventure Tours run mobiles safaris for up to 8 persons. Their 'Classic Tanzania' safari combines mobile tented stays in the Serengeti (3 nights) and Tarangire (2 nights) with lodge stays elsewhere (from £2395 per person including flights, through Worldwide Journeys).
From his lodge at Sand Rivers, Richard Bonham runs walking mobile safaris, normally lasting eight to twelve days, into the river and forest landscapes of the vast and remote Selous Reserve. These legendary expeditions, run between June and November, are 'fully portered' - 30 local men carry everything but the guests (up to six). Camp, which moves each day, is necessarily lightweight; sleep on a bedroll beneath a mosquito net. This unforgettable experience does not suffer from a shortage of takers; book a year ahead. (Prices from £250 per person per night, not including flights or drinks, through Roxton Bailey Robinson.)
Northern Tanzania is also well suited to self-drive safaris. Safari Drive (01488 681611) can supply fully-equipped 4WD landrovers (Tdi 110s) for those hands-on, intrepid souls who wish to do it all themselves - driving, setting up camp, cooking and finding game (from £2700 for the vehicle for two weeks, including tents, bedding, some food and all necessary camping gear, and carrying a maximum four people, but not including park and camping fees etc). The company will book camp sites, create itineraries and advise clients on basic bush sense. They can also supply staff if your desire to participate extends only to driving. For self-drivers to Southern Africa, the two-week route from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, through Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and thence to Northern Namibia is recommended.
BOTSWANA
Southern Africa's mobile safari heartlands, with plenty of imaginatively located, exclusive-use camping sites in the national parks, reserves and private concession areas. The ones at Xakanaxa in Moremi, set on the banks of the Moanachira channel, are particularly good for game-viewing and birding, but there is high demand for the popular campsites and operators cannot guarantee which ones the parks authorities will allocate them.
Classic Botswana itineraries emphasise 'wet' areas (the Moremi Reserve and Okavango Delta) but also include 'desert' elements (the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans, and the Central Kalahari Reserve). Afro Ventures' 'A La Hemingway' safari combines mobile stays in the Kalahari and Moremi regions with lodge accommodation elsewhere. Departures from March-December, from £3859 per person through Carrier. Less lavish are two-week packages from highly regarded local operators Kalahari Kavango, which includes mobile camp stays in Moremi, Okavango and the Mababe Depression, exploring the waterways in makoro canoes and the adjoining plains on foot (from £2495 per person through Scott Dunn World, or £2995 through Worldwide Journeys).
Private groups, particularly families, tend to be drawn to operators like Map Ives, a local guide who leads regular and walking mobiles as well as special-interest mobile safaris including birding (November-March) and fishing in the upper and Central Okavango (August-February). Travel by 4WD or boat, staying in camp on islands in the upper Okavango and elsewhere. Camp is comfortable - mosquito-screened tent, bedrolls and bucket shower - but Ives's prime assets are his hands-on enthusiasm, his broad knowledge and his ability with children; this is small-group safariing at its best. Discount rates apply on his regular mobiles in April/May when Botswana is lush but little-visited, and currently enjoying its most spectacular floods for years (from £2102 per person for seven nights based on a party of six through Cazenove & Loyd).
Ralph Bousfield, owner of the legendary Jack's Camp in the remote Makgadikgadi Pans, offers a stylish mobile safari programme in the grand style called Uncharted Africa; East African tents, paraffin lamps, copper jugs, hanging wardrobes, baggage trunks, damask and fabulous cuisine conjured up in the mess tent. The company runs scheduled, seven-night safaris in the Moremi area between May and October, but can also tailor-make itineraries to the likes of the Central Kalahari at the beginning of the dry season (April to June), when the great game herds of springbok, zebra and wildebeest are arriving to feed on the brief, seasonal new grass. Tailor-made safaris from £280 per person per day based on a party of four, through Cazenove & Loyd.
If you're happy in a saddle, there's no better way of viewing the Okavango's abundant wildlife. African Horseback Safaris offer a seven-night safari, with two nights spent at a light mobile camp, or 'fly camp'. Campfires are lit to keep predators away from the horses. Competent riders only. From £2225 per person through Art of Travel.
