Sshh, quiet,shut up, there it is! Where? I can’t see it. Will you just be
still for two seconds? It’s over there. Where? I can’t see a bloody thi ...
AAAAAHHH, there it is!
In an instant, the whole trip makes sense. When you travel to see wildlife,
sometimes two weeks away from home can boil down to a few minutes of quality
time in the company of your dream creature.
A menacing big cat, a hefty primate, a monster of the deep - whatever it might
be, fulfilling the ambition of seeing it in the wild might be a fleeting
encounter, but it’s always a heart-lifting, memory-carving moment. For the
rest of the holiday, everything else is a bonus.
Track down the right trips, though, and those bonuses can be pretty bumper.
From the African jungle to the beaches of Thai-land, you can combine animal
magic with holiday heaven: stylish resorts, cultural experiences,
hard-earned rest.
Best of all, you can also ensure that your travels play a part in preserving
the species you’ve come to visit, rewarding local communities for their
inspirational conservation efforts. Because the world’s most charismatic
critters need our help - and you need to check out these holidays...
LIONS
The beast: for most people on safari - both the modern, binocular-wielding
version, and the older, rifle- and gin-toting equivalent - the undoubted
highlight has always been meeting lions. They ooze arrogance, menace and
fractiousness, they spend most of the daylight hours dozing under a tree,
but, like irresistible bad boys, they have charisma even in louche repose -
and, if you’re lucky enough to see them on the hunt, you’ll never forget it.
Pace, power, fearlessness, grace – these are surely the kings and queens of
Africa.
They once had a decent empire in Asia, too, but there are fewer than 300 wild
Asiatic lions left. In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, the population has at
least halved in the past two decades, to below 50,000, and lions are today
listed as a vulnerable species.
Although the precise causes are debated, essentially lions can’t coexist with
people, and particularly their tasty livestock, so they are now wholly
dependent on Africa’s national parks and game reserves for their habitat -
which means, realistically, that they’re wholly dependent on you.
The trip: Tafika Camp, in Zambia, is in every regard just what a safari camp
ought to be. In South Luangwa National Park, it’s a laid-back but luxurious
six-chalet setup, with a hugely experienced guiding team and a nice little
gimmick: dawn microlight rides.
There are plenty of antelope around, so it’s well placed for lion-spotting -
and, as nighttime drives are permitted here, you’ve a good chance of seeing
a hunt (and, as a real bonus, a leopard). With luck, you’ll get the lion
encounters out of the way before you walk into the bush to stay at one of
Tafika’s two tiny outpost camps - although one of them is known as Crocodile
Bushcamp, so zip up your tent.
Tafika’s owners are admirably committed to the communities that surround them,
supporting a nearby school (which you have the chance to visit) and other
projects. This helps to ensure that the locals prefer their lions alive and
earning.
Expert Africa (020 8232 9777, www.expertafrica.com
) has a nine-day trip to Tafika and its camps from £2,259pp, including
British Airways flights from Heathrow to Lusaka. Or try Africa Travel
Resource (01306 880770, www.africatravelresource.com
).
GORILLAS
The beast: did you know that gorillas have unique finger-prints, just
like us? Or that they carry their young for almost exactly the same time as
we do? They’ve been spotted fighting with sticks and stones, and even having
sex in the missionary position. If they’re a glimpse of our evolutionary
past, it’s from late yesterday evening. No wonder people pay hefty park fees
to trek for hours into high-altitude jungle for the chance to glimpse these
muscular, characterful creatures - it’s like visiting your favourite
relatives.
And, though the gorillas occasionally see off their house guests with a
chest-thumping roar, the visits are still hugely welcome - both species of
gorilla, Western and Eastern, are listed as “critically endangered”, not
least because the nations that house their tiny populations are among the
poorest on earth.
The 2008 UN Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and Their Habitats, a
new plan to secure the future of the primates, recognises that tourism must
play a big part in local development, helping people who are living on the
brink and persuading them to protect their charismatic cousins. The trip: be
prepared - gorilla trekking makes you work for your animal magic. Rwanda’s
Park National des Volcans is seriously tough country - steep, damp, dense
and capacious - and on some days the guides will walk you for eight hours in
search of a primate family. They have a pretty good strike rate, though -
and, when you finally track down a gorilla gathering, it’s worth the sweat.
