You only live once.
As time passes, we learn to enjoy life to the maximum. “Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today,” nagged our grandparents. But how right they were! They didn’t just refer to daily chores; it was to live every moment as if it were the last. To live as if it were two days. To dream in the day as well as when sleeping. To dare. Squeeze every second from a minute. To enjoy a landscape, a scent, a look or a song.
Africa is the cradle of humanity. The origin of life. John Hemingway said, Africa was keeping secrets and called it “magical.” Magic that its indigenous nations held on to in a world that was evolving ever more rapidly, with no understanding of waiting. It’s time to tell your own story before it loses its essence. This is your moment. You only live it once. But if you do it well, that’s good enough.
This begins our Travel collection, to be lived at least once in life.
1. SLEEP ON A STAR-BED, UNDER SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTELLATIONS
You don’t have to be a kid to dream of moments as magical as a high-up treehouse or a cabin surrounded by terrific nature, beneath a clear sky illumined by thousands of stars.
In the treehouses at Lions Sand Game Reserve you can make it a reality. Sited in Kruger National Park and the exclusive Sabi Sand Reserve, these luxury refuges blend admirably with their surroundings and are erstwhile camps that once protected against poachers that hunted on the flatlands.
Not disconnecting is prohibited here. Torches replace electricity, cellphones become walkie-talkies, and the wild animals’ savanna sounds drown out city noise.
Want to discover more South Africa adventures? Click here.
2. HORESEBACK OVER THE OKAVANGO DURING THE GREAT MIGRATION
You’ll thrill to the most authentic—exclusive, sustainable and less touristy—safari than any other in Africa on the Okavango Delta, Botswana’s big star. A sinuous river that uniquely irrupts into the Kalahari Desert, creating some of the planet’s most surprising and beautiful ecosystems.
Gallop over untamed lands to the thundering steps of zebras, giraffes and gnus, in the company of expert rangers, with rest stops in lodges, fly camps or mobile camps to follow animals’ migrations.
Go in the dry season—May to October—when temperatures are higher, drying out the territory and favoring animal clusters around watering holes.
With some luck, you’ll see how big, swimming lions hunt their prey in flooded flatlands—like no other animals in Africa.
Want to discover more Botswana experiences? Click here.
3. TAKE A DIP IN A NATURAL POOL BESIDE VICTORIA FALLS
No, it’s not a photoshop retouch, if that’s what you wondered. Going to falls that nature created, where Zambia and Zimbabwe come together, is only for xtreme-adrenaline seekers and those able to handle the vertigo that this—a natural pool, abutting a cliffside more than 100 meters high—provides.
Named “the Devil’s swimming pool,” it is a spectacle over which millions of liters of water pass per minute. It boasts the most challenging of Victoria Falls’ impressive views.
The dip ritual is to jump in as a guide documents the moment with a camera. Note you can only do it from September to December when the river’s waters are at their lowest ebb. What would Dr. Livingstone think?
Want to discover more Zambia and Zimbabwe experiences? Click here.
4.HANGLIDE AND SANDBOARD NAMIBIA DUNES
The wind’s rhythms and the sun’s trajectory—that painter of shadows and orange sunsets before spilling into the rough, blue sea—sculpt immense, reddish dunes…
When you go up in a hanglider, you’ll fly over luminous sand dunes, petrified forests, the remains of shipwrecks and gravelly plains where you can’t help falling in love with all the great sensations of silence and solitude. The Swakopmund Dunes are some of the best for sandboarding, between December and March, when southwest winds lighten up and cool down.
For those that don’t like heights too much, sandboarding can be just as emotional an alternative, with equal adrenaline. Ready to go for it?
Would you like to discover more experiences in Namibia? Click here.
5. FLY THE “OUT OF AFRICA” VINTAGE BIPLANE OVER THE KENYAN SAVANNA
Karen Blixen could never forget her on-foot safaris with the Masais and hunter Denys Finch Hatton. She spent nights by the fire listening to Mozart and dining on porcelain china; or on hotter nights, in tented camps toasting champagne in the moonlight.
Would you like to have a “movie experience” even purer than Out of Africa?
Feel the immensity of Africa under your feet as you fly over the exclusive Laikipia zone, but not from any old plane. We’re talking a vintage biplane that will bring up all the most romantic scenes.
When can you do it? From July to October, avoiding the heaviest rains, when wildlife starts its impressive migrations.
Want to discover more Kenya experiences? Click here.