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe has cultivated an enviable reputation for its variety of mobile safari products; vehicle-based safaris, walking safaris and canoe-based safaris are all available here. Leon Varley runs seven-day mobile walking safaris in the remote and little-visited Chizarira National Park. The trip offers awesomely positioned campsites on the escarpment above the Zambezi and excellent populations of big game (from £760 per person not including flights through Worldwide Journeys).
Dodge the crocs and hippos on canoe-based mobile safaris operating along the lower Zambezi River below the Kariba Dam through Mana Pools National Park, paddling about four hours per day. Natureways offer four-day canoe trails combined with three-day walking trails through the river's diverse, wooded flood plains from May to October, staying in riverside camps (from £1229 per person including light aircraft transfers from Kariba but not UK flights, through Union-Castle Travel). Wilderness Safaris offer a four-day canoeing safari in Mana Pools - spectacular, if hot, in October/November when the game concentrations are almost obscene. No previous canoeing experience is required. Prices from £565 including light aircraft transfers but not including UK flights through Worldwide Journeys.
ZAMBIA
Zambia pioneered the walking safari. Book at least a year ahead for best-known operator Robin Pope's five-day mobile walking safari in the remote South Luangwa National Park along the Mupamadzi River - an acclaimed bush experience. Walk about 10 kilometres a day between camps with walk-in tents, a shower under a tree and excellent cooking. The safari runs between June and September and is for a maximum 6 guests. The safari also includes lodge stays for two nights either end. (£1650 excluding flights and transfers, through Theobald-Barber).
NAMIBIA
In the semi-desert vastnesses of Northern Namibia's Damaraland and Kaokoland, where 'fixed accommodation' is as rare as rainfall, the mobile camp is less a preference than an imperative. SandyAcre Safaris run largely off-road camping safaris for small groups (roomy dome tents and field showers). Many visitors are enthralled by lucky sightings of the highly adapted desert elephant and desert rhino, but don't expect abundant big game. The experience instead appeals to those who like their landscapes demonic (desert oases and abandoned mining towns) and their solitude extreme. (From £2500 for twelve days based on four sharing through Worldwide Journeys.)
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa's 'mobile' scene is extremely limited, with most safari-goers staying in anything from upmarket lodges to youth hostels. There are, however, opportunities for equestrians. From his Ant's Nest lodge, in the rolling hills of the Waterberg, Anthony Baber offers four-night horseback trips for groups up to four, with two nights camping out. Camp is comfortable - private tents, proper beds, bucket shower and excellent food - and there's abundant plains game including rhino, giraffe and eland. Through Cazenove & Loyd.
SEASONS
East Africa's main season is December to February while June to September are the popular months for Southern Africa. If you want transformed landscapes, no crowds and discounted rates, however, try East Africa in November and Southern Africa in April/May.
PARTICIPATION CAMPING
Those prepared to muck in will find a whole range of budget mobiles to suit the stretched pocket. You may not eat off bone china, nor may you have the campsite to yourself, but the essential experience of camping in Africa can be enjoyed at a fraction of the cost of the more exclusive version. Operators tend to offer Limited Participation (perhaps packing your own tent and some other light duties) and Full Participation (preparing food and a wider range of other chores) options. Karibu offer a 17-day Zimbabwe safari where guests pitch their own tents and help with meals, from £1495 through Worldwide Journeys. The safari includes canoeing the Zambezi, game viewing and visiting the ruins at Great Zimbabwe.
Guerba (01373 858956) has a ten-day limited participation (pitch your own tent and help load the vehicle) camping safari in Botswana, running from July to October and including visits to Okavango, Moremi and Chobe National Park, from £1750 per person. Dragoman (01728 861133) has a four week Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda camping trip, including visits to the gorillas of the Ruwenzori Mountains and to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater, from £1000 per person, plus £410 kitty money, not including flights. A local cook is on the trip but all other camp duties are shared.
