African Safari

Tour overview

African Safari

African Safari is an overland journey in Africa, mostly by tourists to view, admire, and photograph wildlife. In the past, the term was also used to mean a game hunt targeted mostly at the big African game which is popularly known as the Big Five (Big 5).

“Safari” is a Swahili word that literally translates to “Journey” in English. Swahili is the most widely used language in Eastern Africa and is the official language in a number of countries in the region. The word “Safari” entered the English dictionary at the end of the 1850s courtesy of the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton.

African Safari as an activity was popularised by among others former US President Theodore Roosevelt when he took a post-presidential African Safari named “A Safari of Enormous Proportions” in 1909 – 1910 with a purpose of hunting African game and bringing back to America enough African specimens ostensibly to fill up the Smithsonian Museums. He was commissioned to go on this trip by the Smithsonian Institution. He brought back to America over 11,000 specimens after killing over 11,400 wild animals, 512 of which were big game. He did this with the help of his son and his hunting party.

African Safari tours were further popularised by famous authors. Ernest Hemingway wrote about African Safaris in his books The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Green Hills of Africa, and True at First Light. H. Rider Haggard wrote about an African Safari in his first novel, King Solomon’s Mines. The novel Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne also talks about an African Safari.

The Film Industry has also played a big part in the popularisation of the African Safari. Among the movies that have covered this genre are Tarzan, Trader Horn, The Naked Prey, and Out of Africa which was made from Karen Blixen‘s books Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass among other sources.

At Ramina Tours and Travel Ltd, we bring the term “Safari” to life for tourists by providing a tour that takes them to locations that encompass everything that they can imagine when they hear the phrase “African Safari”.

African Safari tours

African Safari Tours have evolved from the hunting trips they used to be into adventurous trips for tourists. They are now expeditions where tourists travel overland on either safari vehicles or aircraft to admire, interact with, and record footage of wild animals and plants as well as local communities.

Large amounts of the money generated from African Safari tours are used to conserve wildlife in the game parks and reserves that provide natural habitats for wild animals. The money is used to create finance protection fo wild animals mostly from poachers. It is also used to protect the environment from the destruction which would lead to the gradual extinction of wild animals and plants.

African Safari tours also create investment opportunities for local communities. These communities are able to set up businesses that supply goods and services to tourists on safari. This motivates the communities to participate in the protection of surrounding wildlife because it is the source of their livelihood.

As a major player in the tourism industry in Kenya, Ramina Tours and Travel Ltd makes sure that our tours have a positive impact on the environment that hosts wildlife in Kenya. We also make sure that the interaction of our tour clients with local communities has a positive social and economic impact on both parties.

Big 5 Africa

Big 5 Africa is a term used by tour operators to refer to Africa’s five most difficult wild animals to hunt on foot. These 5 wild animals are the lion, the African leopard, the African elephant, the rhinoceros, and the  African buffalo. This term Big 5 was coined in the late 1800s during Africa’s colonial period by big-game hunters.

In the past, it was legal to hunt the big 5 African wild animals. This went on until many African countries banned it because four of these animals’ existence became endangered. Right now, the African lion, the African leopard, and the African bush elephant are classified by conservationists as vulnerable.

The Black Rhinoceros is classified as critically endangered while the Southern White Rhinoceros is classified as near threatened. The 2020 assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the Northern White Rhinoceros as critically endangered and possibly extinct in the wild. This is because there are only two known living animals from the sub-species. These two Northern White Rhinos live in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya though they belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.

The African Buffalo is still found in great numbers in Africa. It is therefore not an endangered species and its conservation status is classified as least concern.

Kenya is the only country where all the Big 5 Africa wild animals can be found. Ramina Tours and Travel organizes tours to watch the Big 5 African animals in their natural habitats.

Big 5 Safari

Big 5 Safari is a tour or a trip aimed at viewing the Big 5 African wild animals in their natural habitats. Kenya is The only country in the world where tourists can get a chance to view all the Big 5 African wild animals. This is because while most of the Big 5 can be found in many African countries, the critically endangered Northern White Rhino can only be found in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

A Big 5 Safari would be incomplete without getting a chance to see all the animals classified as such. Ramina Tours and Travel has tailor-made tours for visiting destinations where the Big 5 reside.

