John Hunwick

Kenya Safaris are amongst the most exciting adventures the world over. The vast wildlife, the many sunny beaches, the different people groupings all add up to a worthwhile investment and a de luxe not found in numerous places.

Kenya has something for any traveller. There are many dissimilar landscapes and cultures, all quite dissimilar and beautiful.

There is the desert of the northward, and The Rift Valley where grounds to believe of protohumans was first found. There are many brilliant Lakes , admitting Lake Victoria in westerly Kenya, Lake Naivasha and numerous more. Kenya has the second highest peak in Africa, the great Mt. Kenya.

Cottages with a adorable seaview. No tv, radios are permitted only the noise of the waves break & early on morning birds. Real paradise. No wonder advance bookings needed. maweni beach bungalows

The northwestern region of this country, the Turkana District, is a vast, abandon, hot, arid landscape where goatherders & bandits coexist. Lodwar, comparable to the “Dodge City” of the early American West, has the basic essentials of life, including Internet kiosks and semi-reliable electricity.

Lokichoggio, the outpost in the northeasternmost sector of this county, is home to UN refugee camps with 30,000+ people. roads are super rough, the terrain unforgiving, and people forever inquisitive about what brings you to their country.

The best places to start your travels in Kenya are probably Nairobi N.P. the capital & South of Mombasa the 2nd largest city, located on the coast. Both are served by international flights and have a very good tourist infrastructure.

Paul Everton
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/visit-kenya-109777.html

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Tanzania, as a wildlife safari destination, is known as the home of the famous Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. These two wildlife conservation areas together with many others in Tanzania, provide homes for the ever-threatened African wildlife. In fact, more than one-quarter of Tanzania is under some form of protection to preserve its biodiversity.

Some of the wildlife conservation parks in Tanzania and the animals that they provide a safe haven for, are given here:

Lake Manyara National park

The cleavage, known as the Great Rift Valley, can be identified from space as the most distinctive feature of the African continent. The seam of this cleavage has developed a series of fascinating and beautiful lakes. One of these lakes is called Manyara. Lake Manyara is also a national park. Manyara is a fantastic big game park. The variety of habitats parallels its exceptional scenery.

Every imaginable East African animal is found here in abundance. There are great herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and several varieties of gazelle. Mahogany, sausage tree and croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervet monkeys. Some of the most amazingly large pods of hippos congregate at the rivers emerging into the lake, and the birdlife is plentiful. Lake Manyara is also known for its “treeclimbing” lions.

Mikumi National Park

Mikumi National Park covers 3237 square kilometers and lies within the Mkata River plain bordered by the Uluguru Mountain range to the east and the Rubeho Mountains on the west, an area of lush vegetation which particularly attracts elephants and buffalos. Open grasslands dominate in the flood plain, eventually merging with the Miombo woodland covering the lower hills. Wildlife is abundant with giraffes, zebras, buffalos, hartebeests, wildebeests, elephants, wild dogs, and smaller mammals and reptiles. Mikumi’s vegetation includes woodland, swamp and grassland with two water holes, Mkata and Chamgore. Apart form the saddle-bill stork, hammer kop and malachite kingfisher, there are also monitor lizards and a deadly python inhabiting the pools.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro is quite unique as its physical protection from man natural beauty ranks it among the most pristine wildernesses on earth. It is regarded as a natural wonder of the world and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is the largest intact crater in the world, being 610 meters deep, 16 kilometers across and covering an area of 540 square kilometers. On the crater floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains - all a haven for wildlife, including the greatest predator population in Africa. The volcanic crater is packed with wildlife, including all the big game. Its pride and joy, however, is that it remains the last great wild refuge for the endangered black rhino.

Ruaha National Park

The Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s second largest park and the world’s largest elephant sanctuary. Although set in spectacular scenery with an abundance of wildlife, the park is one of the lesser visited in the country, keeping it an isolated and peaceful wilderness. Amongst the game found at the park are elephants, buffalos, giraffes, cheetahs, lions, leopards, a wide variety of antelope and over 465 recorded species of birdlife.

Selous National Reserve

Selous is one of the most remote and least visited game park in Africa, but at 15,000 square miles, it is the world’s largest game reserve. The name derives from hunter-explorer Frederick Courtenay Selous, a keen naturalist and conservationist as well as a hunter. He was killed in the First World War in the Beho Beho region of the reserve. The defining feature of the Selous is the great Rufiji River, which naturally splits the ecosystem into two distinct parts.

Selous National reserve can be explored by boat, sailing through swamps and lagoons where elephant often come to bathe, or even by foot, as the Selous is one of few Tanzanian reserves to allow walking tours. It has the world’s largest number of big game, more than 120,000 elephants, 160,000 buffaloes and about 2,000 rhinoceros. In addition, the Selous contains Africa’s greatest concentration of hippopotamus, crocodiles and wild dogs.

The Serengeti National park

The name ‘Serengeti’ comes from the Maasai language and appropriately means an ‘endless plains’. The National Park is as big as Northern Ireland, but its ecosystem, which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maswa Game Reserve and the Maasai Mara Game reserve (in Kenya). It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east. As such, it offers the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth.