Groups of no more than eight people are allowed up to an hour of silent
observation of feeding, socialising and, it has to be said, the odd
threatening grunt towards their guests from the hefty herbivores.
Almost as inspirational as meeting the big fellas is a stay at Sabyinyo
Silverback Lodge, a top-notch jungle hotel in the foothills of the
volcanoes, where guests each get a beautiful stone cottage with mountain
views to call their own. It’s run by the people who created the swanky
Governors’ Camps, in Kenya, but actually owned by a community group
representing 6,000 local villagers, which collects rent from the managers,
and a £25 nightly community fee from the guests, to fund education,
healthcare and development. You’ll also be directly funding the protection
of the gorillas through daily park fees for every trek - all of which should
make that sunset G&T on your private veranda taste extra special.
Tribes Travel (01728 685971, www.tribes.co.uk
) runs a seven-day Primates of Rwanda trip, with two days set aside for
gorilla treks in the Volcans and a chimpanzee trek in Nyungwe, Africa’s
largest remaining
mountain rainforest, as well as time in Kigali and alongside Lake Kivu, so you
encounter the human side of Rwanda, too. Prices start at £2,700pp, excluding
daily permits of £250pp for each gorilla trek, and flights with Kenya
Airways via Nairobi; from about £600. Or try Steppes Travel (01285 880980,
www. steppestravel.co.uk).
TIGERS
The beast: one pub debate can be put to rest immediately - in a fight
between a lion and a tiger, there’d be no contest. Panthera tigrisis the
biggest of the big cats - in Chinese mythology, tigers are considered to
equal the might even of dragons. In a recent global television poll, tigers
were voted the world’s favourite animal. It’s no surprise: from Shere Khan
to Life of Pi, they’ve inspired us with fear and wonder, and the chance to
see one in the wild is, for many of us, a lifelong ambition.
It’s a tricky business, though: all that predatory power makes tigers
solitary, wide-roaming types, ceaselessly patrolling their spacious ranges.
And that need for plenty of room is a source of peril, too: habitat
destruction and hunting have left six subspecies of tiger endangered and
three extinct, with a total population fall of 95% in the past 100 years.
Across Asia - and particularly in India, where the bulk of wild tigers
remain - protected reserves are the only hope of securing sustainable
populations.
There are 28 such reserves in India, and the organisers of the national
Project Tiger know that they need to generate tourism cash if they are to
persuade struggling locals that poaching tigers for the lucrative
Chinese-medicine market makes bad business sense. The trip: Kailash Sankhala
was known as “Mr Tiger” with good reason: the founder of India’s
national-reserves programme, he received the country’s highest civil honour
for a lifetime’s work devoted to tiger conservation. His grandson now
follows in his footsteps - in part through the management of two jungle
lodges that help to fund tiger protection by giving visitors the best
possible tiger-spotting experience.
In the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Bandhavgarh and Kanha lodges
are small, peaceful clusters of cottages, both on the edge of national
parks. You can go tiger-spotting for up to nine hours a day, with highly
experienced truck guides giving you the best possible chance of an
encounter.
Even if you’re unlucky, the Sambar deer, porcupines, sloths, langur monkeys
and more than 270 species of bird should keep you more than entertained.
With village and temple visits also on offer, to ensure that you sample
India’s intoxicating cultural brew, we’re certainly in honeymoon territory
here.
You can book a two-week Tigerland Tour, taking in both lodges, Delhi and the
Taj Mahal, direct from the Sankhalas (£1,327pp; contact them through www.adventure-india.com
). Fly from Heathrow to Delhi with British Airways; from £505.60 (www.ba.com
). Or try Abercrombie & Kent (0845 618 2200, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk
).
SHARKS
The beast: there are more than 350 species of shark patrolling our
oceans, and most warm-water diving destinations have at least some pointy
tiddlers on offer, which you can magnify into man-eaters during your
postholiday boasts in the pub. For a truly awe-inspiring, eye-popping shark
encounter, however, you need to go large – to The trip: the Golden Buddha
Beach Resort is like a warm bath for your imagination - a few wooden
beachfront cottages on a Thai island, Ko Phra Thong, with no other tourism
developments, a six-mile beach facing the Andaman Sea all to yourself,
supernatural sunsets, lazy hammock days and nothing but the rustling jungle
and tropical bird-song to disturb the silence. Phuket this ain’t.
