Drumbeat Autumn 2017

It’s been a busy year at Aardvark Safaris with a record number of guests travelling to Africa. To those who have travelled, and those who’ve recommended us, thank you for your support – we couldn’t do it without you. You’ll notice we’ve included our Beach Retreats brochure with this newsletter. Do have a quick flick through to see the wonderful beach holidays we can organise. Whether to combine with a safari or as a standalone fly and flop holiday, we’ve some wonderful destinations to suggest. On that same note, Lucinda reports on her recent visit to the Maldives which we have just added to our portfolio. Elsewhere, I have taken my family to South Africa, and Charlotte and Jo have both been back to Namibia. Francis takes a look at mobile safaris and Alice rounds up the best of Rwanda and Uganda. We are delighted to report some good news conservation stories and are thrilled to be supporting Saba Douglas-Hamilton once again on her UK tour this November. Although our main show season has finished, look out for us in Hampshire at Harry Hook’s talk at Books in the Barn, and at Julia Cassels’ November exhibition at Cricket Fine Art in London. We look forward to planning a holiday for you. Welcome to Aardvark Safaris’ Autumn 2017 Newsletter www . aardvarksafaris.co.uk l P1 Richard Smith There’s more to Uganda and Rwanda than the mountain gorillas P13-14 Mobile safaris – what and where P5-6 Highlights: Aardvark Safaris lands in the Maldives P9-10 Claiming to offer ‘the ultimate riding experience in the most hauntingly beautiful place on this planet’ is bold. But that’s exactly the promise Namibia Horse Safaris make on their website. Would they, I wondered, as I joined their Damaraland ride a couple of months ago? The answer, absolutely yes – they deliver in spades. REPORT BY JO Namibia Desert Ride In 11 years with Aardvark Safaris I’ve travelled all over sub-Saharan Africa but little has come close to this in terms of an adventure and the sense of achievement in accomplishing what’s a pretty extraordinary journey. If you are a confident rider and fit enough to spend up to five hours a day in the saddle then it’s one to consider. Co-owner, host and lead guide Andrew Gillies runs an incredible operation. His team is among the best I’ve encountered on a riding safari and they go a long way to making these safaris so successful. Andrew is an expert at matching guests to horses from the herd of 80 they run, and we were all besotted with our own at the end of the 380km trip. While you won’t see the wildlife you do in Kenya, Botswana or South Africa, the scenery more than compensates with terrain ranging from dry river beds, canyons and wide open plains, to dunes and ancient volcanic craters. There’s plenty of space for fast riding – the eight minute gallop on day three was a real highlight. If you’ve been to Namibia you’ll understand when I say the views are out of this world, if you haven’t then you need to go! We did see elephant and plains game in places and following lion tracks one morning was pretty exciting. Apart from the first and final night of the 10 day trip we slept under the stars (tents on hand if it’s really cold or rain is in the offing). That was a first for me. Comfy bedrolls with cozy duvets kept out the cold and gazing at the shooting stars in the brilliant night sky was incredible. For such a remote trip everything worked very smoothly. A huge truck leaves base with the horses, food, water and equipment and on the couple of nights it couldn’t follow us, supplies were loaded onto 4x4s and camp was pitched from them. While not luxurious, we were very comfortable with good bucket showers and delicious safari food. After nine days riding through the desert, arriving at the Atlantic Ocean on our last day was quite emotional. It was almost as though a spell had been broken – we’d barely seen another person, had ridden through exquisite scenery and enjoyed time as a small group far removed from the real world. I think it’s probably the best mobile riding safari I’ve been on. Have a look at Jo’s blog which includes a great video of the trip: bit.ly/NamibiaDesertRide