Sofa safaris
Some of the best wildlife experiences are now available to you online
With our borders still closed for travel, the tourism industry is finding interesting ways of allowing us to enjoy the wider world from the safety of our homes. These include anything from virtual tours in museums and art galleries, to online safaris in our own beautiful country. Those yearning for the wilderness have a few options for virtual safaris – even live – where one can go along for the ride and enjoy a bush experience that is as real as is possible right now.
Singita
Singita takes you from their lodges in Sabi Sand, to the vast plains of the Serengeti via Instagram Live. Join their live game drives and enjoy sightings from the bush in real time – from elephant encounters at Sabi Sand, to giraffes traversing the plains in the Grumeti. Follow the Facebook and Instagram feeds for up-to-the-minute updates.
Kruger National Park
Via its YouTube channel Wild Earth, rangers from the Kruger National Park are doing a sunrise and sunset game drive daily. Especially beneficial for children – and an opportunity to educate them on the bush despite being indoors – the channel has a chat function where rangers answer all your questions live.
Drives depart at 5.30am and 4pm. And when Wild Earth isn’t live, you can still view the feed from the Djuma Waterhole camera, in the Sabi Sand area of the greater Kruger National Park.
Ulusaba Private Game Reserve
Part of the Virgin Limited Edition Group, Ulusaba Private Game Reserve is adapting to the current challenges and bringing the joy of the game drive directly to your phone in the form of Instagram Live broadcasts. Benefit from the expertise and skill of their excellent rangers as they track the reserve’s resident lion pride, Tlangisa, the proud female leopard with her two new cubs, or the new elephant baby. The real-time crossovers take place on Mondays at 3.30pm.
Explore Africa
Explore is the largest live nature cam network and have cameras running at natural spots, like waterholes, all over the world. They bring nature to you unscripted and unedited in real time from Kenya to the riverbanks of Katmai, Alaska and everywhere in between. Visit the full multicam experience on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube – and have patience, you have nowhere else to go anyway.