Walking Safaris

Walking safaris in Botswana take on a number of forms, ranging from a morning or afternoon activity to a full safari lasting a few days. All walks are accompanied by experienced professional guides who bring the wilderness alive and share their intimate knowledge of the areas they walk in. Walking safari options include:

• Bush walking safari 
• Walking with the San Bushmen
• Overnight walking trails

We would highly recommend the Motswiri Walking Trails. This features tracking, spoor identification, searching for specific game, bird watching, detailed study of flora and fauna – whatever you want really! Accompanied by an armed, professional guide who will tailor his activities to your specific areas of interest. Groups are small, no more than 6, and you can choose whether to walk on dry land, wade in shallow flood plains, explore the floodplains by mokoro or the Spillway in a larger boat. Walking activities can be interspersed with fishing and swimming, or by taking up watch on some of the spectacular pans within the reserve and observing the birds and animals coming to drink.

Footsteps Walking Camp in the Okavango Delta also offers an excellent walking option. The guides here are very experienced, and with them you’ll usually head off for a walk in both the morning and another in the afternoon. Footsteps is excellent for family groups, taking children as young as seven years old. You can hire the whole Footsteps camp, including the services of a family-oriented guide. Activities will then be much more varied – from teaching the children to identify animals and their tracks, to learning bush skills like cooking on a fire, how to make bows and arrows, and fishing. The emphasis being on learning to understand and respect the natural environment.

A number of camps and lodges offer excellent guided walking safari options in Kenya giving you the freedom to traverse on foot whilst admiring some of the world’s finest wildlife. Explore the Laikipia Plateau with a local Samburu guide; discover the most scenic areas of the Great Rift Valley; follow the tracks of kudu or zebra; follow in the footsteps of explorers of old and camp beneath open skies. Rediscover the spirit of adventure with a walking safari in Kenya.

Kicheche Camps offer some wonderful walking safari options. We particularly like the Kicheche Mara Wilderness Walking Safari – an exciting walking safari in the Masai Mara which combines fly camping with Kicheche Valley and Bush Camp. This 5 night safari itinerary is led by one of Kicheche’s Silver KPSGA guides and offers an outstanding opportunity to explore the smaller aspects of savannah life – birds, grasses, and insects on your walking excursion.

We also offer a number of camel walking safaris which offer a unique perspective of not just the animals but the land they live in. Camels have become an integral part of a safari now in many areas of Kenya as they are well suited to the terrain and climate and offer yet another fun and interesting way of seeing and experiencing the great African bush. On foot you can fine tune your senses and experience the country in vivid and exciting detail.

MAASAI TRAILS

Maasai Trails is all about enhancing ones understanding of a different culture, exploration, and escaping into a world of breath-taking beauty. Go on a walking expedition with your guides, local Maasai from the Loita area. Get to know each other and see how your safari contributes to a continuing dialogue between a changing traditional culture and the global culture where you are coming from. Walk along ancient trails left by the Maasai over hundreds of years and experience the African bush in a different and more fulfilling way.

The trails vary in number of days and group size. All trails begin from Jan’s Camp where the donkeys who carry the camp are weighed and packed. Whether you choose to walk into the sacred Loita forest to a hidden waterfall, to the edge of the Great Rift Valley or combine all the trails, the beauty of these Maasai Trails is the flexibility.

Walking Trails:

• The Great Rift Valley Trail (6 days / 5 nights)
• The Great Maasailand Trail (8 days / 7 nights)
• Oltyiani Trail (4 days / 3 nights)
• Ol Lasur Trail (3 days / 2 nights)

NORTHERN TANZANIA

In Tanzania, there are many opportunities for exploration on foot offering a uniquely rewarding game viewing experience. With well-trained walking guides, a walking safari can be the highlight of your East African itinerary; a simple walk with the ladies of the Maasai tribe to fetch water, an afternoon survey of wildebeest as they come to drink at a croc-infested river or a herd of elephant meander off into the sunset are all experiences that encompass true Africa.

Tanzania’s National Parks have some incredible wilderness areas for walking safaris. If you’re exploring the north of the country, why not include an unforgettable walk between Entamanu Ngorongoro and Serengeti Safari Camp in your itinerary. Why drive, when you can walk off the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and onto the vast Southern Serengeti Plains? Find out more >

​Alternatively, if you’re looking for a short walking experience, Hatari Lodge near Arusha National Park offers some excellent walking opportunities that you can easily combine as part of a wider safari holiday in Tanzania.

SOUTHERN TANZANIA

Selous Walking Safaris – The Selous Game Reserve is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Africa. Relatively unknown and still remarkably undeveloped it is the perfect location for intimate walking safaris. Itineraries vary according to conditions, but will cover a variety of terrain including the banks of the Rufiji River, riverine & miombo woodlands, Lake Tagallala, a network of sand rivers, open plains and access to the Hot Springs.

Ruaha Walking Safaris – Ruaha National Park lies in an untouched and incredibly remote area of Southern Tanzania and is visited by relatively few tourists making it one of Africa’s wildest Parks for the safari enthusiast. Kichaka Expeditions offer some excellent walking safaris in Ruaha including 3, 5 or 7 night expeditions. Each safari can be fully customised at a moments notice to suit your desires. Stays of over three nights can also incorporate the highly mobile and rustic flycamp for reaching and exploring the more untouched and isolated areas of the Ruaha National Park.

In Uganda, walking safaris have become increasingly popular with many clients choosing to combine a walking safari with other activities such as gorilla trekking, chimpanzee trekking, boat cruises and game drives.

This experience offers a low-cost inside perspective of village life in rural Uganda. A forest walk in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park exposes you to the beauty of the forest where you will encounter other primates in this forest such as Black and white Colubus monkeys, un habituated chimps, birds, butterflies and waterfalls all at your own pace.

We can arrange tailor-made guided nature walks between Buhoma Village and the town of Kisoro, in southwestern Uganda. Or a trek through the dense Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to mountain gorillas, and emerge at the charming, traditional hilltop community of Nkuringo. All walking safaris are led by professional local guides enabling you to enjoy the warm welcome that Ugandans are known for and give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in rural Uganda.

Experience the thrill of the traditional walking safari in one of the last unspoilt wilderness areas in Africa. The Luangwa Valley in Zambia (North and South Luangwa National Parks) is considered by many to be the home of the African walking safari. In combination with comfortable, yet rustic, bush camps this is one of the most exciting safari experiences around.

Ideal for couples or small groups seeking a personalised, remote bush experience, great hospitality and spectacular opportunities to explore this magnificent wildlife sanctuary on foot. Activities are tailored to individual tastes and include day and night game drives.

We work with a number of suppliers throughout North and South Luangwa utilising purpose-built walking camps (mostly seasonal) in seldom frequented areas of the Park. These remote camps provide an unmatched wilderness experience with trails from 3 to 10 days in duration.

Robin Pope Safaris’ Mobile Walking Safaris offer a fantastic wilderness experience of the South Luangwa. This area is remote and wild, the terrain and habitats varied and the game shy and unused to man. From ants to buffalo, a bird’s nest to tracking a lion, you will learn the many facets of the bush. Contact us for more information.