On Safari in Kenya and Tanzania

"Safari" may be a rather simple word - it means "travel" in Swahili -yet it resonates in the imagination with powerful images of the Serengeti Plain, snow-capped Kilimanjaro, exotic predatory beasts, and the romance of a tented camp at sunset. Let your imagination wander and soon you’ll picture yourself sitting on the edge of your seat in a four-wheel-drive land cruiser in the heart of Africa, camera poised to capture the extraordinary site of a pride of lions resting in the shade of an acacia tree. Journey into the national parks and game reserves of East Africa and imagination soon becomes reality as you experience for yourself the beauty of the continent and the thrill of a safari.

Kenya

Ever since Teddy Roosevelt’s famed 1909 hunting expedition in Kenya, the country has been synonymous with big game safaris. Rudimentary camps have given way to luxurious lodges and digital cameras have replaced hunting rifles, but Kenya still offers the quintessential safari experience. The scenery itself is picture-perfect: The Rift Valley runs north to south, forming a series of spectacular escarpments that descend to a chain of scenic lakes, and towering Mount Kilimanjaro dominates the Amboseli plains. An astonishing variety of wildlife inhabits this magnificent landscape, and a modern infrastructure allows comfortable access to the parks and reserves.

Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the best known and most popular on the entire continent — a favorite with travel writers, film makers, and seasoned travelers. The reserve lies in the heart of the Rift Valley, a plain of golden grass punctuated by acacia woodland that stretches to the horizon, where rugged rocky hills shimmer in the distance. The valley floor is abundant with wildlife, including the Big Five as well as giraffe, hippo, zebra, impala, and wildebeest. The region is also home of the Masai, perhaps the most famous African tribe. They are respected for their warrior traditions and rich cultural heritage, and a safari tour usually includes a fascinating visit to a Masai village.

Just to the east of Masai Mara, Amboseli National Park is renowned both for its stunning vistas of Africa’s highest mountain and its abundant wildlife. This nowhere-else-in-the-world combination offers amazing opportunities to capture the archetypal safari photograph - big game silhouetted against the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro rising above a layer of pink-tinged clouds.

Tanzania

In 1913, an American hunter set out from Nairobi. Traveling south he wrote, "We walked for miles over burnt out country - then I saw the green trees of the river, walked two miles more and found myself in paradise." Stewart Edward White had found Serengeti. To the Masai, it was Siringitu - "the place where the land moves on forever."

Today, it’s one of Africa’s premier parks, where literally hundreds of thousands of zebra, gazelle, wildebeest and their ferocious predators roam free across a spectacular, seemingly endless vista of land and sky.

Just to the southeast of Serengeti is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world - Ngorongoro Crater. This immense caldera - the remnants of an ancient volcano - measures almost 14 miles across, and the encircling rim, seen as a chain of mountains, soars 2,000 feet above the crater floor. Here, in a virtual fishbowl, is a vast, nearly treeless expanse teeming with game - the Big Five, along with hyena, hippo, gazelle, zebra and numerous bird species including ostrich and flamingo - all displayed in extraordinary, unobstructed view.

Close to Ngorongoro is another photographer’s paradise, Lake Manyara National Park, one of the most beautiful in Tanzania. Condensed within an area of only 125 square miles is a stunning diversity of micro-habitats. Forest monkeys scamper in the woods along the river. Elephants stand in the shade of baobab trees along the slopes of the Rift Valley escarpment, and hippos wallow along the lakeshore, made colorful with flocks of flamingos. Most unusual, however, are the famed “tree climbing” lions that drape themselves precariously in the branches of the umbrella-shaped acacia trees, legs and oversized paws dangling in the air.

Visit your AAA Travel Professional for more information about an exotic safari.

A Word on the Big Five

Tour brochures and travel literature about African safaris invariably include the term "Big Five." The "Big Five" refers to the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. You might ask about other large or popular animals; certainly, a hippo is larger than a leopard, and a cheetah would be just as thrilling to spot as an elephant. The term, however, was coined by big game hunters, not safari tour companies, and is in reference to how dangerous these five particular animals are when cornered, shot and wounded.

The male Cape buffalo, for example, can weigh more than 1,500 pounds with long, curved horns atop its massive head, and even a lion is hesitant to attack a healthy male head-on. Though it lacks the sharp teeth and claws of a big cat, the Cape buffalo is reputed to have killed more big game hunters than any other animal in Africa.