A unique combination of diverse habitats enables the Serengeti to support more than 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species of birds. Its landscape, originally formed by volcanic activity, has been sculpted by the concerted action of wind, rain and sun. It now varies from open grass plains in the south, savanna with scattered acacia trees in the center, hilly, wooded grassland in the north, to extensive woodland and black clay plains to the west. Small rivers, lakes and swamps are scattered throughout. Rising in the southeast are the great volcanic massifs and craters of the Ngorongoro Highlands. The Serengeti plains are host to a dramatic annual migration of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and numerous other species of animals indigenous to the area.

Tarangire National Park

Tarangire National Park covers 2,600 square kilometers and is on the traditional migration route of several species of the wildlife. At dry times, the concentration of animals in Tarangire rivals that of the much better known Serengeti. Herds of migratory wildebeest, gazelle, zebra and buffalo gather along the marshy shores of Lake Natron. These pools are shared by flocks of birds: green wood hoopoes, fisher lovebirds, tallish herons, white bellied goaway birds and giant kingfishers. Resident lion, giraffe, elephant, and black rhino are common at any season;

Tarangire is noted for its baobab trees and splendid vistas of rolling savannah and acacia woodland. The strange-looking, centuriesold baobab trees are believed by the Maasai to be the first tree in creation.

Solomon Okila
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/wildlife-in-tanzania-main-national-parks-what-wild-animals-to-expect-during-your-safari-715361.html

As far as African safaris go, Zambia is the one that keeps its secret for many years and still keeps some though it is already beginning to take its crown for African safaris top destinations.

Zambia wilderness safari is absolutely an unknown realm when compared with more traditional national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and game reserves. But this still does not negate the fact that at some rate, the wilderness safaris that Zambia posses can be rated as top caliber and may even equal the qualities of other more visited hot African safari picks.

To save you from scouring over magazines, books and online, we have already collected information on some of the premium wilderness safaris, game reserves and national parks in the country. Please read on!

Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park
In spite of its difficult-to-pronounce name, Mosi-oa-Tunya still has something exceptional to scream for, the mighty Victoria Falls. This sight is probably the reason why the park is named as such, which if literally translated we may arrive at the meaning of “the smoke that thunders”.

And the name really says the truth. It thunders roughly that the sound along is enough to make you stand awestruck and if you get nearer, you might feel the violent rushing of water.

The park also harbors some of the remaining rhinos that luckily escaped extinction. And if wilderness becomes favorable to you, you may also catch some glimpses of the baboon, impala, giraffe, eland and sables.

Lochinvar National Park
The bird paradise of Zambia. The credit of being a bird’s paradise is given to Lochinvar since some 400 plus species of birds live in here. The big games though are scarce which is only limited to some herds of buffalo, hippos, spotted hyena, leopard, zebras and wildebeests.

Kafue National Park
The largest of all wilderness parks in Zambia, Kafue nurses the densest population of wildlife in all Zambia. Thousands of red lechwe, endless hoard of antelopes, sable, waterbuck, puka, roan, oribi, hartebeest, and vast number of predators to name a few. In fact, the only animal that you wont see in her are the zebras.

South and North Luangwa National Park
How would one describe Luangwa Park? It is simply the greatest wildlife sanctuary in the world since it harbors a biodiversity that is second to none with a touch of isolation and unadulterated wilderness, which makes it almost without compare. Being unspoilt by travelers except only for the locals and some fortunate foreign travelers, this park is truly a sight for creation in the making.

Its beauty is unrivalled, its resources vast. Tanzania is simply a place of great marvel. Its wildlife sanctuaries are fresh and unspoilt. Wildlife roam in its area as it was intended after the creation. They are free; they flourish at their own rate at their own fashion.

It is no wonder why Tanzania safari is placed among the world’s finest in game viewing.

Aside from the games, Tanzania safari is also well known for its enormous gatherings of wildlife habitats and ecosystems. The Northern Circuit is the most popular entry route towards Tanzania safari which covers the Ngorongoro and Serengeti, places that appeal most to nature and wildlife lovers. Nonetheless, sanctuaries like Tarangire, Arusha and the Lake Manyara are no less dazzling than the two. All these combined makes Tanzania Safari an unimaginable haven for the congregation of animals.

On top of the wonders are the world-known big five, which covers buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion and leopard. Complemented by endless array of plain animals such as the zebra, Thompson gazelle, eland, wildebeest, oryx and others that are included in the same genre. Add to the count the merciless predators that help balance nature like the cheetah, vultures, jackal, wild dog and hyena. Not only does Northern Circuit collects its fame from these animals, it is also recognized for its over 500 bird species which turns it into an ornithologist’s paradise.

As we have earlier noted, the Arusha town is the starting point for northern adventure. It sits nearest to Mount Meru and only distant enough so travelers will get to see the mighty and awesome Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain found in all Africa.

Arusha, aside from the wild animals that it nurses, is also a refuge for rich tapestry of ecosystems that thrive on grassland, heath, montane forest, alpine desert and soda and fresh water lakes.

All these aside, Tanzania is made more distinguished by the largest caldera there is in the world- the Ngorongoro Crater. A natural world wonder itself, Ngorongoro Crater gives refuge to some 30,000 wild animals.

Truly, the Tanzanian safaris will let you witness how nature works, how the dance of life interplay with the death and survival of animals that it constitutes and how the balance of nature is maintained.

Low Jeremy
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/experience-life-at-zambia-wilderness-and-marvel-at-tanzania-safari-101676.html