Monday newsletters always feature top 10 travel lists to inspire.
Today: Top 10 best National Parks for a safari in Africa
An African safari simply has to be on every traveler's bucket list. Catching a glimpse of some of the world's most captivating animals in their natural habitat is one of the best travel experiences one can have. Encountering the 'Big Five' (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros) is sometimes vital, sometimes a bonus, but always rather wonderful and totally memorable. To assist you in finding your ideal safari destination, I have compiled a top 10 list of the best National Parks & Game Reserves in Africa for a safari adventure.
What is your favorite safari destination in Africa? Leave a comment or take my poll below.
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10. KGALAGADI TRANSFRONTIER PARK, SOUTH AFRICA & BOTSWANA
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a large wildlife preserve and conservation area in southern Africa. The little visited park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks: Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa and Gemsbok National Park in Botswana. Kgalagadi - which translates as "the place of thirst - is located largely within the southern Kalahari Desert and its terrain consists of red sand dunes, sparse vegetation, occasional trees, and dry riverbeds. The magnificent park hosts abundant, varied wildlife, including large mammalian predators such as cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, and huge black-mane lions.
9. HWANGE NATIONAL PARK, ZIMBABWE
Bordering Botswana, Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's largest game park with a hugely varying scenery, ranging from the semi desert scrub on the edge of the Kalahari in the south, to forests, granite hills and valleys of mopane woodlands in the north. The national park is home to over 100 mammal species, including lion, leopard and rhino, and is known for its large population of elephant. This game park is very accessible and all the safari camps here offer day and night game drives and most also offer walking safaris. The highest numbers of animals are spotted in the dry season (August to October) when the wildlife congregates around the shrunken water holes.
8. KIDEPO NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA
Launched as a national park in 1962, Kidepo lies in the rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda's borders with Sudan and Kenya. It's Uganda's most isolated national park, but the few who make the long journey to Kedipo would agree that it is also the most magnificent, ranking among Africa's finest wildernesses. From Apoka, in the heart of the park, a savannah landscape extends far beyond the gazetted area, towards horizons outlined by distant mountain ranges. The voracious Kidepo lions prey on roving herds of more than 4,000 buffalo (the total population in the park is said to be about 13,000) and you will often see herds of elephants moving majestically along the valleys.
7. MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE, KENYA
Situated in south-west Kenya, Maasai Mara (Masai Mara) is possibly the continent's most popular safari destination. It's not a National Park, but rather a National Reserve belonging to the Maasai people and administered by the local county councils. Together with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania (cf below) it forms Africa's most diverse, incredible and most spectacular eco-systems, hosting over 95 species of mammals and over 570 recorded species of birds. The reserve is especially famous for the high amount of predators, such as lions and cheetah, and the 1.5 million wildebeest which migrate through the Mara and cross the crocodile infested Mara river (from July to October).
6. ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK, NAMIBIA
Etosha National Park is unique in Africa. The park's main characteristic is a salt pan so large it can be seen from space. Yet there is abundant wildlife that congregates around the waterholes, giving travelers almost guaranteed game sightings. Lion, elephant, leopard, giraffe, cheetah, hyena, springbok, two kinds of zebra, eland and many more species of wildlife are found here. At the same time Etosha National Park is one of the most accessible game reserves in Africa. The park is malaria free in the dry season, accessible for regular cars, and the rest camps provide a range of accommodation as well as restaurants, viewing decks, shops and petrol stations.
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