Safari

A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists in Africa. In the past, the trip was often a big-game hunt, but today, safaris are often to observe and photograph wildlife—or hiking and sightseeing, as well.

History
In 1836 William Cornwallis Harris led an expedition purely to observe and record wildlife and landscapes by the expedition’s members. Harris established the safari style of journey, starting with a not too strenuous rising at first light, an energetic day walking, an afternoon rest then concluding with a formal dinner and telling stories in the evening over drinks and tobacco. The hunting aspect traditionally associated with the safari is said to have its origins in the early 1800s in the region of Évora, Alentejo, where villagers got together to hunt wild boar and reclaim land for farming.

Safari Guide
Safari is the Swahili word for a long journey (by any means). The safari as known to Westerners originates in an 1836-37 British expedition set out purely to observe and document wildlife and landscapes of southern Africa. This expedition set forward a style to be followed later by many other colonial-era expeditions and hunting parties in the savannas of Southern and East Africa, beginning with a minimally-strenuous rising at first light, an energetic day walking, an afternoon rest then concluding with a formal dinner and telling stories in the evening over drinks and tobacco. It is from these Victorian-era explorers that khaki clothes, pith helmets, multi-pocketed safari jackets, and leopard-print clothes and accessories have become associated with safari style.

Today, a safari can take on a range of forms, from week-long stays at a private lodge with daytrips on the savanna in search of the “Big Five” of wildlife, to a minibus and guide hired for the day to drive backpackers through a national park to view the animals. Not only do the general travel styles (accommodations, transport, difficulty, etc.) cover a wide range of options, but the terrain and types of wildlife also vary greatly by region. The most common image of a safari is one in which travelers are taken by 4×4 across the savanna in search of the “Big Five” that generally attract the most interest—elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, and buffalo. Such safaris are offered primarily in Southern and East Africa, particularly Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Safaris in this region are big business and nearly all local governments are keen on conservation and aware that the volume of visitors generated is a boost to their economy. As a result, many parks have strict regulations both on visitor activities and behavior in the park and on the safari guides who operate in them, along with modest-to-expensive entry and camping fees. Among the most well-known parks to experience such safaris are South Africa’s Kruger National Park, Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, the Okavango Delta region of Botswana, and the Tsavo East/West National Parks. Nairobi National Park on the edge of Kenya’s sprawling capital is popular for its accessible location and the ever-elusive picture of cheetahs with skyscrapers in the distance.

Prepare
Basic supplies
It is very important to have enough water on hand, because the national parks can be very hot, with 30°C in the shade being common. Slap on liberal amounts of sunscreen and wear a wide-brimmed hat that will not be blown off in the wind.

However, early morning and night drives can be distinctly chilly during the African winter, so a sweater or coat will come in handy.

Game drives are best enjoyed when you have good optical equipment such as binoculars, still cameras and video cameras. All optical equipment has to cope with very difficult light conditions, such as intense sunlight during daytime and very little light at the crack of dawn when many predators are active.

Binoculars
Some animals, such as elephants and giraffes, tend to approach closely to cars and standard equipment will allow good viewing. Lions, cheetahs and leopards are sometimes shy and you will see them better with binoculars. Binoculars should have 10× magnification, ideally with night vision glass quality.

Cameras
Good safari photography doesn’t come easily or cheaply. The most obvious requirement is a telephoto lens: 200mm is a practical minimum, 300mm is better and the pros (especially birdwatchers) carry 500mm lenses that could be mistaken for a telescope. However, it’s not enough for the lens to be merely long, you’ll also need a fast lens that works well in low-light conditions in the morning and evening; but a lens that’s both long and fast can be ludicrously expensive. You can compensate to some extent with a tripod or its more portable cousin the monopod – with any lens past 300mm this becomes a practical necessity to eliminate blurriness.

If you have an SLR or similar prosumer camera, spend some time studying your camera’s settings. A large aperture (small number) will help the subject stand out by blurring the background. Continuous focusing mode is useful for tracking moving animals.

Remember that you may shoot more pictures than ever before in your life because there are so many interesting things to see. So, it is better to have twice or five times as much film or as many memory cards or other storage media with than you would take on a normal holiday. The same thing applies for your camera battery, even if you have never changed your camera battery it is likely to be flat after one day of game viewing. Big lenses and continuous focusing will suck on the battery more than usual.

