Balloon Safaris
As an extra treat while you are on safari, and to see the wildlife in a completely different way, try a balloon safari. You take off very early in the morning and then float over the wildlife, as the sun rises over the plains. On landing you will be given a delicious champagne breakfast in the bush!

Balloon safaris are offered in the Masai Mara in Kenya, the Serengeti in Tanzania, and at Sossuvlei in Namibia.

Battlefield Tours
We can arrange for you to stay close to both the Boer War and Zulu War battlefields and to be guided through the events which shaped South Africa’s history.

There are many battlefields to explore and different places to stay nearby, but 'top of the pops' is Fugitive's Drift. Rob Caskie has very successfully taken over the helm after David Rattray's untimely death in 2007 and he will enthrall you with tales of derring-do, as you explore the sites of the battles before retiring to the comfort of Fugitive’s Drift Lodge.

Further west in the Drakensbergs, Andrew Ardingly will similarly inspire you about the Boer War battles at Three Tree Hill Lodge.

Diving/Snorkelling
The Indian Ocean islands and coast are home to a different animal kingdom for you to explore. The warm waters and coral reefs provide a home for thousands of varieties of tropical fish. The sea off East and Southern Africa is usually wonderfully clear, and with the reefs close to shore, good diving and snorkelling is on your doorstep. There are several dive centres along the coast, which can offer courses for complete beginners upwards, with challenging and rewarding diving for the more experienced.

Additionally, Lake Malawi offers the best fresh water diving and snorkelling in the world, with shoals of brightly coloured and exotic, cichlid fish.

Elephant-back Safaris
In the minds of many people, elephants represent something wise and essentially timeless, the opportunity to interact with them in the Okavango Delta in Botswana can be a very emotional experience. Here you are given the chance of interacting with a group of habituated African elephants, and exploring the lagoons and plains of the delta that is their natural habitat. Game viewing from the back of an elephant gives you an obvious height advantage when looking for animals, you travel quite slowly and surprisingly silently, but can cross all sorts of terrain in order to get close to the local wildlife. This is not a cheap way to explore Africa, but it is a unique experience and the ultimate in 4 x 4!

Fishing
There is fishing to suit every sort of fisherman in Africa.
For freshwater fishermen, the trout streams in the highlands of Malawi and Kenya provide good sport on the fly, or you can test your strength against the legendary tiger fish in the massive Zambezi River and the Okavango Delta.

Dainty Tilapia and vast Nile Perch can be caught in Lake Turkana, northern Kenya.
Deep sea fishing boats can be chartered along much of the East African coast, with every opportunity for bumper catches of yellow-fin tuna, sailfish and marlin, and there is also excellent saltwater fly fishing in the shallow waters of the Indian Ocean.

Game Drives
Game drives are the most popular way to view animals up close. The animals are less shy of vehicles than of people on foot and in many of the National Parks they are used to the vehicles moving amongst them. Hence you will have the opportunity to study these wild animals intimately and take fantastic photographs of them.

We recommend safaris where the vehicles are specially adapted for safari, usually 4x4 Land Rovers or Land Cruisers, with a maximum of 4-6 people in each, so that everyone gets a good view. No zebra buses here!

Primate Safaris
Gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda is regarded by many as the ultimate safari. You seek out these rare and beautiful creatures in their forest habitat and then get the chance to spend time studying the interaction between the members of each group. As their very existence is so precarious, a limited number of licenses are allocated for this, so you should book well in advance.

Western Tanzania offers excellent chimpanzee safaris - from the shore of Lake Tanganyika you climb up into the Mahale Mountains, tracking the chimpanzee families that inhabit this truly wild and beautiful area.

Private Guides
If you choose one of our safaris you can be confident we will make sure you have the best guides. Top quality guiding is the most important feature of a safari and makes all the difference to how much you enjoy your safari and what you get out of it.

On some safaris, particularly mobile tented safaris, you will have the same guide throughout your holiday enabling you to build a rapport with him, but on other holidays it is better to have a local guide in each different area that you are visiting. He will know his patch better than anyone else!