BUSH EXCURSIONS
An increasing number of lodges offer lightweight, few-day versions of the mobile tented safari where guests spend a night or two out from the lodge - in the bush under canvas or even just a mosquito net. Camps vary from the most basic 'fly camps' (bedrolls, mosquito nets and definitely no shower) to semi-luxury camps where bathroom facilities are shared but tents are private, if small. Most memorable, from Jack's Camp in Botswana's Makgadikgadi Pans, are three-day quad-biking expeditions from June to September across endless desert pans to the remarkable rock outcrop of Kubu Island. A support vehicle brings food, tables, chairs and a shower. Sleep on bedrolls beneath the baobab trees. From £1353 per person, including three nights either end at Jack's or at nearby San Camp, not including flights or transfers, through Cazenove & Loyd.
Recent incidents have made people jittery about taking to the African wilds with only canvas between them and the carnivores. Jeremy Seal makes camp in Kenya’s Masai Mara to quell the fears – and savour the unique experience of a mobile tented safari. Sunday Times, 20/2/2000
Confession; it was me who surreptitiously smuggled the camp woodaxe into my tent that first night. When there's only canvas keeping Africa at bay, courage can fade fast as the equatorial evening light across the grass plains of Kenya's Masai Mara. The mobile tented safari, where guests stay in temporary tented camps rather than in permanent lodges, may be billed as the authentic bush experience, but it can cause some guests, myself included, an initial feeling of... exposure.
Such misgivings are understandable, especially after the tragic death last August of a young Briton, hauled from his tent in Zimbabwe's Matusadona National Park by a pride of lions. The truth is that most people camping out in the African bush for the first time may find, when it comes to dinner under the stars, that the imagination's appetite is keener than the stomach's, gorging itself on the rising whoops of all-too-adjacent hyena and the low-slung dance of unidentified green eyes beyond the campfire. At bedtime, guests have been known to pocket the silver-service dinner cutlery for defensive purposes, and make a solemn promise to reaccommodate themselves first thing in a high-walled game lodge should they survive the night.
It should be emphasised, of course, that the Matusadona incident was wholly exceptional. Safari-goers in the care of recommended operators (see below) can be confident that lives and limbs are not at risk on this, the original African camping experience; all you stand to lose are the walls, doors, windows, noisy generators, light switches, gift shops and crowds that can characterise the lodge, hotel or even permanent tented camp stays - increasingly the staples of the African safari industry. The mobile tented safari, where camp ups sticks every few days before moving on to another setting deep in the bush, is about small-group simplicity, an intimacy with one's bush surroundings and the nighttime thrill of hurricane lamps, campfire eyes, wildlife snuffling around the tents and spear-carrying Masai moran (warriors) posted to keep watch.
Our camp, five spacious guest tents and a large dining tent backed by a mess and kitchen area, accommodated eight guests. For logistical reasons, the 'mobile' group is rarely more than twelve - or less than four, when the cost becomes prohibitive; as such, it especially commends itself to groups of family and friends. Camp stood before a spur of forest overlooking the plains of the Masai Mara, where Tanzania's Serengeti spills north into Kenya. The view from our canvas chairs was of scrawled, lead-coloured lines of wildebeest woven into the heat haze. The wildebeest, which had recently migrated north in search of pasture and were survivors of the crocodile-infested Mara River crossing, put up drifting plumes of dust. Superb starlings were blue and orange firecrackers in the thorn trees. A pair of warthogs stumbled surprised upon our camp and made off at an alarmed trot, their heads held indignantly high. Out on the plain, a secretary bird was stalking snakes. Somebody brought me a gin and tonic. There was talk of lunch. The sun was high in the sky, and I had never needed walls, doors or windows less.
I woke at dawn, when polite staff enquiries about a missing woodaxe reached me from beyond my tent-flap. To my shame, firewood supplies were running critically low. Still, there was hot water in the canvas washstand on the porch that fronted my tent, and a welcome tea tray on the table to see off my first-night nerves. It's an appealing paradox of the 'mobile' that it serves up back-to-nature simplicity in a full-on, pampering fashion. My tent was furnished - you wouldn't call it merely equipped - with a proper iron-frame bed made up with fresh linen sheets and sweet-smelling blankets. There was a table topped by a hurricane lamp and mosquito repellents. The tent connected with a private wash area consisting of a freshly dug drop loo and a shower - a tarpaulin bag punched with holes that the staff would fill with heated water upon request. On the porch were a table and chair, a washing mirror and even an umbrella. Lavish food was served from tureens, and there was even a bush laundry service; clothes were returned lovingly pressed after their brush with the old-fashioned iron, kept hot by the campfire coals it contained.