And when you get back to your lodge, take a few minutes to wipe clean your gear, or fine dust will wreak havoc in anything with moving parts, most notably those expensive zoom lenses.

Get around
The three basic safari styles are driving safaris, walking safaris, and mobile safaris. In some regions, options may include safaris on boats or canoes (similar to driving safaris) or riding on horses or elephants (similar to walking safaris). Some operators offer aerial trips over parks on hot air balloons or light aircraft that are marketed as “safaris”, offering breath-taking views of the environment, but they aren’t as good for wildlife viewing as traditional safaris, except for the rare glimpse of large herds of animals. A “fly-in safari” is the term used for any of these types of safari where the visitor is flown directly (or very close) to a lodge on light aircraft, rather than arrive at an international airport and driving hours overland to the lodge. The driving safari is by far the most popular form of safari and is best for most first-timers as it is easier, often cheaper, and generally allows you to see more wildlife. A driving safari can be a one-day affair, but it often includes a couple nights spent camping (for those on small budgets) or in lodges within the park. Low-price driving safaris are often made in minibuses without a guaranteed window seat. Luxury safaris on a large budget will likely include drives in a 4×4 Land Cruiser or Land Rover with only a handful of other people, and stays at fine lodges with swimming pools, spas, private balconies, and numerous other quality amenities. A walking safari (also called a “bush walk”, “hiking safari”, or going “footing”) consists of hiking, either for a few hours or several days. These safaris don’t permit viewing as many animals as when driving, but allow a much more intimate experience. Hiking safari goers will be able to get closer to some animals (not too close, as most are dangerous) and have experiences like stumbling upon the bones of a recent lion kill. Mobile safaris are the ultimate in luxury. Harkening back to the colonial era, a mobile safari is where an entire camp or lodge is set up each night of your safari. Waking up in the morning, you will leave by 4×4 or foot to explore the park, a small camp with meals already prepared is set up for lunch, and after more sightseeing, you arrive at a luxurious camp of spacious living, dining, and sleeping tents outfitted with comfortable chairs, beds, and accessories. These camps are moved during the day by an team of staff you likely won’t encounter and ready for your arrival at the next location each night.

Cost
For the most basic trips of groups packed in a minivan and camping overnight, travelers should have a minimum budget of US$70/day, while some of the most visited parks may cost US$100–150/day for such a trip. For luxury trips consisting of flying into a lodge for a week with guided, personal 4×4 trips onto the savanna with an assurance of seeing every animal desired can easily run over US$1000/day. If a tour operator offers you a package at a price that seems too good to be true, it often is, and there is probably a good reason why (unless it’s an outright lie) someone might be offering a significantly lower price than a dozen other operators for the same park. This can be the result of hidden fees (arriving at the park, when the operator tells you to pay your US$50 entrance fee or camping permit…it wasn’t covered), large errors/omissions/lies when calculating a price, an unlicensed operator, abusive labor practices (paying inexperienced porters exceptionally low wages compared with other operators), poor equipment (riding a 30 year old minibus in disrepair), length of the trip (a “daytrip” may be a quick 4 hr drive, not a slow journey from dawn-dusk), and extras that you may not have thought of or which this operator plans to charge a steep fee (not providing food, water, sunscreen, and insect repellant…but offering snacks for a fee). Make sure to thoroughly check what each tour operator provides in their cost and make sure it gets put in writing before payment and the start of the safari! You may also want to ask fellow travelers in hotels, hostels, or restaurants for their experiences with local safari operators.

Self-drive safaris are possible in some parks, but highly discouraged for first-time safari goers. For some parks, part of licensing tour guides is education on the local wildlife and environment, which independent safari goers will miss out on, and a good guide will know the best times and places to glimpse wildlife, which is largely lost on independent safaris. Most parks have placed restrictions on the behavior of visitors for both conservation purposes and your safety, especially, which may be difficult for novices to follow when unaccompanied. Roads are often rough and sometimes difficult to navigate without offroad driving experience. Not only that, but most rental car agencies will not rent vehicles without a driver or for off-road use. Independent drivers will also want an HF radio to communicate with park rangers and others for safety reasons and should not exit their vehicle without a firearm—obviously those lions and leopards bringing down massive wildebeest and zebras will have easy pickings preying on you! The relatively high entrance fees for most parks (and, if applicable, vehicle rental) often narrows the difference in cost between an independent driving safari and going with a licensed operator to the point that the latter is a good value.

