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Welcome to Beat About The Bush Safaris' Newsletter. We will keep you abreast of Safari News, our latest adventure-filled safaris and amazing destinations. Conservation News and Travel Industry News are also featured. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you...
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SAFARI NEWS
Private Plane Safari November / December 2017
We are excited to offer you the opportunity to view the very best wildlife in some of Africa’s finest locations on our Private Plane Safari. Our Private Plane Safaris are bound to appeal to travellers who don’t want the hassle of inconvenient and testing flight schedules. Depart from Johannesburg on our private plane (a pressurised PC 12 8-seater turboprop) and move between the bush lodges and across international boundaries at leisure on your time as the plane and pilot stays with you on the ground at each camp. This provides optimum flexibility and continuity, and does away with wasted time at airports, thus maximising leisure time and game viewing.
This exclusive trip will have a minimum number of 4 and maximum of 6 travelers. Spaces are still available on our safari running from 30 November to 11 December this year. This privately guided trip takes in the top wildlife and scenic locations in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. View the itinerary here.
Normally a safari like this can cost USD $20 000 or more per person, however we are offering this unbelievable experience starting from only $11 995 per person (Ts and Cs apply). There are only a few places available so if you are interested, enquire ASAP by emailing safaris@beataboutthebush.co.za.
Beat About the Bush blog
While showing our guests spectacular wildlife on safari, we also take the opportunity to make them aware of all the conservation challenges facing wildlife resources in Africa and Asia and the success stories to date. This inevitably leads to a lot of surprise, shock, horror or elation (depending on the details) and a general consensus that these issues are not receiving enough attention with most visitors being totally oblivious. We have had requests for more information and so have decided to create a blog platform on our website to keep people up to date with continuous developments. Please check it out and let us know what you think or how we can better provide the kind of information required.
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Big Game and Golf Safari
We offer the unique opportunity to combine golf with a truly authentic African experience on our 8, 11 and 12 day Big Game and Golf Safaris. Play golf on the best golf courses that South Africa has to offer surrounded by stunning scenery and wildlife. From Kruger National Park with the ultra exclusive Leopard’s Creek Golf Course nearby where sightings of crocodile, hippo, antelope, buffalo and elephant are all too common to Entabeni Game Reserve’s “world-in-one” Signature Championship Course with the world’s longest and highest Par 3, there are itineraries to suit every golf enthusiast. Click here for more information.
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We want more tweeps! Follow us on Twitter (@BATBSafaris) to keep up with the latest Beat About the Bush news and photos.
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CONSERVATION AND OTHER NEWS
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Rwanda at a crossroads between wildlife conservation and natural gas extraction
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Over the past two decades, Rwanda has made enormous efforts to establish itself as a destination for wildlife tourism. Increased protection of mountain gorillas and better infrastructure around gorilla trekking coupled with the reintroduction of lions and rhinos in Akagera National Park, thus making it a Big Five destination once again, attract international tourists. Unfortunately in June 2017, an ecologist was killed by a rhino that he helped reintroduce to Akagera a month earlier. Extraction of the large methane gas reserves under Lake Kivu in northwest Rwanda, near to the Volcanoes National Park - a gorilla stronghold, will provide Rwanda and neighbouring DRC with much needed electricity and may avert a deadly gas explosion. The way Rwanda manages the gas extraction may affect relations with the DRC and the future of gorilla-based tourism and therefore, requires careful consideration.
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Fighting wildlife crime with tourism
A recent article in the Guardian newspaper highlighted the importance of wildlife tourism for conservation. Wildlife crime is a global problem that cannot be tackled through law enforcement alone. Well-managed wildlife tourism that engages local people is essential to address poverty, lower poaching and empower locals to act as environmental protectors. Beat About The Bush Safaris ensures that, as a tour operator, we only partner with organisations that benefit both people and wildlife. Click here to read the entire article.
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Changes to Tanzania National Park concession fees
The Tanzania National Parks Authority introduced pricing changes to their concession fees effective from July 1st 2017. The daily per person concession fee varies in price depending on the park visited and ranges from USD $25 – $50. Children under 10 are free and a discounted rate is offered for children between 10 and 16. Most Tanzanian lodges are honouring previous rates for guests booked in 2017 and early 2018. However, new bookings are subject to the new fees.
