Topdeck Travel Blog

Lifelong traveller (and Topdeck’s head designer) Bec shares her experiences of her African journey with Topdeck.

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For me and many others on my trip, Africa is the last frontier in terms of travel.

My partner Brad and I have been through Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South and North America, so other than Antarctica we only had the wilds of Africa to cross-off.

We arrived on in Nairobi on Friday, but as the trip didn’t start until Sunday we had some time to kill.

With no plans and no idea what to do we contacted our Trip Leader Masivu for advice and he made some excellent suggestions.

Fancy a Giraffe Kiss? Photo/R.McCaig

First up we paid a visit to the Giraffe Centre followed by a trip to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. The giraffes at the centre are so beautiful and gentle. You get to feed them with these giant pellets. If you’re feeling keen, hold one between your teeth to receive your very own giraffe kiss!

The best way to get around is by taxi and we had a great driver for our time in the city. He was really fun and gave us heaps of facts and information about Nairobi.

After meeting our group and Trip Leader on Saturday evening we were up bright and early the next morning for our road trip to the Maasai Mara.

Our group of 15 was split into two mini vans for the 4-5 hour drive. Distance-wise the Mara isn’t too far away, but thanks to rough road conditions the drive is rather slow.

With the stunning scenery of the Great Rift Valley all around and new trip mates to meet we were kept busy.

THE ANIMALS

That afternoon we pulled up at our home for the next two nights, a permanent campsite just outside the Maasai Mara.

Lion in the Maasai Mara. Photo/R.McCaig

With no fences around the site it’s not uncommon for animals to wander around the tents at night.

The tents at this site were more like canvas houses – they even had their own indoor toilets!

After dinner around the campfire we went out for a night drive of the Mara.

Elephants, giraffe, impalas - I couldn’t keep track of all the animals we saw! The best thing we encountered was a leopard sleeping in a tree right by the road.

Sunset in the Mara was simply awe-inspiring. It was everything you ever imaged from the Lion King and more.

Leaving Kenya behind, we made our way to a brand new destination – Tanzania and Serengeti National Park.

The experience of waking up in the vast open landscape of the Serengeti with no fences, just beautiful scenery is amazing.

While eating dinner at our campsite one night an elephant wandered in for a quick drink from our water tank. We went up to say ‘hi’, but he was a little shy.

THE PEOPLE

A short drive from the Maasai Mara we visited a traditional Maasai village.

Ben & the Maasai Warriors. Photos/R.McCaig

We watched a performance of the traditional Adumu (jumping) dance and had a go ourselves.

The villagers showed us inside their homes and we were able to buy jewellery made by the Maasai women.

While the Maasai live in conditions far removed from us Westerners, they place a high value on education and as a result nearly all the people in the village speak English.

Being able to speak to the locals isn’t something you often get to do so it really gave us an important insight into how they live and their culture.

The Maasai were as interested in us as we were in them. The women I spoke to wanted to know how many children we all had and they were rather surprised to find out none of the girls in our group were mothers. They were also interested in the lives of western women and how we all worked.

THE BEACH

Leaving the vast savannah behind, we spent the last two nights of our trip in a resort on the palm-fringed beaches of Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar.

Beach-side Bliss in Zanzibar. Photo/R.McCaig

It was the perfect way to finish our trip. Relaxed and chilled out, we spent our time snorkelling, swimming and sipping drinks at the bar.

For our final night together we took a sunset cruise. After spending 13 days together our whole group were really close so saying goodbye was hard.

It’s difficult to sum up just how incredible my time on safari was. Would I go back? In a heartbeat – there is still so much of Africa to explore!

THINGS TO BRING

• A South African adaptor to charge your gadgets on the truck.
• Wet wipes – at times you’ll get rather grubby!
• Plastic poncho – for those unexpected downpours.
• Binoculars – so you don’t miss out on the best wildlife spotting.
• A good camera – for lasting memories (also great for bragging).

