Safari journal

Everything here is written by the people who run the trips. Guides, drivers and planners who were in the park last week. We publish when there is something worth saying, which means fewer articles than a content calendar would produce and none of them written to fill a slot.

Most of it answers what guests actually ask us. When gorilla permits go on sale. What the Mara looks like in April. Whether a six year old will cope with a long day in a vehicle.

Forest and savannah meeting in western Uganda

27 August 20268 minute read

Combining gorillas and the Big Five in one trip

Yes, you can see mountain gorillas and the Big Five on one East African trip. It means two habitats and usually two parks or two countries, around 10 to 14 days, and permits bought and paid for before anything else is fixed.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

24 August 20268 minute read

Birding in Uganda: where to go and when

A Uganda birding safari runs west and south-west — Murchison Falls, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi — with a boat trip for papyrus and swamp species. December to February is dry countrywide; June to August is the dependable dry window in the south-west.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

Sunrise over the Serengeti at the start of a game drive

22 August 20267 minute read

What a day on safari actually looks like

A safari day is built around two windows of good light and one long gap in the middle: out before dawn, back for a late breakfast, several hours of rest, then out again until the park closes. Trekking days work differently.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

20 August 20268 minute read

Uganda or Kenya for a first safari?

Choose Kenya for classic open-plains game viewing and easier logistics. Choose Uganda if the trip is built around mountain gorillas and forest primates. Kenya costs far more per park day; Uganda costs far more per headline activity.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

18 August 20267 minute read

Uganda or Tanzania for the Big Five?

Tanzania, if the Big Five is the point: Ngorongoro and the Serengeti hold all five between them. Uganda gives you four in the wild — lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo — with rhino at a fenced sanctuary. Uganda's real case is gorillas.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

16 August 20267 minute read

Kenya or Tanzania for the Great Migration?

Tanzania for most of the year — the Serengeti holds the herds through calving, the westward move and the push north. Kenya's Masai Mara comes into its own from roughly August to October, when the Mara River is the herds' primary water source.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

13 August 20267 minute read

Amboseli: elephants under Kilimanjaro

Amboseli's elephants and Kilimanjaro are a package deal: water from the mountain is understood to surface in the basin as permanent swamps, holding big herds in open country all year. The mountain itself is usually only clear at dawn and in the last hour of light.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

A light aircraft used for medical evacuation in East Africa

11 August 20269 minute read

Travel insurance for a safari: what to actually check

A safari policy needs three things a standard one may lack: emergency medical evacuation from a remote park, cancellation cover sized to the full trip, and trekking named as a covered activity. The biggest sum at risk is the permit: refunded in part at best, and not at all in Rwanda.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

The floor of the Ngorongoro Crater from the rim

9 August 20267 minute read

The Ngorongoro Crater: fees, timing and what it is really like

A Ngorongoro Crater safari means paying the NCAA USD 70.80 per non-East African adult to enter the conservation area, plus a USD 295 crater service fee charged per vehicle, not per person. Here is how the day actually works.

By The Mnyansio safari desk

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More from the journal

Combining gorillas and the Big Five in one trip

Birding in Uganda: where to go and when

What a day on safari actually looks like

Uganda or Kenya for a first safari?

Uganda or Tanzania for the Big Five?

Kenya or Tanzania for the Great Migration?

Amboseli: elephants under Kilimanjaro

Travel insurance for a safari: what to actually check

The Ngorongoro Crater: fees, timing and what it is really like

Reading this because you are actually going