SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARIS

Kgalaghadi Park

Another favourite safari will be in the Kgalaghadi Park, also known as the “Peace Park” which is, at 3.8 million hectares, nearly twice the size of the Kruger National Park.

The semi-desert of the Kalahari (Kgalaghadi) - is not for sissies!

Kgalaghadi means "place of thirst" in the San language.

It is a hard, arid land with endless red sand dunes and beautiful camel thorn trees that serve as lookout points for leopards and provide shade for the kings of the Kalahari Desert - the magnificent black-maned lions.

The river-beds are usually dry and provide the best game viewing. Also be on the lookout for the large, beautiful desert antelope (the gemsbok) and the hyper-active suricate (meerkat).

The graceful gazelle, the springbok, graze in the arid veld – they once swarmed in huge herds throughout Southern Africa. Bird lovers will be impressed by the enormous communal nests of the busy little weavers, ever in danger of being snapped away by the pygmy falcons, the smallest falcon in Africa.

The highlight of your SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARIS is certain to be the amazing!

Kruger National Park:

Imagine the size of it - it is three times the size of the Netherlands!

Here, where Bushmen once hunted as is evident from paintings on the walls of rock shelters, most of the wildlife to be found in Africa roams freely, including the Big Five.

Game abounds In this animal kingdom, which was once also peopled by adventurous hunters, prospectors and transport men - the park contains many small piles of stones marking the graves of these long-forgotten pioneers.

Here, the most numerous of the game is the graceful impala, followed by the second most common animal species, the buffalo, who roam the sweet grass plains between the Sabie and Crocodile rivers.

Other animals in this huge park include Burchell's zebra; blue wildebeest; the thundering and trumpeting elephants; the kudu with its magnificent horns; giraffe; the shaggy and powerfully built waterbuck - a good swimmer; hippo; lion; sable antelope; leopard; wild dog; the cheetah - the fastest of all animals; black and white rhino; the spotted hyena - the scavenger and undertaker of the park; black-backed jackal; the hedgehog; the agile and dainty steenbok; the vervet and samango monkeys; the inquisitive mischievous baboon; the comical warthog with its tail held erect when it flees; bushbaby, and many, many other species of animals.

South Africa also has a fantastic range of game farms and lodges and side attractions like elephant and camel rides, bird eye viewing from hot air balloon rides, etc.

Bird life

Bird lovers will find themselves in paradise among the hundreds of species which include the clowns of the bird world, the hornbill; vultures; the stately secretary birds and grave ground hornbills; the sacred ibis; ostriches; and herons and storks that follow the grazing herds.

There are hundreds of species, from tiny ones like the Bronze Mannikin to the huge ostrich.

There are sea birds and all kinds of water species to be found at marshes, lakes, pans and flood lands, like the beautiful flamingo; ground birds, soaring eagles, owls, insect eaters … species too numerous to mention here.

You will find our feathered friends everywhere on your safari: in the mature tree veld of the Zambezi River Valley, in the undergrowth in the savannahs, in the thorn tree savannah of the Kalahari, in the mixed tree Bushveld and in the ever green forests of the high rainfall areas, and you will find birds aplenty in the evergreen dune forests around the coastal lakes, in the mountain grass veld and in the half arid Karoo with its flat-top hills and desert grass - and it is amazing how many very interesting species are to be found in the seemingly lifeless Namib Desert.