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Secluded South Africa

An Expertly Guided Small-Group Wildlife Adventure into Remote Reserves

Staggering numbers of wildlife species in South Africa’s world-famous national parks present nature lovers with what could be the continent’s most intense and concentrated game-viewing experience. Cheetahs, wildebeests, giraffes, and zebras look for shade under giant mashatu trees, while watching nearby are the “Big Five”: lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinoceroses.

Your safari begins at Mashatu Tented Camp in the remote eastern corner of Botswana. Mashatu is home to over five hundred elephants, the largest single population on privately owned land in Africa.

You’ll stay in a variety of unique and exciting safari camps. Chosen for its proximity to wildlife and natural ambience, Mashatu Tented Camp (just over the border in Botswana) consists of seven tents and open-sided, thatched decks where meals are served.

Mashatu holds impressive numbers of lions and cheetahs, along with their prey. The lion is the second largest feline species, after the tiger. You may see lions on night game drives — they spend a lot of their time resting and are inactive for about twenty hours per day.

En route to Pafuri Camp, you'll stop at Mapungubwe National Park. Rock art created by San hunter-gatherers here is estimated to be between one thousand to three thousand years old. Antelope are dominant among the painted animals, symbolizing the supernatural potency that San shamans acquire in a trance. Giraffes are also considered to be especially potent.

Game drives in our four-wheel drive vehicles offer the opportunity to witness nature close up with comfort and safety in mind.

Pafuri Camp is situated between the Limpopo and the Luvuvhu Rivers in the northern sector of Kruger National Park. The most remote in the park, this area has varied vegetation, great game viewing, and the best birding in all of Kruger. It is filled with folklore of ancient civilizations and early explorers.

This region of Kruger is the ancestral home of the Makuleke people and is considered to be a biodiversity hot spot. The Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers host species such as lions, elands, Sharpe’s grysboks, and yellow-spotted rock dassies, which are difficult to find further south in the park.

Lions are the only conspicuously social species of wild cat. The basic unit of social organization is the pride, consisting of three to twelve closely related females with their young, accompanied by one to six males. However, when there is more than one male, they are most often brothers. Males take over prides by driving out the current males with extreme violence, often resulting in death, and are in turn replaced by competitors in one to ten years.

Adjacent to Kruger National Park is Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, set within the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. Renowned for having the best Big Five game viewing in South Africa, if not the world, Sabi Sands is also famous for its leopard sightings. The leopards have grown accustomed to safari vehicles, inviting extraordinary photographic opportunities.

In the company of your Expedition Leader and sometimes a park ranger, you will find each game drive is an enriching experience with information on the region's cultures, fauna, and flora.

South Africa is savannahs teeming with scores of animals; umpteen national parks and wildlife reserves; numerous, thrilling close encounters with the Big Five; and you — one nature lover to appreciate it all.

Our trip ends with a two night stay in Cape Town, unquestionably one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

Situated at the foot of Table Mountain, and surrounded by dramatic coastline, this vibrant city offers no shortage of amazing photo opportunities.

Our focus here will remain on wildlife, though we shift from land to sea, as we set off by boat on a ‘shark safari.’ We head for Seal Island, where we may be privy to some amazing predatory behavior, as the great whites of False Bay launch themselves out of the water in pursuit of Cape Fur Seals!

Those interested can even enter an underwater cage to come face-to-face with the sharks, ending this incredible safari on a high note!

Natural Habitat Adventures
Box 3065
Boulder, CO, USA 80307
(303) 449-3711
(800) 543-8917

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