Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
The Intelligent Traveller
TIPS AND TRICKS TO HELP YOU TRAVEL SMARTER Why This Could Be Your Year to Take a Safari
A deep dive into the world of safaris in Africa reveals why now is the ideal time to plan a wildlife holiday; celebrate International Women’s Day by hearing four trendsetters— authors Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Avni Doshi, wedding planner Vandana Mohan, and model Lakshmi Rana—talk about their careers and travels.
The unprecedented events of 2020 have turned the trip of a lifetime into the trip you should take in the months ahead.
JOHN AND Kathy McIlvaine are not the sort of people who just stay home.
They’ve chartered their own 12-metre catamaran in the Seychelles; they flew to Tanzania just days after the end of the first Gulf War. “It was an Abercrombie & Kent tour, and they had 24 guests signed up. Kathy and I, plus two friends, were the only ones who showed up for the 14-day trip,” John recalls. “We felt like we had the whole of Tanzania to ourselves.”
It was an experience the couple, both retired executives living in Jacksonville, Florida, figured they’d never duplicate. That is, until this past fall, when once again they were among a tiny number of Americans to visit
East Africa on a safari. “One of the reasons we wanted to make our trip— other than our cabin fever—is that we’re both big conservationists,” John says. “And one of the things we knew we could do to help is just go over there to spend some money.”
Another way their recent journey was reminiscent of that first safari 30 years ago? The quality of the wildlife sightings. “We spotted a pride of lions—a male, three females, and five cubs—and we just sat there and watched them for two hours, not being pushed away by another vehicle, just talking with our guide,” John adds.
Moments like these are no longer unusual, owing to the pandemic, which upended the safari industry
throughout 2020. Borders across the continent were closed, and demand at lodges plummeted.
But many African countries have had success in controlling coronavirus outbreaks. Botswana, for example, suffered fewer than 50 deaths from COVID-19 in all of 2020 and, at press time, has reported fewer than 25,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Kenya, meanwhile, reported around 1,00,000 cases in the whole of last year. That impressive track record has safari destinations in those countries—along with wilderness areas in Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe— primed for a bounce back this year.
“It’s the chance of a lifetime to go now—to drive from one end of the Masai Mara to the other, and only see three other vehicles the whole day,” says Julian Harrison, a safari expert who recently spent two weeks personally guiding a client around Kenya. “You’re seeing animals in a much more natural setting—a cheetah chasing prey across the plain—doing the things they were born to do.”
While remarkable wildlife watching is one benefit, another advantage to going on safari this year is the chance to stay in some of Africa’s top lodges, such as Governors’ Camp (governors camp.com), in Kenya, or andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge (andbeyond. com), in Tanzania. Ordinarily, properties operated by brands such as Asilia, Great Plains Conservation, Nomad Tanzania, Singita, and Wilderness Safaris are booked up a year or more in advance. Much of that space is now wide open as travellers push reservations into the future.
“You really can’t picture how vast and empty it was, and when you actually did see another vehicle, you were like, ‘Wow, there is somebody else here,’ ” says Anne Goyer, a smallbusiness owner who lives in Sarasota, Florida, and who travelled to Tanzania last fall with her husband. “That’s why we went—to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Of course, precautions are everywhere, and masks, sanitation measures, and temperature checks
are strictly enforced. “On the ground, you see COVID-19 taken extremely seriously and what international travellers expect in terms of social distancing, handwashing, all that sort of thing,” says safari expert Chris Liebenberg. The founder of Piper & Heath Travel (piperandheath.com), Liebenberg planned the trips for both the Goyers and the McIlvaines, after visiting Tanzania himself in August. “The lodges have obviously thought all this through very carefully, and everyone knows what they’re doing.”
Beyond game viewing, other draws of Africa’s wide-open spaces are sure to be in demand in 2021 and beyond. Lauren Kroger, a Dayton, Ohio, travel adviser who was one of the first Americans to return to Zambia after the country’s borders reopened in July, says the trip was restorative “after months of getting to know my living room intimately.”
“We canoed the mighty Zambezi River, felt the spray of Victoria Falls on our faces, slept in a dry riverbed beneath a mosquito net and a canopy of stars, and sought out the Big Five on long walks through the bush,” she recalls.
Whatever the focus of an Africa trip, simply going can make a tremendous, positive impact. “We wanted to help the African workers who need our support,” says Mark Lyons, of Medina, Minnesota. He and his wife travelled to Kenya in September, on a trip planned by Craig Beal, the owner of Travel Beyond (travelbeyond.com). “We jumped at the chance when the Kenyan borders opened. We booked it and went a week later.”