We can also arrange specialist guides for private safaris – just let us know what your particular interest is (bird-watching, culture, specialist photographic) and we can advise on the best countries to visit and the best guides for your trip.

Riding Safaris
It is an extraordinary experience to traverse the wide African plains on a horse amidst a herd of zebra and giraffe or to canter through the waterways of the Okavango Delta! Being on horseback enables you to become one with the landscape and allows you to get closer to the game than being on foot and to reach places that vehicles can’t.

Some lodges in Kenya and South Africa offer horse riding as an alternative activity to game drives and many have horses for all abilities of rider.

You can also go on longer mobile riding safaris in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and Malawi, but you should be a reasonably proficient rider in order to get the most out of them.

River Safaris
There are different ways to enjoy a river safari in Africa. There is the thrill of exploring the vast expanses of the Zambezi or the Luangwa River in flood by motor boat, dodging watchful pods of hippo and startling shy antelope that have come down to the water to drink. Stop and enjoy sundowners with the setting sun reflected on the water.

You can enjoy the peace of drifting through the water in a mokoro (a traditional dug-out canoe) being poled along in the shallow reed beds of the Okavango Delta. This gives you quite a different perspective for game-viewing, as you glide silently along, watching the game at the water’s edge and this is the ideal way to observe the stunning bird life of Africa’s wetland areas as you have plenty of time to get out binoculars and study in minute detail.

Alternatively, you can join a canoe safari along the Zambezi or Lunga Rivers. These are not strenuous and previous experience is not required. From short day or half day excursions to longer expeditions with nights spent fly camping on palm covered islands, these are unforgettable experiences.

Self-drive Holidays
Some people prefer to explore by road, driving themselves at their own pace, in order to get a proper feel for a country. Self-drive holidays work very well in South Africa, where the roads are generally of a good quality, and there are plenty of fuel stations and places to break your journey. In particular, we recommend exploring by road in Kwazulu Natal, around Cape Town and the Cape winelands and along the “Garden Route” to Plettenberg.

The adventurous traveller might also consider self-drive in Namibia. Again there are good quality tarmac roads, but you must be prepared to drive long distances between each area that you visit.

Walking Safaris
Walking safaris are the most exciting and rewarding way of exploring the African Bush. Led by an experienced and informative guide, you will get to know the bush in a completely different way to observing it from a vehicle. You become aware of so many more sights and sounds and how each tiny part of the bush fits together to form the whole. It is fascinating to learn how local people use certain plants for medicines and spine-tinglingly thrilling to move silently downwind of a herd of elephant.

At many camps and lodges, pre-breakfast bird walks or short escorted bush walks can be arranged instead of the usual game drive. Alternatively, we can organise specialist longer, walking safaris for the more adventurous traveller.

Whale-watching
Between July and November, the Southern Right Whales travel to the tip of South Africa to calve in the shallow water just off land. If you want to see this extraordinary spectacle this is the best time to visit places like Walker Bay and Plettenberg where you will see these gigantic mammals from the beach!
Boat trips out to watch great white sharks, seals and the famous penguins around Boulders Beach are available throughout the year.

Leatherback and Loggerhead turtles begin nesting in November and hatch out in about March in certain places from East Africa right down into South Africa – many of which are protected by conservation projects.

White-water Rafting
White-water rafting is now hugely popular in Africa and can be done on several rivers, as a day trip or as a longer expedition. The degree of difficulty of these trips varies, so there is probably something to suit everyone. You will be assured of stunning and remote scenery in areas often accessible only from the river.

Other “adrenalin rush” activities, such as bungee jumping and giant gorge zipwires can also be arranged. The Victoria Falls area of the Zambezi in Zambia and Zimbabwe is particularly well known for these activities, and we can arrange anything for you.

Wine Tours
The Cape Winelands are famous for producing some of the best wines in the world. It is fascinating to be guided around some of the distinguished wineries in villages such as Stellenbosch and Paarl, and there are also many comfortable inns we can arrange for you that are noted for the excellent quality of their cuisine.

Wine connoisseurs and food buffs will be in heaven here.