Bec travelled on Topdeck’s 13 Day Kenya & Tanzania Adventure. For more images and inspiration check out Bec’s photo blog.

Topdeck Travel’s Designer Bec goes wild in Africa on Topdeck’s 13 Day Kenya & Tanzania Adventure and decides to inspire us with her amazing photos!

1. Our first afternoon in Maasai Mara National Reserve and we spot a sleeping Leopard in a tree right beside the track. It was a good find because they say leopards are often the hardest animal to spot out of those in the Big Five!

2. Elephants everywhere! Not only in Maasai Mara but also in the Serengeti and the savannahs outside of the national parks.

3. Up close and personal: this cheetah strolled up to us and posed for our cameras for a little while. They are really beautiful animals.

4. The secret of getting a good giraffe photo is…stopping the vehicle for a while and waiting patiently! They are quite timid creatures but they would always be curious about us and for a while, they would come up close to check us out eventually.

5. King of the jungle: this young male lion was just gorgeous. We found him with about 7 others from his pride taking a break from the midday sun by some trees in the Maasai Mara.

6. Jumping with the warriors: we visited a local Maasai village where the people live in the traditional way, in mud huts and herding cows and goats. The men did a performance for us, singing us their traditional songs and invited the other guys from our group to jump with them.

7. Cultural curiosity goes both ways! The Maasai women were interested to know how many babies the women in our group had. They were quite surprised to learn that none of us had had any children yet. In Maasai culture most women will have had a few children before they turn 20.

8. Meet the truck! Our truck was called Shashe, named after the famous river in Botswana. Shashe became our home away from home, and even though some of the drives were long, it always went fast because we had heaps fun together. Our truck was really good; it had lockers at the back for our stuff, power points for charging our cameras and an on-board freezer and esky.

9. Our trip leader Masivu was awesome, he made the trip an amazing experience for us. As Masivu is from Kenya he helped us see East Africa from a local perspective. In this picture Masivu has a bunch of red bananas, a local specialty near Arusha in Tanzania.

10. When we were in Arusha in Tanzania we visited a local village. It was really interesting seeing the day to day life of the people who lived here. The children in particular loved our visit, they were so excited to meet us.

11. Sweets= popularity! The local children in the village really wanted us to pick them up and play with them. Also some of our group had brought sweets to give away...

12. Drive day lunch, yum: Masivu our trip leader, and Antony our driver would have something prepared for us and we would also help out. Usually we had sandwiches, with freshly baked bread, ham, cheese, fresh salad, and array of different sauces. They would always have fresh tropical fruit ready for us as well, which was delicious.

13. Hitting the Serengeti! When we visited Maasai Mara and Serengeti, we left Shashe behind and got around in smaller, off road, game-park-friendly vehicles, which got us closer to the action.

14. Camping out in the Serengeti was amazing, with no fences separating us from all the colourful wildlife. It was perfectly safe though, we were just told not to stray too far from our tents in the middle of the night, and to make sure we had no food around which might attract hungry hyenas. We spotted this Cape Buffalo just near our camp not long after sunrise.

15. How not to become a lion’s dinner…On our last afternoon in Serengeti our truck blew a tire. It wasn’t that unusual, we had already punctured a couple of others and our drivers had lots of spares on hand just in case. As our driver was changing the tire, one of the guys in our group noticed two heads in the savannah watching us – it was two lions, about 50 metres away. Our driver told us to stand on the other truck, while he finished, as lions see the truck was one big animal and won’t attack it. Phew…

16. Night camping on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was once a huge volcano millions of years ago, but collapsed after an eruption. What is left is the huge crater floor wilderness that is a popular home for local wildlife. Our campsite on the rim was pretty cool, and after dinner we had a shy elephant wander in to say hello!

17. Zebras crossing. In Ngorongoro Crater there were zebras everywhere, I couldn’t believe it. There were also hundreds upon hundreds of wildebeest, at this time of year they tend to congregate in the crater before their big migration later in the year.

