Blyde River Canyon, South Africa, by guide Joe Grosel
Southern Africa Spectacular
Kruger, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, and Chobe
NEW TOUR!
A new tour featuring fantastic birding, game viewing, and wildlife photographic opportunities in three classic destinations in South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana.
This new Field Guides tour features incredible birding, game viewing, and photographic opportunities in prime wildlife destinations across three southern African countries: South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana.
The southern African sub-region offers some of the most diverse and prolific wildlife on the continent. It is home to the largest elephant, rhino and lion populations on the planet and is home to close to 1000 bird species. On this exciting itinerary we will concentrate on the large savannah and woodland habitats of the region, yet we'll also visit South Africa's great eastern escarpment with its forests and grassland, and we'll spend several days around two of the area's greatest tropical rivers, the Chobe and Zambezi. Our itinerary includes visits to some iconic southern African destinations such as Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon, Botswana's Chobe National Park, and Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. So far as the wildlife is concerned, this tour will produce well more than 50 mammal species, including the much vaunted "Big 5" (Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant, and Cape Buffalo) plus a surprising variety of antelope, small carnivores, and impressive numbers of Zebra and Giraffe.
The tour should produce a species list of more than 300 bird species, including most of the large terrestrial species (Ostrich, Secretary-bird, Kori Bustard, and Southern Ground-Hornbill) plus a variety of kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, barbets, sunbirds, hornbills, starlings, and shrikes. The Zambezi and Chobe waterways provide some of the finest birding on the continent in terms of diversity and density. Our game-viewing and birding activities will be conducted from open safari vehicles and flat-hulled boats, both ideal for wildlife viewing, while travel between South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana will be by road transfer and scheduled flights. Excellent field guides and other reference material make preparation for the tour a breeze and fieldwork a pleasure.
Select the KEY INFO tab or click here for our itinerary plus space requests, status, fees, limits, and guides for any departure.
ITINERARIES • TOUR STATUS • DETAILS • SPACE REQUESTS
ITINERARIES • We issue a separate itinerary for each year, typically at least 9 months before that year's first departure. Most itineraries don't vary much year to year, but there may be small or rarely more substantive changes. A sample previous-year itinerary is usually available even if the one for your chosen departure is not. We do not require any deposit for provisional bookings until the itinerary for the departure is ready.
DEPARTURES • We have 3 departures currently scheduled through 2023, with details including limits, guides, fees, and space available listed below.
2021
Jul 3-18, 2021 Guided by: Joe Grosel & local guide Tour Manager: Sharon Mackie Tour Limit: 8 Status: Open - Space is still available on this tour, and we are accepting provisional bookings. No deposit is required until you receive the itinerary. Click below to book space. Tour Fee: $15525 Deposit: $1550 REQUEST SPACE OR MORE INFO
2022
Jul 2-17, 2022 Guided by: Joe Grosel & local guide Tour Manager: Sharon Mackie Tour Limit: 8 Status: Waitlisted - The itinerary has not been finalized for this tour. The trip has provisionally filled but, if you are interested, we can waitlist you for the trip. As we do not require deposits until the itinerary and price are finalized, we often have folks drop off a tour when the deposit is required, and so space opens up! Click below to be waitlisted for this tour with no obligation; if you are waitlisted, we will also notify you in case of an added departure of this tour. Tour Fee: Fee TBD / 2021=$15525 REQUEST WAITLIST OR MORE INFO
2023
Jul 1-16, 2023 Guide: TBA Tour Manager: TBA Tour Limit: 8 Status: Open - Space is still available on this tour, and we are accepting provisional bookings. No deposit is required until you receive the itinerary. Click below to book space. Tour Fee: Fee TBD / 2021=$15525 REQUEST SPACE OR MORE INFO
ABOUT OUR TRIPLISTS • After every tour we issue an annotated triplist of the birds recorded on the trip, illustrated with wonderful images (and sometimes video clips) from the tour's participants and guides.
We do not have any recent triplists to display, but we expect one to be available 60 days or so after the next scheduled departure.