All year round, this is a heavenly spot for snorkellers, divers and
21st-century escapees, but between March and May, other guests arrive off
shore - the whale sharks. For that reason, a visionary tourism project calls
the Golden Buddha home. Guests (once they’ve let that last banana pancake
settle) go on diving trips out to the whale sharks’ regular feeding grounds,
where they can enjoy mind-blowing subaquatic encounters.
The photographs they take are then entered into a database of shark markings,
to track the creatures’ movements and help establish their true population
numbers, thereby supporting demands for greater protection. Local fishermen
are involved in this effort - and, with tree-planting and
turtle-preservation programmes also under way here, that warm glow you’ll
feel every evening won’t just be the last rays of the setting sun.
You can book direct at www.goldenbuddharesort.com
or with Responsible Travel (01273 600030, www.responsibletravel.
com ). Through the resort, a seven-day stay with six dives starts at
£470pp, based on two sharing. You’ll need a Padi open-water diving
qualification - but for an extra £566pp, you could arrive a week early and
get the badge. They’ll pick you up from Phuket airport, but the price does
not include flights. Opodo (0871 277 0090, www.opodo.co.uk
) has flights from Heathrow with Eva Air and Thai Airways, via Bangkok, from
£600.
Brian Schofield is the author of Selling Your Father’s Bones. To buy it for
£16.19, inc p&p, call The Sunday Times BooksFirst on 0870 165 8585
MORE BEASTLY ADVENTURES
If you think the summit of British wildlife-watching is Bill Oddie getting
overheated about a baby egret on the Norfolk Broads, you need to visit Mull.
Otters, dolphins and sea eagles are the spectacular supporting cast, but top
billing goes to the golden eagles - which, in terms of head per
accessible acre, are probably easier to see here than anywhere else on
earth.
The doyen of wildlife guides in these parts, David Woodhouse, has been taking
people around this rugged, blustery island for nearly 30 years. While he
can’t guarantee that you’ll spot an eagle, you’re sure to have an
enlightening time. A day’s guiding costs £37.50; stay at Torr Buan House for
£69.50pp, including dinner and breakfast (01688 500121, www.torrbuan.com
).
Orangutansmight be the kings of the swingers, but they’re also
critically endangered as a result of deforestation in Malaysia and
Indonesia. National parks, with attendant community tourism, are their best
hope. Different Travel (02380 669903, www.different-travel.com)
has a two-week primate conservation tour of Malaysian Borneo, with visits to
research projects and four days of volunteering, for £1,750pp, including
Heathrow flights. Your fees will support the Orangutan Conservation Project.
Junior Jungle Book fans are welcome on this trip.
After decades of hotel and restaurant lights luring their hatchlings in the
wrong direction, it’s heartening to learn that some turtlesare
getting a helping hand from more concerned tourism outfits. Kizingo, on Lamu
Island, Kenya, is one of the best and most ethically committed
barefoot-luxury resorts in the world, with the added incentive that, between
October and June, turtle eggs hatch on their beach. Guests and staff join
forces to usher them safely into the sea. Scott Dunn (020 8682 5070, www.scottdunn.co.uk)
has a week from £1,310pp, full-board, including flights from London.
WHAT ABOUT POLAR BEARS?
All these trips were chosen because they make a positive impact in the fight
to protect the species they spot. The most common viewing points for polar
bears are Hudson Bay, Canada, and Spitsbergen, Norway - and the same can’t
be said of either place.
Although most of the tour guides are committed conservationists, dissuading
hunting and taking care not to disturb the beasts, local scientists estimate
that, whatever they try, the shrinking ice pack will clear both areas of
polar bears within a decade. The summer bears are already seriously
underweight and are failing to feed their cubs adequately.
The fact is, there’s just no optimistic ecotourism story to tell here. This
isn’t just carbon guilt - you could get there on a solar bicycle and still
not be securing the species - but the fact that you almost certainly have to
fly to reach the less than frozen north is, perhaps, an additional irony too
far.
