Cape Town to Victoria Falls camping safari
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Camping safaris mean that the environmental impacts of your visit are a bare minimum. We stay in designated campsites, and we leave each campsite in the same pristine condition when we leave. Camping safaris leave a very small footprint. We cook on gas when feasible so that we don’t have to burn firewood which depletes limited resources (particularly in desert environments – Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Nxai Pan National Park & Makgadikgadi Pans National Park). We request clients to purchase small wooden carvings curio instead of large pieces, again to conserve the forests around the carving markets.
We take all of our rubbish out of wilderness areas and use proper waste disposal facilities on all tours (and in the workshop). All entrance fees for the Caprivi National Park, Etosha, Namib Desert, Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans & Chobe go directly to these parks and ensure that these amazing areas are persevered for future generations. We encourage clients to drink the local clean drinkable tap water wherever possible in order to minimize the amount of plastic bottle waste produced buy the purchase of bottled drinking water.
Our tour leaders are well trained to explain to members of the tour how to behave and interact with all of the wildlife that we encounter. At no time are they allowed to put any stress on the local wildlife. We also enforce a policy of not feeding any wildlife and to appreciate the natural state of the areas that we visit and to leave the area in exactly the same condition that it was when we arrived. Should we get to an area where there is litter, the tour leaders ensure that the group helps in picking up the rubbish. This will only take a few minutes, but makes people aware of how we value the natural assets that Southern Africa is blessed with.
SOS trees project - Okavango Botswana
For hundreds of years, the local communities in and around Botswana's Okavango Delta have used the wood of the sausage tree to craft their traditional mokoro (dugout canoes). The knowledge and skill have been passed down from generation to generation and, up until recently, has been a sustainable practice. With increasing numbers of people visiting the Delta each year, more mokoro are needed and as a direct result, more and more sausage trees are being felled and the sausage tree is sadly disappearing from the region. A traditional wooden mokoro will have to be replaced every five years, thereby placing increased pressure on the dwindling sausage tree supply.
We have established a project to encourage polers in the local communities to buy replica fiberglass mokoro’s, which have a lifespan of approximately ten years, are more stable and are produced without any negative affect to the environment. As such, sponsorship for each fiberglass mokoro is needed, and a portion of the tour cost will be donated to the project, but we also will offer our clients the opportunity to contribute to this worthwhile cause. Please feel free to contact the office for more information on the SOS trees project or if you would like to make any contributions towards this project. It is something that is close to all of our hearts and we hope that it will be successful.
Community
Our walks in the Brandburg mountains to view the busman rock art are lead by a local community guide. Along with the guide, the community has also set up a small museum that provides more information of the area. The local community directly benefits from your visit through the employment of the local guide and the entrance fees. Without the local communities involvement these amazing rock art sites would not be preserved.
Our visit to the Kalahari is for the express purpose to meet these amazing people whose culture is under threat of being lost. Our bush walk with the San bushman teaches us how it is possible to find food and water in this harsh environment. The area that we visit in the Kalahari has been set aside for a small community of San Bushman so that they can live in their traditional way. Your visit not only brings in much needed money, but it helps to show the younger generations that there is still a lot of value to their traditional way of life.
We use local 'polers' to take us into the Okavango Delta. The polers have an intimate knowledge of the Okavango Delta, and their employment as guides ensure that the local community benefit from tourism and ensures that these areas are conserved for future generations.
All food bought on tour is obtained from the areas that we travel from, thereby supporting local stores and food suppliers. All accommodation and camp grounds (excluding the national parks) are locally owned and run. These establishments ensure that there is a steady supply of employment for the areas that we visit, and that our groups get a chance to interact with the local people.
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