Immerse yourself in a unique and profound exploration of the African travel experience. Go beyond the surface and unravel the layers of its vibrant tapestry. From diverse cultural experiences to awe-inspiring landscapes, delve deep into the heart of diverse journeys. This blog is your portal to the true essence of Africa, offering insights into the intricacies that make each adventure a transformative experience. Discover the lesser-known narratives, captivating encounters, and the power of African travel to transcend the ordinary.
Sharing safari stories around a campfire is the perfect way to bring people together, Image Credit: Royal Zambezi Lodge
An Engine Called Desire
I'm in a reverie in early summer on a lazy Sunday morning in Edinburgh. It's early June, and the track Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" starts to play served to me on the silver platter that is the Apple iTunes curated "Brunch Playlist". It's scary how well Siri knows me!
In an instant, I magicked away to the dance floor of my wedding – the honeyed tones of her unmistakably nuanced voice setting the stage for my first dance as a married woman.
With each note of this song, a flood of memories from our "Big Day" washes over me. My soul swoons with the experience as I relive it in my mind. Tugging on my heartstrings, a sudden longing to return to Cape Town to stand in the garden where we took our wedding photos sweeps me off my feet.
Carried away on the rapids of my emotions, I find myself planning a trip to South Africa. The power of memory has me wishing, "Please, take me back to Africa!"
Africa is a feeling, Image Credit: Singita
The Rising Star Of The African Experts
If you've never visited Africa, how do you know what you're missing? Yet, the world is awash with travel inspiration in a crowded market of selfies and sponsored advert campaigns; how can Africa shine as a destination of choice for today's travellers?
In the luxury travel sphere, there's a constant striving to provide an experience receiving critical acclaim as "the best". With travel experiences being highly subjective, how is this quantified? We may build upon that quality when curating exceptional experiences and memories.
The hyper-personalised travel trend has sparked a growing trend of travellers working with travel experts. Before the advent of the internet, and in the words of P!nk, travel agents were the traveller's connection to the "party line".
It's about being in the right place at the right time, Image Credit: Nyamatusi Camp
In Africa, It's Not What You Know, But Who
Today, as in yore, destination experts painstakingly tease out the traveller's requirements through well-hewn qualifiers like questionnaires, consultative calls, and close collaboration with hand-picked travel providers in the destination of choice.
Fuelled by a desire to exceed expectations and use their first-hand knowledge, astute travel planners go to great lengths to match their clients' needs, wants, and desires with destinations, travel providers, and experiences.
For some, this could mean a six-star journey staying at Africa's most luxurious hotels, lodges, trains, and safari camps. Honeymooners, spoilt for choice in Africa, chart an uncommon course bound for the "seventh continent" Madagascar, to enjoy a post-nuptial safari with an adventurous twist.
Beautiful Nosy Be in Madagascar offers a romantic African travel experience
Escaping the Crowds
Others prefer to peel back the layers of luxury to reveal the natural beauty of Mother Nature. Their idea of a fantastic experience is an off-the-beaten-track exploration of Africa's wild spaces featuring a thrilling multi-day canoe safari fly-camping along the mighty Selinda Spillway in a remote tract of Botswana's Okavango Delta and Linyanti Swamp ecosystem.
A mokoro safari, Image Credit: African Bush Camps
Here, Mother Nature is the unrivalled star of the show on the vast continent of Africa: deserts, mountains, oceans, lakes and savannah plains. Remembering the sky, the setting against which the drama of summer thunderstorms roll across South Africa's vast 7,523 square mile Kruger National Park plays out, a whip of lightning momentarily shattering the serenity like an electrically charged whip. Afterwards, the clouds make way for some shining photo opportunities.
Bird Watcher's Paradise
Sometimes, the sky is a calming duck egg blue or as overcast as a sheet of beaten pewter, providing a serene backdrop for migrations of birds. Shadowed by "twitchers", the affectionate nomenclature for birdwatchers is characterised by those who traverse far distances to spot rare avian species.
Other times, the sky acts as a blank canvas upon which the colours of our consciousness splash as we lie stretched out on our backs, gazing upward in a daydream illuminated by slipshod flashes of inspiration.
An authentic African travel experience in Botswana, Image Credit: Linyanti Bush Camp
Africa Consistently Delivers Singular Travel Experiences
As we ponder our place in the universe, we recognise Africa's deserts and arid badlands. Utterly desolate, devoid of noise, traffic and light pollution, the solace in the arid moonscapes of Africa's wastelands is profound.
Descendents of Southern Africa's Khoisan first people, the San Bushmen of Botswana's Kalahari, have fostered an ancient connection with the land and sky. Learn about their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and their intrinsic, tenuous relationship with nature.
Discover what it means to live life in the margins. Their way of life could not be further from the Western way of life, where wealth is attributed to material goods, accumulating in virtual vaults of cyber currency, stocks, bonds and real estate deeds.
Visit the San Bushmen in Botswana on one of our African safari and culture tours
The payoff for this lifestyle can be costly, marked by rampant stress and off-the-charts anxiety – a dismal reality from which many rural-dwelling Africans are spared. Experiencing an inkling of this personal freedom could be why there is a growing demand for experience in Africa.
As a young adult, I once travelled to Namibia and felt a seismic shift in my soul. I felt somehow that I'd been here before and that I belonged – like the Himba, a semi-nomadic pastoralist tribe that belongs to the Namib, the world's oldest desert.
Each time I travel there, I experience the same inexplicable feeling. And I cannot wait to take my family there one day in the hopes that they, too, experience the land of contrasts in such a dramatic, timeless way.
Himba women walking through the Namib Desert
Seek And Find Happiness in Africa
Unfailing in their ability to deliver transformative travel experiences, the diverse peoples of Africa exceed expectations. Africans are natural storytellers; the desire and ability to communicate is innate. Whether around a dining room table, at a picnic, or a quirky stall at a flea market, you will likely be greeted by a warm smile and an open invitation to chat.
Travellers who have yet to go to Africa do not know what they are missing. Who will whisper it to them? Will it be you? I hope their soul is eavesdropping.
Get your first taste of Africa by reaching out to Rhino Africa's Travel Experts today. But be warned: one trip to Africa is never enough.