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Recent research proves spending money on family holidays is better for children than toys
Oliver James, a leading child psychologist, released findings that children regard experiences like travelling as a family as more fulfilling than receiving objects. This aligns with previous research indicating a similar effect in adults. James argues that family holidays build relationships, encourage exploration and learning, and create lasting memories. Scientific studies also reveal that holidays advance brain development in children and help them build concentration skills. What better reasons to start planning a family holiday? Experienced Beat About The Bush tour planners can carefully craft and deliver a family experience that will delight parents and children every step of the way.
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June and July were wonderfully busy with safaris in Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa.
The Rwanda and Tanzania safari included an array of cultural and wildlife experiences. Click here to view the video highlights.
- Trekking with mountain gorillas is one of the greatest wildlife adventures on the planet. We ventured off to the mist-shrouded peaks of the Volcanoes National Park in northern Rwanda and had some great gorilla viewing of the Agashya Group, which is very special because it contains more than 20 family members, including two silverbacks. They were resting up in a bamboo thicket for their morning siesta when we came upon them and were lucky enough to have a female brush past us. The babies were having none of the resting and were generally making a nuisance of themselves by wrestling and rolling all over the place. After a humbling hour with these gentle giants, we proceeded back down the slope and were surprised to be rewarded with a fantastic view of a young blackback male out in the open.
- The Serengeti was certainly a big highlight as usual at this time of year with the wildebeest migration in full swing on the relentless march northwards. Besides the thousands of wildebeests and other herds of general game such as zebra, gazelles and giraffe, big game sightings were fantastic. Lions were in abundance; sightings included a lioness in a tree, a pride of 10 with a wildebeest kill, and a lioness with four small cubs. We also spotted cheetah, hyenas with cubs, buffalo bulls, and an elephant breeding herd. The Ngorongoro Crater is always a highlight and we were fortunate enough to follow a magnificent male lion along the road for some time. Lake Manyara is an incredibly scenic destination and is one of the best birding spots anywhere in East Africa. Spending a morning having a picnic breakfast along the lakeshore while thousands of pelicans flew overhead is something that will live with everyone for a long time.
- Zanzibar is the perfect way to unwind after a safari in East Africa and our guests soaked up the island’s laid-back atmosphere. The local market is an incredible experience where colour and scents in the form of fruit, vegetables and spices of all descriptions provide sensory overload while perusing the meat market and fisherman stalls where the daily catch is on show is an educational experience to say the least. No trip to Zanzibar is complete without going on the Spice Tour to see how the spices and fruits for which the island is renowned are cultivated and used – this again proved to be a highlight for our guests.
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We also visited some of South Africa’s wildlife hotspots with a family group. Here are some of their safari highlights:
- The Greater Kruger is one of Africa’s premier game areas and the Timbavati Reserve didn’t disappoint with some exceptional sightings. A very memorable encounter was when we stopped one morning at a waterhole for a coffee break (with the obligatory Amarula) and were then approached by a large elephant bull that wanted to drink – he ambled up and past us and then proceeded to have a long drink providing memorable photos opportunities as we all stood around barely 20m from him….Africa at its best!
- The game viewing was superb in the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve. There were many highlights but two incidents stood out
- One morning we found a white rhino and calf walking in a grass clearing. They were very relaxed and we cautiously approached through the grass. Suddenly a female leopard stood up in front of the vehicle and, ignoring us, eyed the rhinos that passed by within 10m of her – totally unaware of her presence. She was clearly more concerned about them than us and this wonderful encounter again brought it home to us that we are incredibly lucky to see these elusive cats as we would never have seen her had we stayed on the road. We returned later to find that she had killed a small duiker antelope which was hanging in a tree while a hyena waited impatiently beneath. She later lost the kill to the hyenas.
- On another morning we came upon a mating pair of leopards. This is in itself an incredibly rare sighting but they then proceeded to mate 4 times (barely 5m from the car) within 20 minutes as we followed them through the bush.
- The winter weather was chilly at Kwandwe Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape with snow on the surrounding mountains, but the animals didn’t seem to mind. Bundled up on the safari vehicle, we were fortunate enough to see two male cheetahs on the first afternoon. They entertained us as they tried to catch a small rhino that was passing through with its mother – the latter charged at them twice before they got the message, more out of annoyance than fear as cheetah are generally not a threat to rhino calves. We also had some great sightings of rare species such as aardwolf, porcupine and bat-eared foxes.
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