On a dawn game drive, we spied an approaching cheetah and her two young cubs. They had recently fed; it was a half-hearted swathe that they cut through the grazing zebra and impala. A confident cub walked right up to the Landrover and leapt onto the bonnet where it squatted to deposit the best part of a digested Thompson's gazelle before striding disdainfully away. Grey, hunched cattle filed past. Their two Masai drovers were shawled in black and red checks. We were on tribal lands adjacent to the Masai Mara Reserve. 'Many operators prefer to camp outside parks and reserves,' explained Craig, our guide. 'Giving revenue to the local people encourages them to look after the wildlife, which has the effect of expanding protected areas. It also allows us some contact with the local people. Moreover, there are no restrictions here on activities. Night drives and bush walks are permitted, unlike inside the parks. And the camping opportunities are often better.'
In the afternoon, one of the Masai spear-carriers led us to his manyatta, or village. His henna-coloured hair was brilliantly braided and he had stretched his holed lobes over the top of his ears (but on a traditionally beaded strap he wore a digital watch that reminded him of the time in New York, where his girlfriend lived). Those of us who had not been on foot in the African bush before, fearful of lion behind every tree, huddled zealously around the moran and his spear. At the manyatta, a ring of huts enclosed by a thorn boma barricade, villagers and guests regarded each other curiously. By and by, we loosened up and there was soon talk of the animals back home. Generations of Masai children are sure to grow up on stories of the white man who bounced around the manyatta one day, mimicking an animal that lived in his country, a place called Downunder.
After four days in the Mara, we would move on to our next camp in Laikipia, spending two nights in lodge accommodation en route. Mobile itineraries typically include short stays at permanent camps to allow time for the logistical miracle that is the mobile to be restocked and erected at the next site. We were travelling by vehicle, but mobile safaris have been developed that allow guests to move between camps by a variety of transports; on foot in Zambia or horseback in Kenya or Botswana, on quad bike in Botswana, by canoe in Zimbabwe or alongside a camel in Kenya.
On our last evening in the Mara, an excited Craig dragged me into the forest directly behind my tent. 'Look,' he exclaimed with relish. He was pointing at fresh scars on the bark of the acacia trees. 'There's been a leopard here, and very recently.' Once, the news might have sent me crawling up non-existent walls. But after a few days on the mobile I had learned many things, not least that fear backs off in such conditions, and soon gives way to exhilaration.
ENDS
The author was a guest of Worldwide Journeys and Expeditions in London and Cheli & Peacock in Nairobi.
UK's mobile tented safari agents
Aardvark Safaris (01980 849160)
Abercrombie & Kent (0171 559 8666)
Africa Connection (01244 355330)
Art of Travel (0171 738 2038)
Carrier (01625 582006)
Cazenove & Loyd (0181 875 9666)
Okavango Tours & Safaris (0181 343 3283)
Roxton Bailey Robinson (01488 683222)
Safari Consultants (01787 228494)
Scott Dunn World (0181 672 1234)
Southern Africa Travel (01483 419133)
Theobald-Barber (0171 221 0555)
Union-Castle Travel (0171 229 1411)
Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions (0171 381 8638)
MOBILE SAFARIS FOR FAMILIES
The safari holiday is widely regarded as hostile to children, with few lodge- or hotel-based safaris accepting children under 12. But private mobiles, which do not operate an age restriction, are far more family-friendly. Mobile operators are adept at tailoring activities to suit most ages; while the adults opt for lengthy game drives, children may prefer village visits, educational bush walks, boat trips in areas like the Okavango, Botswana or Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, or simply to spend time at camp.
Most operators caution, however, against taking children younger than eight, or ten in some cases. 'Once they've seen an elephant for five minutes,' explains Jane Durham of Okavango Tours and Safaris, 'they tend to want to go home and watch telly.'