Bear in mind that most wildlife parks and reserves are large, with some animals elusive and/or nocturnal. For this reason, booking a longer safari allows you to see more of what you want to see. One-day safaris are often touted in small towns near major parks. However, a part of your trip will be spent between orientation and simply driving to/from the park and 8 hours and US$100 later, you may be disappointed in only seeing a couple of the big five from a long distance away. Most people will want to spend at least 3 days (2 nights) on safari, allowing time to slowly drive through areas rich in animal life, wait patiently in spots for animals to pass by, drive close to groups of animals, and maybe even venture out at night to view lions on the hunt or the nocturnal and elusive leopard.

Some people believe it is more ethical to only support locals (ie. African owned/operated tour operators) as part of a sustainable or ethical/responsible travel ideology. There are pros and cons to practicing this when trying to book a safari and the ultimate choice is left to the individual. There are many quality safari operators owned, run, and staffed by locals who provide a good product liked by their clients. However, for every quality local safari operator, there are 1-2 operators who are dishonest (with fees and promises), offer poor service (broken promises, lack of good equipment like tents, use very old/unsafe vehicles), operate unlicensed, don’t offer proper equipment (no firearms when leaving vehicle, use poorly maintained vehicles), or circumvent laws (not acquire proper permits or respect conservation laws), while some con artists will approach travelers as safari operators and seem convincing, only to disappear after receiving payment or after a small part of the promised safari has been provided. On the other hand, there are many non-native safari operators who have lived in Africa for a considerable portion of their lives and are keen on conservation, pay local staff better than African-owned safari operators, work with locals in nearby communities to supply fresh fruits or veggies, and are more knowledgeable both with the local environment and Western culture (more relatable in conversation, more fluent in English). Ecotourism and establishments practicing responsible tourism are increasingly common in sub-Saharan Africa and with higher cost of running such establishments (lodges, tour operators), many are not owned/operated by locals, yet nonetheless operate to ethical standards. In short, the merits of responsible travel are noble, but when discerning which safari operator to choose, the answer is not black-and-white (pardon the pun), with a wide number of factors to consider and the ultimate choice being left to the traveler.

Organization of hunting in Africa
As a rule, the client is not allowed to hunt alone – he is accompanied by a professional hunter, whose duties include bringing the guest directly to the hunting place, providing him with the right approach to extraction and indicating which one the beast should shoot. The latter is important, because not every visiting hunter can, for example, distinguish a male from a female from a long distance. In addition, it is important to choose among the herd the most valuable trophy. If the hunter is experienced and does not need such instructions, the professional still accompanies him – formally he must control every shot of the client. This helps, in some cases, avoid poaching.

When hunting for dangerous prey, a professional hunter must insure the client, covering it with the fire of his weapon in case of attack by a wounded beast. Such assistance is often required – according to statistics, about every fourth shot of an elephant leads to a thick-skinned attack. Escape from the attacking elephant is almost impossible.

In addition to the professional hunter, the group usually includes 2-3 person support staff – usually from the local population – guides, porters, etc. The most honorable trophies are considered representatives of the so-called.. Big five (English Big Five.) – African buffalo , elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros. These are animals, hunting on which is associated with the greatest danger. Paradoxically, the most dangerous in the “five” is not a lion or an elephant, but a buffalo and a leopard. It is these two animals that account for most of the accidents. About a hunter who has obtained at least one representative of all kinds of “five” say that he collected a “big helmet”.

Safari weapons
The client chooses the weapon for the safari himself, while he can carry his own weapon, or rent it on the spot. The cost of rent is usually small, $ 20-50 per day, but often there is no guarantee that it will be exactly the kind of weapons that the hunter is seeking. When hunting small and medium game, medium-caliber carbines are used – 6.5-8 mm ( .243 , .270 , .308 , .30-06 , etc.). Extraction of large ungulates, such as zebras , wildebeest , kudu or canes, requires a more powerful weapon, although 7.62 mm cartridges are often enough. Where the game is frightening, it does not let the hunter get closer than 100 meters, so that high standards for shooting accuracy are required. Often shooting is conducted from 200 and even from 300 meters. Another thing is the “big five”. Shooting on large thick-skinned or very dangerous animals is conducted from a closer distance, but requires an extremely powerful weapon, with a high stopping ability of the bullet. Practically in all countries where hunting for such game is permitted, the minimum caliber of weapons for this purpose is prescribed by law – most often it is a caliber .375 or its German counterpart is 9.3 × 64 mm . But often (and for hunting for an elephant – usually), heavier calibers, such as.416 , .458 , .470 , .505 , .577 and occasionally are larger. The weight of the bullet often exceeds 40 or even 50 grams, and the return at shooting is colossal – the hunter receives a deafening blow from which a person of average build can not even stand on his feet.

