1. Maasai Mara National Reserve Kenya
"The Migration" in
action: thousands of wildebeest wind through the Masai Mara in search of fresh
grass and water.
Best for: Big cats and the great migration.
The Maasai Mara national Reserve, also known as "The Mara," is the venue for
arguably the most astounding wildlife spectacle on earth.
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Every year during the great migration an estimated 2.5 million
animals make a round-trip journey of 2,000 kilometers across the Serengeti
ecosystem between Tanzania and Kenya.
The Mara has been described as the most prolific wildlife
real-estate on earth and is perhaps Africa's greatest safari destination.
Similarly, the Serengeti, which is contiguous with The Mara to the
south, is one of Africa's truly untamed wildernesses, with seemingly endless
expanses of swaying savannah where plains herds graze and lions and cheetah
maintain a vigil from their lookout kopjes.
2. Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana
Look out for the bat-eared
fox.
Best for: Untamed, limitless desert wilderness and the tough Kalahari
lions.
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Botswana's Central
Kalahari Game Reserve is Africa at its
rawest. The San Bushmen have lived here for an estimated 30,000 years and the
first explorers knew this area as "the plains where courage fails."
There are only a few lodges that allow an opportunity to explore
the reserve without the safety net of a full-blown four-wheel drive expedition
vehicle and in this area you could not feel farther removed from the crowds and
tour buses of other parks.
In the heart of the Kalahari you camp within earshot of roaring
lions, in the certain knowledge that there will rarely be anyone else within 50
kilometers.
3. Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda
Explore the rugged Savannah
of Kidepo.
Best for: Spectacular landscapes and great buffalo herds.
With sprawling savannah and soaring mountains, Kidepo National
Park might be the most picturesque park in Africa.
Sharing borders with Sudan and Kenya's Northern Frontier District,
it is Uganda's most beautiful, remote and least-explored park. Kidepo was once the playground of the late president Idi
Amin and you can still visit the haunting ruins of a lodge that could just as
easily have been designed as a massive bunker.
Those who take the trouble to get here are rewarded with
phenomenal wildlife sightings and a level of exclusivity that can rarely be had
at any cost in neighboring countries.
4. Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, Tanzania
A buffalo eats grass at the
Ngorongoro National Park in northern Tanzania.
Best for: Near guaranteed sightings of the "Big Five" (elephant,
lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard).
Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater could be the most compact wildlife venue on the
planet. From the first spellbinding glimpse of the crater and the
stomach-churning descent down the inner walls, your senses are assaulted by
Africa at its most intense.
Africa's
most luxurious safaris
During a single morning you can easily rack up unforgettable
sightings of elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard.
If this is your first time on safari it can be the perfect choice
but aficionados complain that this amazing little "lost world" makes
it all too easy.
5. Etosha National Park, Namibia
Bubal hartebeests in Etosha
park.
Best for: Cheetah spotting and waterhole stakeouts.
Etosha National Park is Namibia's premier wildlife venue and one of
Africa's most hypnotic landscapes.
The park takes its name from a local word meaning "Great
White Place" and the startling white pan (which was a lake bed 12 million
years ago) covers about a quarter of Etosha's 22,300 square kilometers.
The key to wildlife spotting here is to focus on the waterholes
that dot these lizard-baking, mirage-haunted plains.
Etosha is home to the Big Five, vast herds of gazelle and antelope
and (depending on season) more than 300 species of birds.
6. National Parks along Gambia River, The Gambia
There are six parks along
the Gambia River -- perfect for bird-spotting.
Best for: Bird watching and West African aquatic wildlife.
The Gambia is effectively little more than the opposing banks of
West Africa's greatest river, but the
six national parks strung along Gambia River constitute
one of Africa's most unexpected safari venues.
The country has traditionally been written off by safari
connoisseurs as "hunted out" but its reputation as a safari
destination has been sadly understated.
Not only is it a paradise for bird-watchers (with almost 600
species) but its bush is home to monkey, baboon and chimpanzee, and its
crocodile-infested waters offer rarer sightings like African otter and manatee.
7. Ahaggar National Park, Algeria
The Ahaggar Mountains --
also known as Hoggar Mountains -- are a highland area in the central Sahara
desert.
Best for: Tuareg nomadic culture and vast, sweeping Sahara landscapes.
On a map of North Africa, Algeria's Ahaggar National
Park is where the "H" would be in
"SAHARA."
This immense park is 40 times the size of the entire Gambian
nation but, far from being a massive wasteland, the center of the world's
greatest desert is a diverse area, boasting classic dunes and a 3,000-meter
mountain range.
Despite its reputation, security is rarely a problem in this area:
as the local Tuareg people are quick to point out, in this vast country you're
further from Algiers than you would be if you'd stayed in London.
8. Kruger National Park, South Africa
A lion on the banks of the
Luvuvhu river in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Best for: Accessible wilderness and activity safaris.
Kruger National Park, South Africa's flagship park, is famous for the great diversity
of habitats (16 macro eco-zones have been recognized here) that can be found in
the 300 kilometers of wilderness that lie between the Limpopo and the Crocodile
rivers.
Kruger is the most accessible and best equipped of Africa's great
parks and makes an ideal venue for self-drive safaris, since it is well
signposted, well maintained and even boasts restaurants and gas stations.
Apart from wonderful wildlife sightings, other great adventure
draw-cards of Kruger are its range of multi-day hiking trails and
mountain-biking tours.
9. Okavango Delta, Botswana
The Okavango Delta is the
world's largest inland delta and home to an array of wildlife.
Best for: Huge crocodiles and mokoro (dugout) safaris.
Okavango Delta, the world's biggest inland delta, is a wetland wilderness that is
almost the same size as Israel.
Here the waters that fell as highland rains in far-off Angola are
finally swallowed by the sands of Botswana's Kalahari.
A waterborne safari, paddling over the clear waters (no murky
swamps or mangroves in the Okavango) in a mokoro dugout can either be an
unforgettably serene experience or one of Africa's most nerve-wracking wildlife
encounters depending on the proximity of the Delta's great pods of hippos and
its six-meter crocs.
10. Perinet Reserve, Madagascar
The indri is a type of
lemur, native to Madagascar.
Best for: Giant lemur and many of Madagascar's unique creatures.
Perinet
Reserve is the ideal place for the safari
buff who claims to have seen it all. An astounding 80% of Madagascar's wildlife
can be found only on the mysterious "island of the moon."
Perinet is the location of the country's greatest tracts of Indian
Ocean rainforest and the only place to see the giant indri.
This great fluffy, black-and-white lemur (looking like a
seven-year-old child in a panda suit) sends up a haunting siren call that
carries far across the mist-shrouded canopy. It is one of the most
unforgettable sounds of the African wilderness.