A few operators, mostly top-end ones in East Africa, offer discounts for children. Under 12s pay 50% with Cottars Safari Service in Kenya while Cheli & Peacock, also in Kenya, give $US100 reduction per day on each child under 12. Gibb's Farm Safaris in Tanzania offer 50% discounts on children under 16. Add the 50% airfare saving for children under 12 and you may even lull yourself into believing the family safari can be cheap. Generally, don't.
MOBILE TENTED SAFARIS; THE BEST DESINATIONS
Prices quoted include flights from the UK except where stated.
KENYA
The classic mobile safari was born in Kenya, which remains the place to play at being Ernest Hemingway or Karen Blixen. Cottars Safari Service, which has been running bespoke safaris since 1919, is renowned for period-piece mobiles on the grand scale including bush-dining by candlelight with port and cigars, Persian rugs, antique side tables and even a 78rpm gramophone. But the prices are not old-fashioned. A ten-night Cottars mobile safari, spending four nights on concession land adjacent to the Masai Mara and four nights in the remote Shaba National Park, with two nights in lodge accommodation while camp is moved, costs from £6111 per person, based on a party of six, through Cazenove & Loyd.
Abercrombie & Kent's mobile camps feature superbly equipped 28' by 14' tents with ensuite bathrooms, and fresh flowers, linen and liveried staff at dinner. On their two-week 'Wild Fig Tree' safari, camp moves from Amboseli, beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, to the rhino-rich Lewa Downs Conservancy and thence to the Masai Mara, with guests being flown and driven between destinations (from £5254 based on a party of six through Abercrombie & Kent). Cheli & Peacock's 12-day 'Private Vintage' mobile safaris favour the Masai Mara, the little-known Meru National Park, the Aberdares and private concessions on ranchland in the Laikipia Highlands (from £3700 per person based on eight sharing through Worldwide Journeys).
For experienced riders, Offbeat Safaris run horseback safaris in Masailand and Laikipia. Expect to spend six hours per day in the saddle of these polo-trained horses, covering up to 50 kilometres per day and staying at comfortable mobile camps that will have been set up en route prior to your arrival. (From £2200 per person for ten days, not including flights or transfers, through Union-Castle Travel.) Ewaso River Walking Safaris offer camel-assisted walking safaris north of Samburu Reserve into the Northern Frontier District. Follow the luggas (dry river beds traditionally used as transit routes by both wildlife and local people) on five-day trips through wild, vehicle-hostile country where you may see elephant and even rare kudu antelope (£1443 per person including light aircraft transfers but excluding UK flights based on a party of four, through Art of Travel).
TANZANIA
Manageable distances separate Tanzania's northern national parks, which also offer a wealth of excellent private camping sites, making this classic mobile safari country. Tarangire and its elephants, Manyara's memorable lakeside setting and the Serengeti's vast plains are a particularly popular itinerary. Mark Houldsworth's NomadSafari Guides offer top-end, tailor-made itineraries into remote areas of the Serengeti including the Gol Mountains and Loliondo (from £1900 per person for six nights based on a party of four, flights not included, through Roxton Bailey Robinson). From their lodge near Manyara, Gibb's Farm Safaris have a sound reputation for tailor-making mobile tented safaris for groups up to14 (from £3586 per person for a two-week package, based on a party of four, through Okavango Tours and Safaris.) Book early for Tanzania's wildebeest migration, best experienced during December to March on the southern plains and June/July in the Serengeti's western corridor.
For scheduled departures, particularly suited for singles or couples, mid-range operators Hoopoe Adventure Tours run mobiles safaris for up to 8 persons. Their 'Classic Tanzania' safari combines mobile tented stays in the Serengeti (3 nights) and Tarangire (2 nights) with lodge stays elsewhere (from £2395 per person including flights, through Worldwide Journeys).
From his lodge at Sand Rivers, Richard Bonham runs walking mobile safaris, normally lasting eight to twelve days, into the river and forest landscapes of the vast and remote Selous Reserve. These legendary expeditions, run between June and November, are 'fully portered' - 30 local men carry everything but the guests (up to six). Camp, which moves each day, is necessarily lightweight; sleep on a bedroll beneath a mosquito net. This unforgettable experience does not suffer from a shortage of takers; book a year ahead. (Prices from £250 per person per night, not including flights or drinks, through Roxton Bailey Robinson.)
