We are looking forward to visiting the light house at Lake Victoria Safari Village at Mbita point. Spending a few days in it will be a new experience. The landscape from Kisumu to Luanda Kotieno on the shores of Asembo Bay, off the road to Bondo, is full of ancient features: age-old Cambrian rocks fill the Hills along the tarmac road and Kit Mikaye, the gigantic borders sitting atop each other. At Ndori we turn left onto the dusty murrum road to Luanda Kotieno to catch the 11oclock ferry to Mbita point. It runs like clock work so if you miss it you have to wait for the next three hours for the next trip.

The Lake is calm, with water birds here and there and in a distance a strange dust devil appears. Its a whole cloud of the harmless minute flies that breed in the water and sometimes in the swamp places.
Forty-five minutes later, we clock at Mbita point and soon we are at the gate of Lake Victoria Safari Village. The sign on the entrance promises relation at the beach, bird watching and excursions on the Lake.

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Tags: kruger park, travel, safari, camping, hotels, lodges, african, south african, national parks, rhino

Escape to the land of contrasts where the fresh smell of daisies, colourful spring flowers and sweet melodies greet you. Namaqua National Park boasts with a kaleidescope of indigenous flora species every spring time and it is for this reason alone that people are drawn to the area.

- Breathe in the fragrant aromas of spring flowers

- Find your own secluded oasis of tranquility

- Enjoy camping out under the African sky

- Situated 495km from Cape Town South Africa

Namaqua is famous for its display of wild flowers in spring and a rich diversity of succulent plants, with an estimated 3500 species. Escape to the land of contrasts, where the rigorous climate has created a myriad of life forms superbly adapted to their specific habitat.

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Tags: resorts, elephant, animal, holiday, rhino, national parks, vacation, vacation, big five, safaris

One of the most famous of the “big five”, the Lion or Panthera Leo is a member of the family Felidae and is one of the four big cats in the Panthera genus. Large males can exceed 250kg in weight and it is the second largest living cat after the Tiger.

Lions in their natural habitat currently live in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia and have a critically endangered population in northwest India. They used to live in North Africa, the Middle East and Western Asia but have all been wiped out since.

About 10,000 years ago the lion was the most widespread large land mammal besides humans and they were found in most of Africa, much of Eurasia from Western Europe to India and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.

Being a lion cub is actually quite hard however, lionesses in secure habitat such as Kruger National Park may frequently reach an age of 12-14 years old whereas lions seldom live longer than 8 years. (more…)

Tags: rhino, safaris, lion, vacation, safari, holiday, africa, national parks, kruger park, lodges

Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya was established in 1961, and it has grown from just the lake and the mountains around to now include a lot of the savannahs. As a consequence the amount of wildlife to view has increased enormously, making Nakuru a very worthwhile part of any African safari trip. It is at an altitude of 5700 ft, and covers an area of over 188 sq. Kms.

Its height above sea level alone means that the vegetation and wildlife are considerably different than say at Tsavo which is mainly much lower and closer to the sea.

The lake itself is shallow and alkaline, and varies in size from 5 to 30 square kms depending on the time of year. It is the alkaline nature of Lake Nakuru that causes the huge numbers of visitors each year. It is no exaggeration to say that one species more than any other has made the lake famous throughout the world.

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Tags: hotels, animals, safari, travel, south african, holiday, resorts, africa, vacation, animal

One of the best known “big five” is the Elephant which is part of the Proboscidea family and is the class of Mammalia. They were once classified along with other thick skinned animals in a now invalid order, Pachydermata.

At the moment there are three living species – the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant. Mammoths of course are part of the same family, however since the last ice age around 10,000 years a go they have become extinct.  At that time the Mammoth was the largest land animal alive but today it is the Elephant. An Elephants gestation period is around 22 months and this is the longest of any land animal. At birth an elephant calf is commonly around 120 kg in weight and can live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer.

Many people are aware that Elephants are big animals but the largest recorded elephant that was shot in Angola in 1956 was male and weight an astonishing 12,000 kg! It’s shoulder height was 4.2 meters which is about 1 meter taller than the average male African Elephant. (more…)

Tags: vacation, lion, safaris, elephant, wild life, adverture, africa, animal, animals, safari

The Cape Buffalo may be more commonly known as the African Buffalo and is a bovid from the family of the Bovidae. Generally Savanna type buffalos are up to 1.6meters high and 3 meters long and weigh around 500-900 kg – males are usually bigger than the females and are the only gender to reach the high end of the weight range whereas Forest type buffalos are only half the size of savanna buffalos.

The African Buffalo is commonly mistaken for being related to the slightly larger water buffalo but actually its ancestry is unclear to this day.

The African Buffalo is one of the most successful grazers in Africa and they generally live in swamps, floodplains as well as mopane grasslands and forests of the major mountains of Africa.
Buffalos are adaptable and can live in a variety of areas from the highest mountains to sea level areas but they prefer habitats with dense cover such as reeds and thickets. Herds have also been found in open woodland and grassland. (more…)

Tags: animals, safari, camping, hotels, leopard, kruger park, hunting, lodges, holiday, resorts

Luangwa River is situated in a valley with three national parks and South Luangwa National Park is the southernmost of the three. It’s renowned throughout the world for being a wildlife haven and supports large populations of African animals including the Thorneycroft Giraffe, Elephants and Buffalo. The rivers in the parks are also home to large herds of Hippo’s and Crocodiles.

Africa is well known for its Safaris and this park in particular is known for walking safaris. It was founded as a game reserve in 1938 and became a national park in 1972. The park itself covers around 9,000 km squared of land.

The park is situated mainly on the western bank of the river and it’s north western boundary is formed by the Northern and Central Provinces of the Muchinga Escarpment. Making up two ecoregions, both of which are woodland savannah, the higher slopes are dominated by the Miombo tree because the Mopane trees that are dominant on the lower elevations are more tolerant to the higher temperatures and lower rainfall.
Zebra’s and Giraffe’s are found in large herds in these woodland savannahs due to the larger patches of grassland that can be found for the grazing animals. (more…)

Tags: rhino, animal, lodges, vacation, south africa, safari, leopard, resorts, lion, national parks