Dear {CONTACT.SALUTATION},
I do hope you and your family are well.
You may remember that I am currently in Kenya, staying at our cottage on the edge of the Maasai Mara. Last month I shared my thoughts about the role of travel and visiting some of my favourite camps in the Maasai Mara. In this letter, I share the virtues of the slow safari and some travel ideas for this and next year.
Following our trip into the Maasai Mara, I was fortunate enough to guide the Financial Times's David Pilling to central and northern Kenya, where I hosted a camel-supported walk with local Samburu. Operated by Karisia Walking Safaris, we slept under the stars and on riverbanks, tracking wildlife on foot and engaging with local culture in a way that few modern experiences offer. We engaged a helicopter to help unlock some of the more complicated final sections of the lower Ewaso basin – and used only when necessary. Parting ways with David, Laura and I then visited Lengishu House, a beautiful private house, where we tracked rhino on the Borana Conservancy, an organisation renowned for its approach to rhino conservation.
While both offer different experiences, what links Karisia Walking Safaris and Lengishu House is a commitment to travel-driven conservation and to safaris designed to give travellers a slower, deeper dive into the wild. It's an experience that is more than understanding animal behaviour or getting to grips with wildlife management. It's what comes with simply spending time in the land, where the dynamics of walking gives the traveller an entirely different perspective on safari, and therefore on all the elements that make it possible. I can't recommend the slow safari enough.
On a related note, four quick-fire ideas for travel this year.
If you're after an extraordinary conservation story, then you'd be hard pushed to better Singita Faru Faru in the Grumeti Reserves, in the southwest of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. The Grumeti Conservancy, which borders the park, is looked after by the Singita Grumeti Fund anti-poaching team, formed of 120 dedicated scouts, and a key attraction is the fact that the camp is situated 100 metres north of the Grumeti river, superbly positioned for both resident wildlife viewing and the migration. Just as wonderful is the rare and very remote Sangha Lodge in Central African Republic. Run by Rod and Tamar Cassidy, it's an excellent lodge set on the banks of the Sangha River near the Dzanga National Park, an ideal location to track forest elephant and western lowland gorilla.
Meanwhile, for a proper savannah-based adventure, few outfits can claim to hold a candle to Beagle Expedition's Kweene Trails, a mobile tented experience that operates largely in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Owned, hosted and guided by Marleen and Simon Byron, it runs no more than 10 expeditions a year, and is the definition of what it means to travel slowly, deeply. Finally, for eco-luxury accommodation, I'm a big fan of Singita Kwitonda Lodge, which is situated just outside Rwanda's Parc Des Volcanes. It offers – by way of comfort, service, and food – everything you could hope for of a base from which to track mountain gorilla.
What I like about all the camps and lodges mentioned here is that, while very different, each prides itself on being family-orientated and provides for the sort of experience that can be shared across generations. They're all about providing something for everyone, whatever their interests, and are massively community-orientated. Which is perfect as we have seen a noticeable growth in multi-generational safari as parents, grandparents and children emerge from the Covid phase more eager than ever for shared family experiences and bonding moments together.
All things equal, I'm back in the UK offices at the end of this month and hope to visit the US in March this year, and possibly Hong Kong in November. If you're thinking of travelling to Africa this year, please do drop me a line. I'd love to help – and may even, depending on where you are, be able to meet in person, and help plan your safari around the kitchen table.
Yours,
Will Jones
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