Northern Tanzania is also well suited to self-drive safaris. Safari Drive (01488 681611) can supply fully-equipped 4WD landrovers (Tdi 110s) for those hands-on, intrepid souls who wish to do it all themselves - driving, setting up camp, cooking and finding game (from £2700 for the vehicle for two weeks, including tents, bedding, some food and all necessary camping gear, and carrying a maximum four people, but not including park and camping fees etc). The company will book camp sites, create itineraries and advise clients on basic bush sense. They can also supply staff if your desire to participate extends only to driving. For self-drivers to Southern Africa, the two-week route from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, through Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and thence to Northern Namibia is recommended.
BOTSWANA
Southern Africa's mobile safari heartlands, with plenty of imaginatively located, exclusive-use camping sites in the national parks, reserves and private concession areas. The ones at Xakanaxa in Moremi, set on the banks of the Moanachira channel, are particularly good for game-viewing and birding, but there is high demand for the popular campsites and operators cannot guarantee which ones the parks authorities will allocate them.
Classic Botswana itineraries emphasise 'wet' areas (the Moremi Reserve and Okavango Delta) but also include 'desert' elements (the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans, and the Central Kalahari Reserve). Afro Ventures' 'A La Hemingway' safari combines mobile stays in the Kalahari and Moremi regions with lodge accommodation elsewhere. Departures from March-December, from £3859 per person through Carrier. Less lavish are two-week packages from highly regarded local operators Kalahari Kavango, which includes mobile camp stays in Moremi, Okavango and the Mababe Depression, exploring the waterways in makoro canoes and the adjoining plains on foot (from £2495 per person through Scott Dunn World, or £2995 through Worldwide Journeys).
Private groups, particularly families, tend to be drawn to operators like Map Ives, a local guide who leads regular and walking mobiles as well as special-interest mobile safaris including birding (November-March) and fishing in the upper and Central Okavango (August-February). Travel by 4WD or boat, staying in camp on islands in the upper Okavango and elsewhere. Camp is comfortable - mosquito-screened tent, bedrolls and bucket shower - but Ives's prime assets are his hands-on enthusiasm, his broad knowledge and his ability with children; this is small-group safariing at its best. Discount rates apply on his regular mobiles in April/May when Botswana is lush but little-visited, and currently enjoying its most spectacular floods for years (from £2102 per person for seven nights based on a party of six through Cazenove & Loyd).
Ralph Bousfield, owner of the legendary Jack's Camp in the remote Makgadikgadi Pans, offers a stylish mobile safari programme in the grand style called Uncharted Africa; East African tents, paraffin lamps, copper jugs, hanging wardrobes, baggage trunks, damask and fabulous cuisine conjured up in the mess tent. The company runs scheduled, seven-night safaris in the Moremi area between May and October, but can also tailor-make itineraries to the likes of the Central Kalahari at the beginning of the dry season (April to June), when the great game herds of springbok, zebra and wildebeest are arriving to feed on the brief, seasonal new grass. Tailor-made safaris from £280 per person per day based on a party of four, through Cazenove & Loyd.
If you're happy in a saddle, there's no better way of viewing the Okavango's abundant wildlife. African Horseback Safaris offer a seven-night safari, with two nights spent at a light mobile camp, or 'fly camp'. Campfires are lit to keep predators away from the horses. Competent riders only. From £2225 per person through Art of Travel.
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe has cultivated an enviable reputation for its variety of mobile safari products; vehicle-based safaris, walking safaris and canoe-based safaris are all available here. Leon Varley runs seven-day mobile walking safaris in the remote and little-visited Chizarira National Park. The trip offers awesomely positioned campsites on the escarpment above the Zambezi and excellent populations of big game (from £760 per person not including flights through Worldwide Journeys).
