Place and time are two of the most important criteria when choosing a safari. East Africa, is home to the Sunday afternoon documentaries. Kenya and Tanzania, are great choices for safaris because of their fertile grasslands which provide food for the large herds of herbivores and carnivores.

The great migration consists of a herd of one and a half million wildebeest and zebra that, following the rain cycle, seek the greenest grasslands between the Masai Mara and the Serengeti. Although the river crossing between the two national parks is the most classic image in documentaries where the massive crocodile jaws await the wildebeest, this movement of herds is constant all year round. It is essential to choose the area to visit depending on where the herd is in the month we are going to travel.

To get an idea of the magnitude of the landscape, the area of the Serengeti and Masai Mara is more than 15,000 square kilometers, and each month the herd is in a different area. Carnivores follow herbivores, and the likelihood of seeing large numbers of animals depends on the quality of advice from the person organizing the safari.

In other areas of Africa, the concentration of animals is going to depend on the amount of water available. The rainy season, also called the green season, is the most beautiful for photography lovers for its abundant green grasses, clouds, and sunsets in dramatic skies, and is when many herbivores are born. Animals will be found scattered among rivers, lagoons, and ponds. In contrast, during the dry season, animals will concentrate heavily in the few areas with water available for drinking. At this time, it is easy to see large numbers of wildlife concentrating around the available ponds. 

The month in which you travel determines the destination and the quality of the safari, and there are destinations for any month. This means that with good advice, you can travel all year round and not be disappointed.

A safari can be a wonderful experience, or become monotonous day after day. The human eye gets used to everything, and what looked like a wonderful zebra on the first day may look like a striped mule on the third day. This is why it is important to study the topography when designing a safari.

The characteristics of the terrain will mean that we can spend a few days in different and not monotonous ecosystems and that although we see similar animals, they behave very differently. We could see a herd of elephants in the savannah among acacias, and if we choose the area well, in a few days we could see elephants swimming in a river full of crocodiles, or crossing the Kalahari Desert losing a lot of weight due to dehydration. It is essentially the same elephant but observed in different habitats.

Even within Africa, the variety of ecosystems is so great that it would be difficult to cover them all in one trip. From the deserts of the Namib or the Kalahari, the salt flats of Makgadikgadi, the Congo River basin, the Zambezi River and its toothy tiger fish, the plains of the Masai Mara and the Serengeti, the Okavango Delta where the river flows and dies strangely inland and not towards the coast, the Cape of Good Hope where whales gather once a year or where hundreds of thousands of sardines are chased by dozens of dolphins and swordfish, and the home of the white shark. Its jungles and active volcanoes are home to the world's only gorilla populations whose visit is truly transformative. In all these places, ancestral tribes struggle to maintain their traditional way of life, such as the Himba, the San, the famous Masai, the Samburu, and countless other cultures.

Elephants, vertebrates of the landscape
One of the most important factors in the composition of the African landscape is the elephants themselves. Their migratory routes regulate the ecosystems with their feeding. The excrement they leave behind is a fundamental nutrient for animals and vegetation. Pachyderms' digestion is very ineffective and they discard most of what they ingest, creating an excellent fertilizer for the land through which they pass. As they pass through, they act like bulldozers destroying every small tree and shrub in their path, but leaving behind them the seed and fertilizer necessary for a huge meadow to emerge, which will attract large numbers of herbivores and carnivores to the area until the meadow is exhausted, the trees recover again and the cycle begins again. 

A safari can be done comfortably in big 4x4s. Nowadays they are electric on many occasions without engine noise. Other options include walking safaris accompanied by an operation that we call mobile safari or on horseback. There are many options and ways to carry out a safari, from ones where you don't have to move a finger, to others where moving is all you'll be doing.

The traditional safari consists of a combination of light aircraft and comfortable 4x4 cars. By plane, we go from one point to another, to then get on large SUVs equipped with USB chargers, coolers with cold drinks, binoculars that are sometimes infrared, bags full of rice to stabilize the cameras, spotlights for night sightings, and all kinds of amenities and features. 

A walking safari is a very special experience that requires logistical organization since the entire camp, food, toilets, cots and mattresses, showers, and kitchen are set up and dismantled daily. There is a support team and the entire safari is led by specialized guides. This type of safari covers less distance but allows us to live a unique experience and with all the guarantees of safety and comfort. The choice of the safari method determines to a great extent the final experience.

We all have in mind those wonderful tents fully furnished in the purest vintage style as one of the iconic images of a safari. Well, the good news is that they exist and they look just like the pictures.

Despite that being the reference, the accommodation is part of the experience and fortunately, there is something for everyone. 

The lodges are more like small hotels with independent cottages that have walls, air conditioning, bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and sometimes even a terrace and pool. There is usually a central house where meals are taken and is often the meeting point for safari drives. There are lodges of all levels and tastes mainly in southern Africa. 

The Tented Camps are the camps that we all have in mind. There are simpler ones and others that surprise with their level of equipment and decoration details. Some are fixed and are built on platforms and others are mobile or seasonal as they follow the migrations. These camps are dismantled and moved every three months. 

There are few, but excellent private villages. Large houses meant for family safaris, equipped with cooks, guides, vehicles, etc. In areas such as Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe among others, almost all of them have either a private airstrip or one nearby that they share with nearby lodges that can be reached by light aircraft or helicopter. 

In Tanzania, some of the ones we like best are the Singita Serengeti Faru Faru lodge and the Grumeti Serengeti River lodge. In Kenya, in the Masai Mara, in the Olare Motorogi Reserve, we like Mara Plains Camp and Arijiju. In Rwanda, Singita Kwitonda Lodge. In the Okavango Delta of Botswana, Jack's Camp and Okavango Explorers Camp. In Namibia, the Little Kulala Lodge, and in Zimbabwe Tembo Plains, Mana Pools.