My Favorite Safari Experiences

I always wanted to go to Africa because of the rich wildlife and even though I only had 14 days to experience this magical place, the adventures did not disappoint. Even though I had an amazing time and an amazing experience with animals every day there were a few that stood out.

These are my favourite safari experiences

Read more: Experience the Magic of an African Safari

As we drove towards the gates of Krüger National Park on day number two, not even having officially entered the National Park yet we could hear loud animal noises behind us. Coming out of the dark were 5-6 Cheetahs being chased off by a pack of Hyena. The number of Cheetahs both in Krüger and throughout Africa is low and getting to see so many of them taking off down the road right at their incredible speed behind our car was such a magical moment.

As we arrived in Victoria Falls we booked our activities for the next couple of days and decided to jet off on a walking safari that very same afternoon. We met up with our guide and drove off into the wilderness. He explained that there were no lions or cheetahs in the area and that is why this place was perfectly safe to explore by foot as long as you of course kept your distance from the animals and went along with a professional guide. As we went through the tall grass trying to track down the elephants we suddenly realized we had company. A large hippo had been asleep in the tall grass and we did not see it before it stood up to check out who was roaming around. As our guide shouted for us to run I was frozen and my heart skipped a beat as I looked up at the giant animal just standing 20 meters in front of me. Luckily our guide pulled us away and the hippo went back to sleep, happy with having given us a fright. It’s safe to say that my feet were shaking for the rest of the tour.

My absolute favourite experience was visiting Lion Encounter. This is an organization working towards increasing the population of lions in Africa. In the last 20-30 years the species has seen an 80-90% decline. In their project, they ethically re-introduce the offspring of captive-bread lions into the wild and we were lucky enough to meet two of the captive-bread lions. These types of conservation projects are so close to my heart and getting to be a part of them was such an amazing experience.

For our last night, we stayed at a game farm where the farmers bred different kinds of animals such as Zebras, Kudus, Giraffes, Warthogs etc. It was a huge area with a lot of hiking trails and before dinner, we decided to go explore. Trying to sneak up and get some good photos of the wildlife as time flew by. As the sun went down and we still had not found our way back we started to realise that we were lost. As it fast became darker and we could no longer see very far ahead of us and with the flashlights safe behind in our tent, we kept following the path that only took us further into the wilderness on the farm. Suddenly a loud noise could be heard and a pack of frightened Warthogs whom we had scared up ran across the road bathing us in the dust. I don’t know who got the biggest fright, them or us who did not hear them coming before they were upon us. As I looked closely I realized they had come out of a hole in the ground next to the road and that was the reason why we did not see them coming before they were in front of us. Curious as I am, cause I did not know that the Warthogs slept underground I decided to take a closer look. With the flashlights still back in the tent, I decided to use the flash on my camera to explore. As I was leaning down to take a closer look something shot out of the cave nearly knocking me to the ground. A poor little Warthog had been left behind and got frightened by the flash on my camera and decided he had to make a run for it.