As I spend my days helping to plan safari holidays, I’m on the receiving end of countless emails with links to safari camp newsletters and blogs. In general they’re an interesting mix of staffing news, updates on property renovations, wildlife sightings, and conservation information.

There are plenty I skim, or let my colleagues examine forensically, but there are a few I will ensure I take the time to look through.

If any of them catch your interest and you think “Great, but I’ll have forgotten which website I was on and won’t know when the next article is published” take a look at a reader like Feedly.com where you can set up a number of sites that interest you and keep up to date with their latest updates easily.

Now that’s out of the way, here are my four favourites (listed in alphabetical order):

&Beyond

&Beyond’s first iteration was Conservation Corporation Africa, which morphed into CCAfrica before they took on properties outside Africa and needed a new name. Since the ampersand doesn’t work in a website name, you’ll find their blogs at blog.andbeyond.com.

With luxurious African lodges in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya, they have a wide range of sources for the inspiration for their stories, and they’re certainly offering more than just a weekly wildlife report. Recent additions to their list include:

Top 10 Sensory Experiences – getting people to experience travel through all five senses, with some suggestions throughout their portfolio.

Stop And Smell The Roses – the story of the roses found throughout their properties in Tanzania; where they’re sourced and how they get them into remote lodges.

Londolozi

Londolozi have had almost fifty years of photographic safaris in their private area alongside Kruger National Park. While the team nowadays goes well beyond the original Varty family, there is still a strong team ethos with the mish mash of personalities who make up the staff known as the Londolozi Family.

Although there’s more covered in their stories than just nice pictures, I generally turn to their blog when I’m after some photographic inspiration. A couple of articles that resonated with me in the last couple of months are:

The Internal Conflict of Photography – which examines whether a photograph is worth taking at all.

A Change Of Plans – looking at how guides and trackers use their knowledge of animal behavior to get clients the best wildlife sightings.

Singita

Singita are arguably top of the heap when it comes to the finer things on safari, not just in their interior design, but service levels too. They once flew a guide with a colleague and me between two of their camps as he ‘knew what we’d seen in our first set of game drives’. They also passed on our lunchtime drink preferences (fizzy for me, still for her, in case you’re interested).

Their blogs are found at singita.com/blog and cover a real mix of subjects. In all cases the photos alongside the text typically make me want to be back in Africa – a good sign indeed.

This is particularly true in the Safari Snapshots blog which showcases their top 10 Instagram posts of 2016.

I also particularly enjoyed their four videos in a post entitled Conservation and Community – Finding the perfect balance.

Wilderness Safaris

Wilderness Safaris currently operate luxury safari camps in seven Africa and Indian Ocean countries – Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – with Bisate Lodge making Rwanda the eighth when it opens later this year.

Their conservation and community/culture blogs are often a long read with a fair amount of detail. But I think they’ll agree with me that they are more a ‘conservation company funded by tourism’ then they are ‘simply hoteliers’. For those interested in their behind the scenes work, these articles are typically an inspiring read. You will find them here: wilderness-safaris.com/blog/posts.

I’ve particularly enjoyed the following articles recently:

Children from Three Nations Come Together – The story of a Children In The Wilderness camp where kids are hosted in a camp for a week and get to learn about the environment and conservation, while having fun.

Making a Difference on the Nedbank Tour de Tuli – I’m a mountain biker, so I’m always going to be drawn to a story about riding bikes through wildlife areas. And this is a huge ride which raises money for conservation as well. What’s not to like.

Thoughts or questions?

Got your own favourite blog I haven’t included, or have a question on the ones I have? Comment section below, or pop us an email. I will be sure to reply and may amend the article to include my answer.

What next?

We would be delighted to help you plan a holiday, or answer any questions if you’re at an earlier stage. Our team of experts have travelled widely throughout Africa. They can offer expert advice on every type of safari from family and beach holidays to riding and primate safaris.  If you would like to talk to someone who has been there and done it, please just send us an email or give us a call.

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