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>>Seeing beauty in unexpected places


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Partners :

What's the difference between a safari and a tour?

'Safari' is the Kiswahili (Spoken in East Africa) word for 'tour' or 'journey'. During British colonial times it took on the character of a journey involving hunting for game, either to view, photograph or kill, by contrast with a journey involving visiting historical sites, museums, art galleries, great scenery and shopping opportunities. We use the words in the same way: safaris are journeys to visit animals, plants, insects, birds and fish in their natural habitats and tours are journeys to visit people in theirs. The best trips involve both. Getting to know the people and communities who share this world with the chameleons, the bearded vultures, the Knysna seahorses and the other 1800 or so species, will give you a more complete picture of the conservation choices we face.

• Our favourites - the places we most like to take our guests.

ONE: A Botanist from British Columbia wants to revisit South Africa after his first visit during the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He wants to visit the Kruger National Park and his cousins in Durban. He also wants to pursue his own scientific interest in the sustainable use of indigenous plants.

His itinerary therefore includes visits to the traditional healers' (sangoma) markets in Johannesburg and Durban, visits to the Witwatersrand Botanical Gardens and Kirstenbosch in Cape Town. We also arrange for him to visit indigenous plant nurseries and experimental farming projects and set up interviews with relevant experts. We take him hiking in areas where he sees some of the specimens in their natural environment, which includes Kruger and, in close proximity to his family in Durban, the World Heritage sites of Lake St. Lucia and the Great Ukhahlamba / Drakensberg Park.

TWO: A producer from a small Hollywood studio wants to have a luxurious 6-star “Out of Africa” experience, but she wants to cover her costs by making a documentary while she’s here.
We research the conservation themes she may be able to pursue at different private game reserves, set up appointments for her to obtain background information, and make local arrangements for a film crew. And, we make sure she receives the celebrity treatment she expects.

THREE: Two Canadian women came to South Africa on a Lwazi itinerary two years ago and say it’s the best holiday they’ve ever had. From “I hate birds, I’ve ALWAYS hated birds”, one of our guests bought herself a birding list after a day in Kruger and had PI’d (positively identified) around 45 species by the time we left, three days later. That the only cats they saw were lions far off in the distance on a night drive was irrelevant in the face of what they DID see.

FOUR : In late 2005 TireTracks, a Dutch/American team commences a two-year journey across Africa. They are conducting an experience-based research study which will inform the piloting of an interactive K-12 education programme piloted in the Centreville Schools, Ohio, USA and in the Netherlands.

Lwazi is one of the alliance partners of this project and advises on the Southern African leg of the journey. Please visit www.tiretracks.org for more information.

FIVE: Then there is the itinerary which exists in concept, waiting for the right clients to bring it to life: This is for the amateur (and professional) archaeologist/paleontologist. The places we would visit might include:

• Makapansgat, home to the most extended and comprehensive hominid fossil record in the world. The site is home to three million years of human evolution, including the early Australopithecus Africanus and the Middle Pleistocene locality at the Cave of the Hearths.
  
• Sterkfontein, (World Heritage Site Cradle of Humankind) which is one of the most productive and important palaeoanthropological sites. This is the place where Dr. Robert Broom found the very first adult ape-man in 1936. It has delivered fossils dating from about 3.5 to 1.5 million years ago – the time when our predecessors, the hominids developed.
  
• Die Kelders Cave. The latest excavations suggest that the cave was occupied about 60,000 to 85,000 years ago.
  
• Matjies River Shelter and Nelson’s Bay Cave for insights into the lives of the early residents (dating back 12000 years) of the now highly fashionable Plettenberg Bay coastal areas.
  
• Wonderwerk Cave, Golden Gate National Park, the Ukhahlamba / Drakensberg Park and Bushmanskloof Wilderness Reserve to see rock art in its natural environment.