Click here for the US site. 
Newsletter Articles
Fly-Camping and Beho Beho ‘Bush Nights ’
Author Victoria Langmead
We are excited about the increasing number of African lodges offering fly-camping as an activity for their guests. Typically you will walk or game drive to a remote area some distance from the main camp and spend a night or two in a simple tented bush camp. We love the fact that you get to experience really remote parts of the bush with absolutely nobody else around. For anyone with a sense of adventure, this is a real African highlight as Victoria discovered earlier this year.
Beho Beho Camp, located in Tanzania’s vast and lush Selous Game Reserve has recently launched a fly camp product known as Bush Nights. Those of you who know this property will also know that anything created by them will be nothing less than spectacular as I found out in June….
We left Beho Beho after tea and set off first in a vehicle and then on foot to arrive eventually at the remote and wild ‘Bush Nights’ location. Without giving too much away, the camp is in a very secluded spot, miles from anywhere and in contrasting scenery to the main camp. You are looked after here by your guide and wonderful team of staff.
The tents are unlike any other fly camping tent I have seen before. I was expecting safari stretcher beds – how wrong could I be? This is the real deal, the ultimate fly- camp. My jaw dropped as I admired the proper double bed, elaborate colourful Arabian nights bed spread and a gilt mirror no less in the en suite bathroom. Not your average fly-camp indeed.
This is camping in style and no stone has been left unturned. The team here have thought of everything that you could possibly wish for and safely installed it into the middle of the bush. What makes this so remarkable is that every few months, the camp is dismantled and nobody would know that it had ever existed.
The evening was spent chatting around the camp fire, enjoying a first-class meal in the middle of the African bush followed by star gazing (all the while keeping half an ear out for any lion roars or hyena cries) – what could be better?
Fly-camping has nothing to do with flying, but consists of a small, simple, temporary tented camp, often operated as a satellite from a main camp, set up in remote bush location. No one seems to know for sure exactly where the name fly-camp comes from, but the most likely explanation is that it derives from the word fly-sheet which refers to the outer canvas sheet of a tent. Hunters would traditionally just take this sheet with them when they went out into the bush, and sleep underneath it. Hence the name fly-camp.
Why go on fly camp:
- Experience what it is like to be in a remote wilderness part of the African bush knowing that there is not another person for miles
- Although simple, fly-camps are comfortable with all the luxuries and amenities provided including hand basins and long drop loos
- Fly-camps can be a fantastic contrast and perfect complement to a longer stay in a luxury safari lodge.
- Nothing quite beats a bucket of fire-warm water for a shower in the middle of nowhere with the African night sky above you as a canopy
- Dinner under the stars and story telling beside the camp fire
- Yes it’s camping, but it is by no means boy scout camping. Fly camping is non participatory – there is always a wonderful team of staff who set up camp for you so no worries about tent pegs and the like.
- It’s real Africa at its best.
The content of this website is © Aardvark Safaris unless otherwise stated.