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Melissa Shales
Member of the SafariBookings Expert Panel
- Country:
- United Kingdom
- Expert Reviews:
- 42 Reviews
- Website:
- www.melissashales.co.uk
Melissa Shales was brought up in Zimbabwe by parents who were enthusiastic travellers and spent many of her formative years bumping across dirt roads in highly unsuitable cars, tent on roof, indulging her mother's passion for giraffes. Although she now lives just outside London in the UK, Africa is in her blood and she returns as often as possible. During a long career as a travel writer and editor, she has written some 30 guidebooks for companies from Frommers and Fodors to Insight, Michelin and Dorling Kindersley, including books on South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania, winning three best guidebook awards. Melissa is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Life Member (and former Chair) of the British Guild of Travel Writers and a Winston Churchill Fellow.
Expert Reviews 42 – Written by Melissa Shales
- Botswana country review
Botswana – A desert diamond
- Chobe National Park
Chobe – home of ebony and ivory
- Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta – taking a punt on the Big Five
- Kenya country review
Kenya – middle earth
- Aberdare National Park
The Aberdares – paradise in limbo
- Amboseli National Park
Amboseli National Park – the weekend safari
- Lake Bogoria National Reserve
Lake Bogoria – letting off steam in the Rift Valley
- Lake Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru – rising water and rhinos
- Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana – water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink
- Masai Mara National Reserve
The Masai Mara – the million wildebeest march
- Nairobi National Park
Nairobi – go wild in the city
- Samburu National Reserve
Samburu – river of life in the thirsty plains
- Tsavo East National Park
Tsavo East – pink elephants and man-eating lions
- Tsavo West National Park
Tsavo West – go with the flow
- South Africa country review
South Africa – southern star
- Addo Elephant National Park
Addo – elephants, penguins and the flightless dung beetle?
- Amakhala Private Game Reserve
Amakhala (Private Game Reserve), South Africa
- Augrabies Falls National Park
Augrabies – the place of Great Noise
- Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa
- Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi – the Eden of rhinos
- Ithala Game Reserve
Ithala – river deep, mountain high
- Kruger National Park
Kruger – lion country
- MalaMala Private Game Reserve
MalaMala – the glamorous grand-daddy of game reserves
- Mountain Zebra National Park
Mountain Zebra – haven from extinction
- Phinda Private Game Reserve
Phinda – practically perfect private preserve
- Pilanesberg Game Reserve
Pilanesberg – the Genesis project
- Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve
SabiSabi – natural luxury
- Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve
Sabi Sand - safari de luxe
- Shamwari Private Game Reserve
Shamwari – wild Africa reborn
- Spioenkop Game Reserve
Spioenkop – battlefield tour with added animals
- Ulusaba Private Game Reserve
Ulusaba – top of the world
- Waterberg Biosphere Reserve
Waterberg – weekend wilderness
- Tanzania country review
Tanzania – migration highway
- Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater – the lost world
- Serengeti National Park
Serengeti – the great plains
- Zimbabwe country review
Zimbabwe – paradise in limbo
- Hwange National Park
Hwange – the elephants’ stamping ground
- Mana Pools National Park
Mana Pools – watery wilderness at the back of beyond
- Matobo National Park
Matobo – a finely balanced world
- Matusadona National Park
Matusadona – a drowned forest by a manmade sea
- Nyanga National Park
Nyanga - Zimbabwe’s mountain playground
- Zambezi National Park
The Zambezi - a thunderingly magnificent river
Most Popular Blog Posts – Written by Melissa Shales
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