Expert Reviews
Less a Wildlife Park, More a Wilderness Experience
It’s sometimes said that the best things come in small packages and this little park (just 116km2) is a real gem for anyone who wants to get their boots on the trails among some of the most spellbinding mountain landscapes in Africa. There’s some unusual wildlife too and the Blesbok Loop road...
The Perfect Beach & Bush Combo
Maputo National Park with its long sandy beaches, forested dunes, mangrove forests, coastal lakes and wetlands is stunningly beautiful. You can easily visit the park on a day trip from Maputo, but an overnight stay is recommended. Waking up to the sound of crashing waves and enjoying breakfast...
As Remote as It Gets
The main Mozambican component in the 150,000km2 Selous-Niassa Transfrontier Conservation Area, the Niassa Special Reserve protects a vast tract of flattish miombo-swathed dry plains interrupted to thrillingly dramatic effect by a liberal scattering of black granitic inselbergs that rise hundreds of...
Mozambique’s Conservation Flagship
One of Africa’s finest safari destinations during the colonial era, Gorongosa went through a lean time during the post-independence civil war, when it virtually served as a laager to the troops based within it. Since 2004, however, it has gained ground as a genuinely worthwhile safari destination,...
A hiker’s paradise
Malawi’s largest and most scenic national park protects the lofty Nyika Plateau, which averages over 2000m in altitude and supports a mixed cover of grassland, moorland and forest. In conventional game-viewing terms, it is something of a mixed bag. Big Five enthusiasts are likely to see elephant...
A sanctuary offering fun bush adventures and the smaller species of game
At the end of the Ezulwini Valley (‘Valley of Heaven’), 45-sq-km Mlilwane is Eswatini’s (formerly Swaziland) oldest protected area, founded by the Reilly family in 1961. The terrain is mainly grasslands and open floodplains stretching up to the striking granite peak of Nyonyane Mountain...
Like Scotland -with zebras!
The Nyika Plateau is the centrepiece of the park, with its rolling montane grasslands – looking like Scotland! The conifer plantations around the Chelinda area reinforce this impression. Visitors are pretty much guaranteed to see roan, Burchell’s zebra, eland, reedbuck and bushbuck. There is...
Scenery and hiking.
You go to Golden Gate Highlands National Park for the dramatic scenery and glorious hiking – rather than a big game safari experience. Golden Gate is situated in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in the Free State, forming the northern part of the Drakensberg arc. The park is named after the...
“Like Chobe was maybe 15 years ago…”
Bwabwata is very much an understated park, overshadowed by the country’s big hitters like Etosha and the Skeleton Coast. Part of the Zambezi Region, it is very different to the rest of Namibia, a vividly lush landscape of rivers and wetlands. Wildlife here had been decimated through hunting and...
Bush and beach in one
Combining an Indian Ocean beach retreat with a big game safari – the boast of many an East African visitor package – generally involves an expensive and time-consuming transfer between the two. Saadani is the one park where you can enjoy both experiences in a single location: your chalet...
Uganda’s Forgotten Savannah Reserve
Nestled up against the remote South Sudanese border in the far northeast of Uganda, Kidepo Valley National Park has long been a byword for inaccessibility and remoteness. This is partly due to geographical distance from Kampala and the southwest safari circuit, an isolation exacerbated by the risk...
Where the Beach Meets the Bush
The only viable East African wildlife sanctuary to boast an Indian Ocean beachfront, this likeable second-tier national park bills itself as the place where the beach meets the bush. In truth, while wildlife numbers have increased significantly since the former wildlife reserve was expanded and...
Mountain trails
The western Drakensberg is not really a place for big game viewing – there is no Big Five here – but this park offers a scenic location in which to enjoy the mountain air and get to know the unusual fauna and flora of South Africa’s high-altitude grasslands. The park gets its name from the...
Pretty in pink
Lake Nakuru is world famous for its bird spectacle: namely the tens of thousands – occasionally up to one million – greater and lesser flamingos that turn the shores pink, plus a rich selection of other birds that share the water’s edge and surrounding savanna. Less well known is the...
East Africa’s Unique Safari Destination on the Beach
Saadani is Tanzania’s only park with ocean frontage, but it wasn’t as scenic as I had expected; fairly flat and featureless, and the beach scruffy and not the paradisiacal swathe of sand usually seen in East Africa. But I enjoyed the boat trip up the Wami River and saw plenty of crocodile and...
Green grasslands against a backdrop of golden rocks
Golden Gate is named for its dramatic towering sandstone buttresses that glow in warm orange and yellow hues in the sunlight. These shelter some richly-grassed plains in the bottom of the valley. You’re unlikely to see many animals from the main road (the R712) that neatly bisects the park, but on...
Sunsets and scenery
Perhaps it’s the feeling of serenity I get from gazing out over the Valley of Desolation, or perhaps it’s the unique Karoo landscape, or perhaps it’s simply too much time spent in the sun, but somehow, I feel physically connected to Camdeboo National Park. Without a doubt this stunningly...
In the last footsteps of Livingstone
Bangweulu – “the place where the earth meets the sky” – is the deep and secret heart of Africa. It is also steeped in the history of David Livingstone, who died here in 1873 after seven years searching for the source of the Nile. Today Bangweulu’s wildlife is the magnet that lures visitors...
Ideal Stopover on the Tanzam Highway
With the Tanzania–Zambia highway bisecting the park, Mikumi National Park lacks the wilderness appeal for which other reserves in southern Tanzania are known. But for me, Mikumi is perfect to break up the trip from Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Park. I’ve always found the game viewing very...
Walking Trails & Log Fires
Nyanga National Park lies in the north of the scenic Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe’s most popular walking destination. Although often described as a stunning part of the country, the park is far from pristine. Most of the indigenous vegetation has been cleared for farming and forestry, and many...
In the wilds of the Waterberg
In the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, Marakele is packed full of wildlife and stunning bush landscapes. The park is set up in two sections – to gain access to the wilder second half where all the Big Five roam in abundance, you press a buzzer to get through a gate. Head to the vulture-viewing point...
Uganda’s secret northern wilderness
With sprawling savannah and soaring mountains, Kidepo Valley National Park might be the most picturesque park in all Africa. Sharing borders with South Sudan and Kenya’s Northern Frontier District, it is Uganda’s most remote and least-explored park. A sizeable lion population include formidable...