See & Do

Boots Were Made for Walking

By Dan Achber

Africa, Southern Africa

Active, Adventure

Every once in a while it’s nice to be out of your element and I have a vivid recollection of my first taste of it. I was all of 15 on my first trip to Botswana with my parents, and we were on a walk in the Okavango Delta.

We’d been walking for what seemed like hours and I have to confess that as a petulant teenager I was starting to get a little bored and hot. No sooner had the thought entered my brain than we nearly stepped on a lioness. Equally surprised, she roared and turned to face us. What followed were some of the tensest moments of my young life as we beat a tactical retreat and discovered that we had, in fact stumbled upon an entire pride. We were all at once terrified and totally exhilarated—needless to say, my dad still tells the story with great relish and from that day forth I was hooked on walking in the bush.

In a vehicle, you can sometimes feel a bit like a passive observer. On foot it's decidedly the opposite; not only do you start to get a true sense of the skill it takes to be a guide, but you get a real understanding of how animals perceive you in their environment. While you ooh and ahh over the herd of elephants peacefully grazing, your guide will be checking cover and escape routes and testing the breeze to make sure you're down wind and don’t inadvertently startle the grazing pachyderms.

On the ground you also get to see all the little things that draw the elements of safari into a holistic whole. It's amazing to see predators on foot to be sure but equally amazing is to see first hand how meerkats teach their pups to find insects, or to have the guide explain that while it may be adorable when they stand on your head, in reality you’re just providing the highest vantage point from which to spot approaching predators.

Get out of the vehicle every chance you get because in my view, to walk in the bush is to truly be on safari.

Dan Achber will get you hooked on bush walking in just one short session. Get in touch with him, and take a look at our trip planning site for more inspiration.