Included in trip price and Local payment

The tour cost and local tour payment includes transport in a fully equipped overland expedition vehicle, road taxes and tolls, services of the driver-leader, use of camping and cooking equipment, campsite fees, entrance to game parks as specified, and two meals a day while on the truck. Generally at lunchtimes we eat at small cafes or restaurants where you can try cheap and tasty local food. If no local food is available we eat on the truck.

Included in trip price and Local payment

The tour cost and local tour payment includes transport in a fully equipped overland expedition vehicle, road taxes and tolls, services of the driver-leader, use of camping and cooking equipment, campsite fees, entrance to game parks as specified, and two meals a day while on the truck. Generally at lunchtimes we eat at small cafes or restaurants where you can try cheap and tasty local food. If no local food is available we eat on the truck.

Not included in price

* Please be aware that once you are booked, your deposit and balance is non refundable. Insure yourself when you book for the full duration of the trip and your whole time away.

Inoculations and Malaria

If possible start your vaccinations two months, but as late as two weeks before departure. Your GP can also inoculate but may take a while to get to get the vaccine in.

Malaria - The risk of contracting malaria in the areas we visit is high. You should be aware that malaria tablets offer only partial protection against malaria and that you should couple taking the tablets with mosquito bite avoidance. The malarial mosquitoes come out at night that is from the beginning of sunset onwards, so from this time you should cover up in long sleeves, jeans or track suit pants plus socks, as mosquitoes tend to bite around the feet and ankles. You must also use insect repellent containing Deet, bring some you will need it. The use of repellents and covering up can be as effective as the use of tablets, so by coupling both methods of protection together you should be malaria free. Whatever type of prophylactic you choose to use you should try a sample of it well before you go as adverse reactions can occur. This often happens with the Larium or Mephloquine type of drug. A can of fly spray is handy for clearing your tent of mosquitoes and bugs before you go to bed.

Medical Kits We carry First Aid kits on board for emergency use only. However, the crew is not entitled to recommend or prescribe any medicine. We advise a health check with your GP and Dentist before you start your journey, and that you carry your own medical kit with you.

General tour Highlights

Tour highlights
The Masai Mara
The Masai Mara (also spelled Maasai Mara) is a large park reserve in south-western Kenya, which is effectively the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park game reserve in Tanzania. Named for the Maasai people (the traditional inhabitants of the area) and the Mara River which divides it, it is famous for its exceptional population of game and the annual migration of the wildebeest every July and August, a migration so immense it is called the Great Migration.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, established in 1959, is a pioneering experiment in multiple land use.
Here pastoralists, conservation and tourism co-exist in a carefully managed harmony. The centrepiece of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater which is a caldera.
The Crater floor is a natural sanctuary for thousands of animals and many species of insects and birds. Lush highlands surround the Crater, falling away to the tawny plains and alkaline lakes of the Great Rift Valley.

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and scientific value; it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa.

The name 'Serengeti' comes from the Maasai language and appropriately means an 'extended place'. The National Park lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east. As such, it offers the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth.

Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam is the largest city and the political and economic capital of Tanzania. Located in a quiet bay off the Indian Ocean coast, the city has grown in economic importance to become a prosperous centre of the entire East African region. Its bustling harbour is the main port in Tanzania and also the departure point for the Island of Zanzibar.

Zanzibar Island

Portuguese invasion and control of the Swahili Coast in the late 16th century ended the golden age of the archipelago, although the Omani Arabs returned to power less than a century later. Today, many of the winding streets and high townhouses of old Stone Town remain unchanged and visitors can walk between the sultan’s palace, the House of Wonders, the Portuguese fort and gardens, the merchants’ houses, and the Turkish baths of the old city. Day-long spice tours to working plantations offer visitors the chance to observe the cultivation of cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and other spices that have made the island famous.

Lake Malawi

Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa in Mozambique), is the most southerly lake in the Great African Rift Valley system. The lake, third largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world, is situated between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. The lake's tropical waters teem with more fish species than any other lake on Earth. Famously visited by the Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone, Lake Malawi has sometimes historically been referred to by English-speaking people as "Livingstone's Lake."

South Luangwa National Park

South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia, the southernmost of three national parks in the valley of the Luangwa River, is a world-renowned wildlife haven. It supports large populations of Thorneycroft's Giraffe and herds of elephant and buffalo often several hundred strong, while the Luangwa River supports abundant crocodiles and hippopotamuses. It is one of the best-known national parks in Africa for walking safaris. Founded as a game reserve in 1938, it became a national park in 1972 and now covers 9,050 km².

Matopos National Park

The Matopos Hills comprise an extraordinary collection of huge bare granite hills with gravity-defying boulders scattered all over the countryside to create a quite unique and rather mysterious landscape. The most spectacular areas are within the Matopos National Park.  The local Matabele people call it Malindidzimu (the place of ancestor spirits). The national park is famous for its outstanding views, San (bushman) painted caves, wildlife (especially the Black Eagle) and as the chosen burial place of Cecil Rhodes who named his favourite spot World’s View.

Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba is a man-made lake created following the completion of the Kariba Dam which was built between 1955 and 1959 to harness the waters of the Zambezi River and provide hydro-electric power to  both Zimbabwe and Zambia. Before the waters rose, some 51,000 people of the Tonga tribe had to be resettled on higher ground.  Almost 5,000 animals were also rescued in “Operation Noah” co-ordinated by the game ranger Rupert Fothergill. The Zambezi Valley which incorporates Lake Kariba is today one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in Africa.

Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls must surely be one of the most memorable sights in the world. The mighty Zambezi River expands to an incredible width of over a mile before thundering 100 metres down a sheer chasm and into the turbulent white waters below. The area around the falls is rainforest fed by the constant spray from the falls. Beyond the falls, the river fights its way down the gorge and provides some of the best white water rafting in the world.