Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is a safari canvas like no other. Five countries, one continuous wilderness. The Okavango Delta spilling across the Kalahari sands, Victoria Falls thundering between Zambia and Zimbabwe, leopards in the Sabi Sand, the red dunes of Sossusvlei and desert elephants on Namibia's Skeleton Coast. Distances are short, flights connect easily and the region rewards travellers who combine two or three countries in a single journey.

Virgin Wilderness is Nairobi based and family owned. Every Southern Africa journey is designed by our team and delivered through hand picked camps and partners we know and trust, with light aircraft transfers, professional guides and every connection handled from arrival to departure. Whether it is delta and desert, falls and floodplain, or bush and Cape coast, we weave the region into one seamless safari.

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Where we take you.

Botswana

Africa's great water wilderness. Glide by mokoro through the lily covered channels of the Okavango Delta, watch the largest elephant population on earth mass along the Chobe River and end beneath the star filled skies of the Kalahari. Small camps, private concessions and some of the finest guiding in Africa.

South Africa

A world in one country. Superb leopard and Big Five viewing in the Sabi Sand and greater Kruger, Cape Town beneath Table Mountain, the vineyards of the Winelands and the malaria free family reserves of Madikwe. Nowhere pairs big game with fine food, wine and coastline so effortlessly.

Zimbabwe

Home to some of the greatest guides in Africa and its wildest places. The full majesty of Victoria Falls, tens of thousands of elephant in Hwange, walking and canoeing on the dreamlike floodplains of Mana Pools and houseboat sunsets on Lake Kariba.

Zambia

Safari at its most authentic. South Luangwa is the birthplace of the walking safari and one of the best leopard destinations on the continent, while the Lower Zambezi offers canoe journeys past drinking elephant. Remote seasonal bush camps keep the experience intimate and wild.

Namibia

A land of impossible landscapes. Climb the red dunes of Sossusvlei at dawn, track desert adapted elephant and rhino through Damaraland, meet the wildlife gathering at Etosha's waterholes and follow the haunting Skeleton Coast where dunes meet the Atlantic. Namibia is a photographer's dream and a road trip like no other.

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When to go:

May to October is the classic dry season across the region. Game concentrates along rivers and waterholes in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kruger, the Okavango floods are at their height and walking conditions are superb. Book the best camps a year ahead.

February to May is when Victoria Falls carries its greatest volume, a thundering curtain of water more than a mile wide.

November to April is the green season. The Kalahari blooms, the zebra migration gathers on the Makgadikgadi pans, birdlife is spectacular and camps offer their best value with far fewer travellers.

November to March is summer in the Cape. Long golden days, beach weather and the Winelands at their most beautiful, making this the perfect season to pair a dry winter safari further north with a Cape finale, or to build a summer journey around Cape Town itself.