A big 5 safari isn’t the only African wildlife experience that’s “bucket list” worthy. These encounters are worthy of a spot on anyone’s list.
(Our featured image is by hjallig)
Gorillas in your midst – Bwindi National Park, Uganda
Bwindi National Park in Uganda and the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda are practically the only spots on Earth where you’ve got a chance of seeing gorillas in the wild. Trekking through dense jungle from first light is no walk in the park. But the hard slog feels well worthwhile once you’re sat peacefully in the company of a habituated group of our closest cousins.
Swim with a whale shark – Tofo, Mozambique
Mozambique is a fantastic scuba diving destination. Several dive centres and resorts are scattered along its scenic coastline, and because it’s still a fairly under-the-radar destination (“fairly” being the operative word), dives are relatively cheap. With sightings reported year round, Tofo is probably the best place on the planet to swim with a whale shark (the world’s largest fish).
Witness The Great Migration – Maasai Mara, Kenya
This epic natural phenomenon is often described as wildlife’s biggest spectacle. Year round, the more than one million wildebeests, 200,000 zebras and more than 350,000 Thomson’s gazelle migrate in unison, newborn in tow, from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park to the lush plains of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and vice versa.
Chill with chimpanzees – Greystoke Mahale, Tanzania
Greystoke Mahale is a gorgeous eco-camp in Tanzania’s Mahale National Park. With the turquoise waters of Lake Tanganyika on one side and the forested slopes of the 8,000-foot Mahale Mountains on the other, it’s feels like a storybook African idyll. The owners have been sensitively observing the chimps that inhabit the mountains for two decades now. Camp visitors have the enviable opportunity to join a trek and encounter the chimps themselves.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