African Safari Cost

An African Safari cost depends on the destinations, the period of time it will take, the time of the year that the safari will happen, and the rates of the tour operator that will be conducting the safari. Costs can be as low as $125 per person per day and as high as $3000 per person per day. Most tour operators charge an average of $250 per day. 

The best way to go about booking for a pocket-friendly African Safari is by comparing the packages offered by different reliable tour companies and their corresponding charges and then settling on the best option.

At Ramina Tours and Travel, our charges are not fixed. A number of factors make the charges dynamic. The main factor that makes the cost change is the time of the year that a client wants to take the safari. High season charges for accommodation are usually higher than low season charges. That, among other factors, determines the cost of a particular safari.

We do our best to fit our African safari within the budget of our clients. Contact us and we will custom make an African Safari for you.

Affordable African Safari

Affordable African Safari tours can be accessed by tourists mainly because of the high number of tours and travel operators who compete for clients by offering the most attractive packages at the cheapest rates.  Ramina Tours and Travel offers very affordable African safari packages that involve the following attractive features;

• Accommodation and meals in top-notch hotels in Kenyan cities and safari lodges in game parks and reserves.
• Travel in comfortable vehicles, planes and hot air balloons made specifically for viewing of wildlife.
• Visits to Kenyan cultural sites where tourists can learn about the cultural practices of any of the over 42 ethnic groups in Kenya while interacting with the local communities.
• Visits to Kenyan game parks where tourists get to see African wildlife in its natural habitat. These visits are perfect for witnessing predators in the hunt as well as massive animal movement including the annual wildebeest migration.
• Visits to the Kenyan coast where tourists get to enjoy the beautiful, sunny beaches of Kenyan coastal towns like Mombasa, Malindi, and Lamu.

African Safari Animals

African safari animals is a phrase that is usually used by tourists to refer to the animals they are likely to see during an African Safari. The main attractions in an African Safari are the Big Five. Besides the big five, there are other countless land and water animals as well as birds that are seen during an African Safari.

An African Safari tour by Ramina Tours and Travel will take you through Lake Naivasha, Masai Mara Game Reserve, Amboseli National Park, and the Kenyan coast. The above-mentioned locations are home to thousands of species of land animals, birds, and marine creatures.

You are likely to come across the big five African wild animals, namely lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes. You might also come across giraffes, hippos, zebra, wildebeest, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs. You will also likely see crocodiles,  aardvarks, aardwolves, hares, antelopes, mongooses, foxes, bushbabies, bushbucks, hartebeest, eland, monkeys, porcupines, gazelles, honey badgers, impala, dik-diks, klipspringers, baboon, oribi, pangolins, jackals, bats, topi, warthogs, and waterbuck. 

Among the birds you are likely to see are Ostrich, Flamingos, Abdim’s Stork, African Darter, African Grey Hornbill, African Fish Eagle, African Harrier Hawk, African Openbill Stork, African Spoonbill, African White Backed Vulture, Lappet Faced Vulture, Bateleur, Black Chested Snake Eagle, Black Headed Heron, Black-Winged Kite, Coqui Francolin, Egyptian Goose, and the Fisher’s Sparrow Lark,

You might also see the Green Wood Hoopoe, Pelicans, Grey Headed Kingfisher, Grey Kestrel, Hamerkop, Hadeda Ibis, Kori Bustard, Lilac Breasted Roller, Marabou Stork, Martial Eagle, Rufous Naped Lark, Ruppell’s Vulture, Secretary bird, Southern Ground Hornbill, Southern Masked Weaver, Speckled Mousebird, Spotted Thick Knee, Striped Kingfisher, Superb Starling, Usambiro Barbet, and Vulturine Guineafowl.

Among the marine life, you are likely to see are tilapia, carp, bass catfish, flute mouth fish, halfbeak fish, hawkfish, lizardfish, parrotfish, porcupinefish, pufferfish, triggerfish, gracilaria, eucheuma, chlorophyta, and mangroves.

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