Safari by Air

Most of Africa's best wild places were never meant to be reached by road. The camps in Botswana's Okavango sit on islands in a flooded delta. The best of the Mara conservancies in Kenya are hours of corrugated track from the nearest airport. The gorillas of Bwindi in Uganda live in a forest that takes a full day to drive to. In a private aircraft each of them is a morning away, and the safari starts before you land.

On a bush strip the pilot makes one or two low passes before touching down, to move the animals off the runway. Usually it is impala. Sometimes buffalo. Now and then an elephant who is in no hurry. That pass, just above the trees with the bush laid out below, is often the first sighting of the trip.

What private air changes on safari

• Your own vehicle. At every lodge the game vehicle and guide are yours. You stay at a sighting for as long as you want.
• Days back. A transfer that takes a day by road takes about forty minutes by air. That day goes back into the bush.
• Your timetable. The aircraft leaves when you are ready, not when the scheduled shuttle does.
• Strips the shuttles don't fly. Ruaha in Tanzania, the Kaokoveld in Namibia, Mana Pools in Zimbabwe, the private strips of the Delta.

Two collections

Private Safari Journeys. Ten journeys for two to four guests: the Okavango, South Africa's private reserves and the Kalahari, the Serengeti, Ruaha and Zanzibar, the Mara and the Rift Valley, Northern Kenya, Namibia from the Skeleton Coast to Etosha, walking safaris in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the gorillas of Uganda and Rwanda, the Indian Ocean and the Cape's wild places. From US$27,500 per person, based on four guests.

Multigenerational Family Journeys. Ten journeys for families of four to six, up to three generations, in lodges and villas the family has to itself, including a malaria-free circuit for families with small children. Priced on application.

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