Time to have a bit of fun! If you could magic together (with the help of teleportation) your dream day in Africa, what would it look like? Aiming for about 300 words, email your thoughts to editor@travelafricamag.com and we’ll share it in a future issue of the magazine or newsletter.
To get the ball rolling, we asked Jenny Bowen for hers….
As the sun rises over the horizon, I would be on a game drive in the eastern section of Etosha National Park in Namibia, spending the early hours searching for lion, cheetah, leopard and hyena. The Namutoni region of Etosha has several waterholes, and simply sitting at one in the cool morning air, filled with anticipation and surrounded by that wide-open expanse, is like nothing else. That’s where I would be at dawn.
By late morning I would find myself on a rhino drive in Hlane Royal National Park, Eswatini. This is an exceptional experience and although the guides say it is 80 per cent driving and 20 per cent walking, it is often the other way around. Spending most of the safari on foot with white rhino only 10m away, you’ll probably claim a world record for holding your breath the longest!
Next, I would head to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Here I would spend the early afternoon being poled in a mokoro along beautiful waterways, immersed in peace and tranquillity. I love trailing my fingers through the crystal-clear water as we silently glide along channels carved by hippo, watching African jacanas flit between the lily pads.
For sundowners I would want to be in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, where there’s a chance of seeing wild dog, hyena and a host of other animals. This is the ultimate sundowner location: standing beside the vehicle, sipping a gin and tonic and watching a herd of around 50 elephants make their way down to the waterhole.
Finally, I would love to be transported back to the peaceful Namib Desert, with all those stars twinkling overhead and a silence so profound it can seem deafening.
A perfect day!
Jenny Bowen is the founder of Sense Earth, which organises small group holidays in southern Africa and Uganda
