elephants in Africa

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I've been on a couple of safaris and would like to spend more time viewing elephants. As a woman traveling alone, I'd prefer a small group.

You might investigate Overseas Adventure Travel's Ultimate Africa trip. Central Africa, especially Zimbabwe, is overpopulated with elephants so you'll see lots there. We took this trip several years ago and were quite pleased. While Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia do not offer the 'thrill' of the massive migrations as Kenya and Tanzania can, they give you close proximity to wildlife plus a dose of local color and history. OAT is noted for its small group travel and, during past years, has emphasized its single friendly travel. If you share your email address via ITN private mail, I will share my travel notes from that experience. Or, look into the ITN archives to find my travel feature on the trip.

I traveled to Uganda with ElderTreks last September amd we saw quite a few elephants in the various parks. Of course, the main attractions were gorillas amd chimps, but we saw other game as well.

Thanks for your responses. I did the KTZ OAT trip (among others) and like their trips. I'll take a look at their Ultimate one as well. I was kind of hoping for an "up close and personal" elephant focus, though, rather than a general tour.

We stayed (Mar 2011) at the Madikwe Game reserve in South Africa.
click here--> http://www.ralphhenzler.com/exhibit-2011-dccc.shtml
I have many photos of this trip. The TAU lodge at Madikwe has a large watering hole and we saw within the 1st two hours...40-50 elephants arrive. The game rides were fantastic... Make a LATE reservation there to save lots of $$$...the prices drop.
Madikwe is near the Botswana border...and the TAU lodge is nearby. The reserve has 13 lodges and each lodge can accomodate 30 people...excellent food...
R

You might contact either Wildland Adventures or Leora at Rothschild Safaris. I have traveled with both companies. Both companies are aware of where the large concentrations of elephants can be found and can work with you to either plan a group trip or private trip. My husband and I saw very large concentrations of elephants in Chobe and Linyati in Botswana, as well in the northern Serengeti while staying at Sayari Tented Camp and Ruaha Reserve in southern Tanzania. However, we stayed at flyin tented camps closer to the animals. I just saw that Vantage is now doing trips to southern Tanzania as well which visit the Selous and Ruaha areas on group trips.

Good Luck!

Janet

I was just looking around the Africa Adventure Co web site, and noticed that they have a trip that features elephants on a walking safari. http://www.africa-adventure.com/category/group_scheduled_safaris Might be worth checking out.

Two years ago I booked a trip through Africa Exclusive. We traveled by ourselves from camp to camp but all the plans were made by Africa Exclusive. We highly recommend this company. they booked into Baines Camp in the Okavango Delta. From there, we were able to spend an afternoon with 3 elephants that have been socialized. Go to www.livingwith elephants.org to read more about this wonderful program. Jabu, Thembi and Morula were fabulous. We touched them, really got up close and personal with them. It was a wounderful part of our safari. Cherryl

On our Safari Serengeti OAT trip to Tanzania, which was great, we took the Kilimanjaro pre-trip. While driving around in our vehicle (off road), we stopped many times to not only see elephants, but walk very close to them and get great photos. Of course, we were careful and respectful, but the elephants were not bothered by our proximity.

The largest number of elephant in the world per Km2 have to be found in and on the Chobe and Linyanti River systems, especially from August through to late December. Botswana's estimated population is at approximately 120 000 and 80 000 live in and around the Chobe and Linyanti. As an individual you can join a group of 5-6 people on a landrover at a camp such as DumaTua, Kingspool, Zarafa, Linyanti, Selinda, Savuti,  and experience the magnifcence of 1000's of these beautiful animals in one drive.Groups tend move around to cover different area's and not necessarily all in mass elephant country, but you'll always see elephants..., but you can max out on your elephant preferences travelling alone to a lodge, or with a friend, and staying primarily in this region over that time span.Make sure you tell your agent what you specifically want so they can gear and prepare the ground operator as to your wants and needs.