Dodge the crocs and hippos on canoe-based mobile safaris operating along the lower Zambezi River below the Kariba Dam through Mana Pools National Park, paddling about four hours per day. Natureways offer four-day canoe trails combined with three-day walking trails through the river's diverse, wooded flood plains from May to October, staying in riverside camps (from £1229 per person including light aircraft transfers from Kariba but not UK flights, through Union-Castle Travel). Wilderness Safaris offer a four-day canoeing safari in Mana Pools - spectacular, if hot, in October/November when the game concentrations are almost obscene. No previous canoeing experience is required. Prices from £565 including light aircraft transfers but not including UK flights through Worldwide Journeys.
ZAMBIA
Zambia pioneered the walking safari. Book at least a year ahead for best-known operator Robin Pope's five-day mobile walking safari in the remote South Luangwa National Park along the Mupamadzi River - an acclaimed bush experience. Walk about 10 kilometres a day between camps with walk-in tents, a shower under a tree and excellent cooking. The safari runs between June and September and is for a maximum 6 guests. The safari also includes lodge stays for two nights either end. (£1650 excluding flights and transfers, through Theobald-Barber).
NAMIBIA
In the semi-desert vastnesses of Northern Namibia's Damaraland and Kaokoland, where 'fixed accommodation' is as rare as rainfall, the mobile camp is less a preference than an imperative. SandyAcre Safaris run largely off-road camping safaris for small groups (roomy dome tents and field showers). Many visitors are enthralled by lucky sightings of the highly adapted desert elephant and desert rhino, but don't expect abundant big game. The experience instead appeals to those who like their landscapes demonic (desert oases and abandoned mining towns) and their solitude extreme. (From £2500 for twelve days based on four sharing through Worldwide Journeys.)
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa's 'mobile' scene is extremely limited, with most safari-goers staying in anything from upmarket lodges to youth hostels. There are, however, opportunities for equestrians. From his Ant's Nest lodge, in the rolling hills of the Waterberg, Anthony Baber offers four-night horseback trips for groups up to four, with two nights camping out. Camp is comfortable - private tents, proper beds, bucket shower and excellent food - and there's abundant plains game including rhino, giraffe and eland. Through Cazenove & Loyd.
SEASONS
East Africa's main season is December to February while June to September are the popular months for Southern Africa. If you want transformed landscapes, no crowds and discounted rates, however, try East Africa in November and Southern Africa in April/May.
PARTICIPATION CAMPING
Those prepared to muck in will find a whole range of budget mobiles to suit the stretched pocket. You may not eat off bone china, nor may you have the campsite to yourself, but the essential experience of camping in Africa can be enjoyed at a fraction of the cost of the more exclusive version. Operators tend to offer Limited Participation (perhaps packing your own tent and some other light duties) and Full Participation (preparing food and a wider range of other chores) options. Karibu offer a 17-day Zimbabwe safari where guests pitch their own tents and help with meals, from £1495 through Worldwide Journeys. The safari includes canoeing the Zambezi, game viewing and visiting the ruins at Great Zimbabwe.
Guerba (01373 858956) has a ten-day limited participation (pitch your own tent and help load the vehicle) camping safari in Botswana, running from July to October and including visits to Okavango, Moremi and Chobe National Park, from £1750 per person. Dragoman (01728 861133) has a four week Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda camping trip, including visits to the gorillas of the Ruwenzori Mountains and to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater, from £1000 per person, plus £410 kitty money, not including flights. A local cook is on the trip but all other camp duties are shared.
BUSH EXCURSIONS
An increasing number of lodges offer lightweight, few-day versions of the mobile tented safari where guests spend a night or two out from the lodge - in the bush under canvas or even just a mosquito net. Camps vary from the most basic 'fly camps' (bedrolls, mosquito nets and definitely no shower) to semi-luxury camps where bathroom facilities are shared but tents are private, if small. Most memorable, from Jack's Camp in Botswana's Makgadikgadi Pans, are three-day quad-biking expeditions from June to September across endless desert pans to the remarkable rock outcrop of Kubu Island. A support vehicle brings food, tables, chairs and a shower. Sleep on bedrolls beneath the baobab trees. From £1353 per person, including three nights either end at Jack's or at nearby San Camp, not including flights or transfers, through Cazenove & Loyd.
