Most people know Kenya for the Masai Mara and the famed river crossings of the Great Migration. Yet to me, that’s almost the least exciting part. I find Kenya to be utterly compelling in far broader ways. It’s a place that remains in my imagination, a frontier, a place where an older type of less […]
Whenever I’m asked when the best time to go on safari is, my enthusiastic – if rather unhelpful – answer is “it’s always a good time to be on safari’. So, with a view to being slightly more helpful, I wanted to talk a little about Emerald Season. Conventional wisdom for years has been that […]
Over a decade ago, I first visited Greystoke Mahale. It left its mark on me then and has lived rent free in my head ever since. I went back again this year and immediately renewed its tenancy. Mahale is an interesting case study in the way that the experience of going on safari has evolved […]
Namibia delivers wide open spaces in a way that few other places on earth can. Dominated by a massive and ancient desert, the dominant image in people’s mind seems to be landscapes of unchanging and endless sand. While it’s true that there is a lot of sand (and I do mean a lot – I […]
It’s a rather obvious point to make, but the last 2 years have been a bit shitty. As we sat hunkered down at home for months on end watching the news, it was as if the sense of physical and mental oppression caused by Covid was being exacerbated by the relentless fire-hose of human-caused catastrophe […]
[This article was originally published 27 November 2019] As I sit here writing this, winter has just begun to take hold in Southern Ontario. Meanwhile, on Somerset Island, 3400 kilometres as the crow flies from where I sit, the tundra and the northwest passage have been in winter’s grip for months. Way up in Northern Nunavut, perched […]
Times have changed, but then again in some places they haven’t. As social distancing and seeing people in masks becomes the new normal, I’m reminded of a place where this has always been the status quo – visiting the chimps of Mahale. Such precautions have been in place ever since Nomad Tanzania opened Greystoke Mahale, […]
I’m not alone in finding that the Zambezi Valley always has a special draw – flying in invariably gives me a frisson of excitement. Once you climb over the hills east of Lake Kariba, you begin to descend as you cross into Mana Pools. As you get low enough, you’ll see an elephant or two, moving through the […]
Working in the travel industry affords you the opportunity to travel quite a lot. We get to explore lands both near and far, whether it be a new city in the states or a whole new continent (Antarctica, you’re next on my hit list). Working mainly in New Zealand, Australia and Asia, I have had […]
Conventional wisdom holds that the king and queen of safari travel in Southern Africa have been always been South Africa and Botswana. We say conventional wisdom be damned. South Africa these days seems to be a victim of its own success, it’s popularity means that even despite a weak currency it’s getting more and more […]
On paper I’m a trip planner, but when I get right down to it I’m a photographer who loves being in Africa. I love snapping a photo of a camouflaged leopard, or capturing the majesty of a herd of elephants on the move. Birds have always been less of a priority—they’re hard for a photographer. […]
I am always amazed that in the space of just two days I can travel from a cold and rainy Toronto and be plonked down by a light aircraft about as far away as one can get in the wilds of Africa. It gets me every time, and it’s just one of the many things […]
About four years ago I visited the original Mara Plains and it was fantastic, becoming easily one of my favourite camps in Kenya. Since then it has been completely rebuilt, and I have to say, now it’s even better. Mara Plains is run by Great Plains Conservation, a company which has slowly but surely built […]
Who says wildlife and farm life can’t co-exist? At Trufflepig we jumped the fence long ago and have never looked back. Our planners are passionate about safari and we spend a lot of time on African soil. From community-owned conservancies in Kenya, to rustic wine farms on the Cape, to bushman initiation hunts in the Kalahari, we […]
As winter finally unclenches its fist from around our collective throats, and the temperature deigns to rise above negative double digits, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “where shall we go next Christmas?” Actually, that’s probably the last thing on your mind as you dream of warm sunshine and footwear other than snow boots, but […]
Much like the natural hierarchy among Africa’s wild animals, there has always been an order of things in terms of safari destination rankings. Botswana has long been the lion, while Zambia’s role could be likened to scrappy meerkat. But roles evolve, and if there has ever been a challenger for the pride of Botswana, this […]