Chobe River, Botswana
A boat tour on the Chobe River is one of the highlights of wildlife watching in Botswana. You will see elephants, crocodiles, and many birds. This is a very enjoyable trip for all ages, but is especially rewarding for birders.
Most hotels in Kasane can arrange this tour for you.
Etosha National Park, Namibia
Lots of zebras and many antelope species. One of the best places to see Rhinoceros is at the waterhole at Okaukuejo.
Okonjima Nature Preserve, Namibia
Located about halfway between the capital city, Windhoek, and Etosha National Park, this is the best place to see Leopards and pangolins. We had two wonderful close encounters with leopards here. Note that tours are available only to overnight guests, not day visitors. There are several choices of accommodations. The cabins have huge windows at the Bush Camp, and you will see lots of wildlife right from your bed. This is one of our favourite places in Africa.
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Massive herds of Wildebeest and Zebras. See the amazing sight of the herds crossing the crocodile-infested Mara River. Lots of lions, cheetahs, and hyenas. Also, a good place to see the amazing secretarybird.
Private Game Reserves, South Africa
Do you want to see the Big Five? They are the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, and leopard. One of the best places is Kruger National Park, but even better are the private game reserves in South Africa. These are like national parks, except they are smaller and privately owned. Still, smaller than a National Park can be quite big. The wildlife are free-roaming, not captive, but the guides know where to find them. At Sabi Sands, you should be able to see all the Big Five in two or three days. At Madikwe, four of the Big Five are easy to find. Leopards are a bit harder. At Madikwe, we also have the chance to see African Dogs and Cheetas
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
At the Masai Mara, you can see not only the Big Five but massive herds of wildebeest, which is a very impressive sight.
The Serengeti, Tanzania
The great plains of the Serengeti are full of wildlife. You will see huge herds of wildebeests and zebras. Lions and cheetahs are common. In fact, this is probably the best place to see cheetahs. They often pose atop termite mounds.
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
This huge volcanic crater is considered to be the best place to see all the Big Five in a single day.
Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
If you love elephants, this is the place for you. There are 30.000 elephants in this park. But elephants are not the only animals here. You have a chance to see the African Dog, Bat-eared Fox, and rhinoceros.
November to April is the rainy season in southern Africa, but if you are a birder, this is the best time to see birds. More than 400 species have been seen in Hwange.
Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe
This park is located on the Zambezi River and offers great river tours, much like the Chobe River boat tour mentioned above. Mana Pools is one of the best places to see African Dogs, the Big Five and lots of birds. If you are brave enough, you can take the river tour in a canoe.
Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
This is the place to go if you want to see Mountain Gorillas.
Akagera National Park, Rwanda
This park is known for viewing several species of big cats and also rare birds.
Nyungwe Forest, Rwanda
This is the place to go if you want to see Chimpanzees in the wild.
Link to the above three places in Rwanda
Mabamba Swamp & Murcheson Falls National Park, Uganda
If you want to see the amazing Shoebill Stork, head to one of these two parks in Uganda.
Namoroka National Park, Madagascar
Madagascar is the only place in the world where you can see lemurs. You can see ten species of them in this park, as well as flying foxes, tenrecs, fossa, aye-aye and other rare and unique wildlife. Wildlife tours in Madagascar can be the thrill os a lifetime, but Madagascar is the most expensive country in Africa, and so is the airfare to get there. When I was in Namibia, I checked into going to Madagascar. I thought that it would be inexpensive as I was so close. To my surprise, the flight from Namibia to Madagascar cost almost as much as the flight from Canada to Namibia. However, if you can afford it, it would be a wonderful experience.
Planet Baobab, Botswana
Most people go to Africa to see the Big Five. I also wanted to see the diminutive meerkats. These adorable little mammals were high on my bucket list.
A good place to see them is the Baobab Forest in Botswana. The Baobab Tree is an amazing tree that can live for more than 2,000 years. At Planet Baobab, you can rent a cute little cabin and have a relaxing evening with a very good meal. You will have to get up very early for the Meerkat tour. The Meerkats are unafraid of humans and will ignore you as they go about their daily routine. They travel in a group, stopping every few meters to search for food. They dig a little hole and sniff in it for buried critters to eat. Their favourite food is scorpions. It is amazing to watch them dig up a scorpion, disable it by biting off its stinger, and then consume it. Although Meerkats are not that high on most people’s bucket list, I thoroughly enjoyed this tour.
Photo Credits
Wildebeest – Lestjbohlen
Shoebill – Carla Manneh
Gorilla – Geogab
Lemur – RaKr_2
all other photos by Mythatchedhut
all photos are copyrighted
Suggestions?
Can you suggest another great wildlife-sighting location I haven’t mentioned? If so, and you have a photo, send us a message.