The second international trip Mike and I took together was to Belize for our PADI open-water diver certification. In many ways, the vacation was a test to see, not only if we loved scuba, but also traveling together. After days of exploring the tropical waters, swimming alongside eagle rays, nurse sharks, countless reef fish, and…
Loving every moment on the Zambezi river with Tongabezi, we decided to go a little deeper into the wild with their sister property, Sindabezi Island. Tongabezi bought this private isle almost twenty years ago to bring their guests even closer to the African bush. Named by Fodor’s as one of the top ten eco-lodges in…
Spanning 300-square miles and three eco-systems, Kenya’s Aberdare National Park has so much to offer that we stayed in two different sections just to do it justice. Unlike the open savanna of the Mara, this park has one of the most dense and diverse forests in the country–changing from jungle to bamboo groves to misty…
Seeing lions, leopard, rhino and is always a huge thrill but the Samburu region of Kenya is about so much more than the big five. Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba are three parks that come together connected by rivers, volcanic mountains, and golden waves of grass–and with a backdrop like this, everything seems to come…
Most first time safari-goers head for the famous Maasai Mara or Serengeti but for those in the know, Kenya’s Meru Park is where the wild things are. Five hours north of Nairobi, the landscape is unlike any other with bright red cotton soil, the multi-branch doum palms, and 13 winding rivers that draw thousands of…
The Maasai Mara is hands down one of the most spectacular places on earth. With over 1,600,000 wildebeest, zebra, impala, lions and cheetahs migrating through its surreal landscape annually, this Kenyan park offers a safari experience like no other. The Maasai Mara and the Serengeti are the same contiguous landmass, separated only by the crocodile-infested…
The Serengeti is perhaps the most famous park in Africa and the Ngorongoro Crater is its most coveted section. So special in fact that it has become a conservation area of its own to protect the densely populated wildlife, varied landscape, and the Maasai tribe that lives there. One down side is that the park…
Majete National Park is one of the greatest conservation success stories and Mkulumadzi lodge is helping write its pages to greatness. The park suffered from extreme poaching in the 1980s and 90s but the African Parks Network and Malawi government have been working hard to reintroduce and protect native species for generations to come—and it’s…
Sadly, the history of African safari has ugly roots in game hunting and exploitation of native land but with visionaries like the late conservationist Norman Carr, this finally started to change. In 1961 he partnered with the Kunda chief Nsefu and started the first photographic safari camp in Zambia. After Carr’s death, his former guide…
Something came over us when we arrived to Livingstone, Zambia. I don’t know if it was the roar of falls or the spray you can see from 30 miles away but this place makes you do crazy things. In a matter of four days we fit in more adrenaline-packed activities than we had in the…
We made it to Africa! As the greatest rewards for our 23-hours of travel, we went straight on safari in the Sabi Sands region of Kruger National Park. The South African bushveld is so spectacular that any old camp would have been more than enough, but to take this mind-blowing safari expedition up a notch,…