There is even a special category of weapons for hunting large African game – so-called. African fittings . Usually it is a very expensive weapon, performed by masters of well-known companies on individual orders, richly decorated with carving and engraving. The price of a good new African fittings is comparable to the cost of a luxury car. Weighs such a weapon sometimes 6-7 kg and its prolonged wearing turns into a serious physical test. Therefore, often a special squire walks after the hunter, who submits the choke on command. Cartridges of large caliber are also distinguished by a high price – up to 30-40 dollars apiece and often more.

From an ecological point of view, a safari, in case of a responsible organization, can even be a useful form of tourism, since for the conduct of hunting safaris the terrain must remain as virgin and untouched as possible.

Literary genre
Jules Verne’s first novel Five Weeks in a Balloon published in 1863 and H. Rider Haggard’s first novel King Solomon’s Mines published in 1885, both describe journeys of English travellers on Safari and were best sellers in their day. These two books gave rise to a genre of Safari adventure novels and films.

Ernest Hemingway wrote several fiction and non-fiction pieces about African safaris. His short stories “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” are set on African safaris and were written after Hemingway’s own experience on safari. His books Green Hills of Africa and True at First Light are both set on African safaris.

Cinematic genre
The safari provided countless hours of cinema entertainment in sound films from Trader Horn (1931) onwards. The safari was used in many adventure films such as the Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and Bomba the Jungle Boy film series up to The Naked Prey (1965) where Cornel Wilde, a white hunter, becomes game himself. The safari genre films were parodied in the Bob Hope comedies Road to Zanzibar and Call Me Bwana. A short 15-minute helicopter safari was shown in Africa Addio where clients are armed, flown from their hotel and landed in front of an unlucky and baffled elephant. Out of Africa has Karen Blixen and famous hunter Denys Finch Hatton travelling, with Denys refusing to abandon home comforts using fine china and crystal and listening to Mozart recordings over the gramophone while on safari trip.

Fashion
There is a certain theme or style associated with the word, which includes khaki clothing, belted bush jackets, pith helmets or slouch hats, and animal skin patterns. The term safari chic arose after the release of the film Out of Africa. This not only included clothing but also interior design and architecture.

Today’s Big Game Hunt
In addition to the photo safaris but the colonial form of safari in terms of big game hunting is not extinct. To date, you can in many areas of Africa, sometimes for large sums of money, big game. This type of safari has also become a significant industry and – if ethically sound – even sustainable . In some parts of Africa, farmers turned the cultivation of crops or cattle farming, which made little profit on the increasingly barren soils, so-called game-farming . This protects the wild species commonly found in this region and only hunts the “overhang” for very large sums of trophy and prestige hunters.

From an ecological point of view, this use can be quite useful and sustainable and even, if well regulated, contribute to the conservation of species , as the landscape in which these safaris are organized should be as natural as possible (minimal invasion of the natural landscape) Animal species are not considered as crop-destructive pests, but represent an immense value to the game-farm operator. As a result, these animals are protected from poaching , the main cause of extinction in modern times. This type of use has been proven, for example, in the rebuilding of white rhinoceros in Namibia and South Africa.

Some European and Indian big game species survived only in hunting areas that were reserved for the often noble upper class, such as the bison in the Białowieza primeval forest or the Indian lions in the gir forest . Particularly noteworthy is the ibex , whose stocks were completely eradicated in the Alps except for the hunting park of the then Italian King Victor Emmanuel II and have been reintroduced from there at the beginning of the last century in the rest of the Alps .

Reception
The topic of safari inspired many writers and directors to write works such as passionate safari-goer Ernest Hemingway on The Green Hills of Africa and The Truth in the Morning Light .

Source from Wikipedia