18. Hippo-watch. We stopped by this beautiful lake for lunch in Ngorongoro Crater. There were a few hippos in the water enjoying themselves, but we were warned not to get to close to the water because hippos are actually the most dangerous animals in Africa. You don’t want to get stuck between a hippo and his water hole!

19. Next stop for us was the beautiful island of Zanzibar. We spent our first day in Stonetown, Zanzibar’s capital and spent the afternoon at a local spice plantation. This was really fascinating, we found out how nutmeg and cardamom grows and that cinnamon comes from the bark of a cinnamon tree.

After Stonetown, we ventured further north to west coast of the island to Kendwa beach. We took a snorkeling trip out too the Mnemba reef, which was beautiful. Not long after this picture was taken it bucketed down with rain – one of the downsides of traveling in rainy season. However the rainy season wasn’t all bad, usually it would only rain for an hour, before the sun was out again, and we would get to watch some spectacular storms in the distance over the ocean in the evenings.

I had a fabulous time on this safari, hope you will enjoy it too! Love, Rebecca.

Topdeck’s business development manager Kate shares some memorable animal encounters at Kruger National Park, South Africa

The first time you see a giraffe roaming the African plane is an unforgettable experience.  As you drive through the bush the challenge to spot wildlife before anyone else is exciting and tense.

Growing up in South Africa I have been lucky enough to visit the Kruger National Park many times, each being just as spectacular as the last.

The Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers 19,485 square kilometres (7,523 sq mi) and extends 360 kilometres (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from east to west. To put these numbers into perspective, it is a similar size to Wales or Israel.

The park is home to Africa’s ‘Big 5′ - elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, lion and buffalo. It also has over 500 species of birds, 150 species of mammals (including some 12,000 elephants), 100 reptiles, 23,000 plant species and a variety of amphibians.

In short, it’s a truly amazing place that has Africa stamped all over it!

Being in the Kruger isn’t like being in a zoo by any means. As you drive along the tracks each turn takes you to a different experience.  Binoculars are a MUST and will make anyone who has forgotten theirs green with envy.

Because the animals are wild and free every time you go out on a drive you will see something new and just as awesome.

Those lucky enough to see a kill (as heartless as it may sound) really do experience the true awe of nature as it is meant to be. These animals are free to roam; they find their own food and are wild things.

One of my favourite memories from the Park is seeing two lionesses cross the track ahead of us and then proceed to walk by either side of our vehicle. With your heart racing it’s hard to believe that you have just been within a few metres of one of the most amazing animals and in the wild!

Another was seeing a herd of elephants crossing the road between our vehicle and another right through the gap.

This herd was a whole range of ages including little calves.  Seeing them link tails with trunks and cross the path was incredible and brought a whole new meaning to zebra crossing!

Kruger Park is a year round destination with each season bringing its own highlights so whatever time you decide to safari in the Kruger National Park you will not be disappointed!

The Park has a hot, sub-tropical climate and for most of the year it is hot during the day (above 25°C).

Game viewing can be at its best during the dry winter months (June- September), however the wet summer season brings full waterholes, lush bushveld, many new born wildlife and the summer migrant birds arrive.

We went out for morning and evening drives as these are the best times to spot the animals. There is nothing quite like an evening drive and spending time at a water hole watching the sun set and the animals drink the water.

No matter when you go and what you see, the Kruger National Park will be one of the best travel experiences you will ever have.

Africa is truly a magical destination so what are you waiting for?

Top Tips:

• Take binoculars
• Invest in a decent camera
• Hats are essential for sun protection in those pop up safari vehicles
• Bring layers for the morning drives as it can be chilly
• Remember the animals are wild and you are in their environment

Visit Kruger National Park with Topdeck on one of these African Safaris: 31 Day South East Adventure, 25 Day Desert Tracker, 7 Day African Insight Northbound, 7 Day African Insight Southbound, 22 Day Zanzibar, Victoria Falls & Kruger, 25 Day South West Safari, 29 Day East African Explorer, and the 46 Day Ultimate African Adventure!