All blogs about Africa

Senegal – on discovery in Africa

27 July 2020

At the invitation of Untamed Travelling I made an 8 day tour of Senegal with director Jozef Verbruggen. An adventure to remember!

It started in Brussels, from where you fly a scheduled flight to Dakar within 5 hours. The hectic is immediately noticeable, you are in different spheres. Our trip took us past lodges and boutique hotels in Dakar, St Louis, Gorée Island,Kaolack and in the south Toubacouta on the Sine Saloum Delta.Senegal is predominantly French-speaking, French culture, friendly people, pleasanttemperature in December and lots to see.With guide and driver we crossed the country.With the first night at the Rysara hotel we had a nice starting pointfor our visit to Radisson Blu and many other beautiful accommodation locations in andaround the city. Here you enjoy history mixed with present. Travel in luxury without missing the present. Walking through the streets of Dakar and then having lunch at Cafe Roma constantly brings you into different spheres.

Looking for the Picathartes

27 July 2020

Our adventure has begun. Once left the capital, civilization seems to stand still. We are embraced by another world. Vehicles are hardly present, beautiful people, goats, sometimes sheep and later pigs running across the road. Past towns with unknown names like Boda, Ngoto, Bimo, Ouodo. Slowly the landscape is changing. The Congo Base is making its entrance, in one go we are in the jungle. Raffia, trees like cathedrals surround us. A first look at the Congo basin waiting for us. Bird life is changing. We see the first “blue swallows” when we cross a river.

Spaceships in the jungle

27 July 2020

Last night at Sangha lodge. A night adventure, a walking safari. With our own spotlight into the jungle. It’s haunted. A new challenging world. We don’t feel comfortable in the dark. It seems as if a five-ton trunk animal could storm forward from the bushes at any moment. We highlight the trees, which reach like cathedrals to the clouds and form large shadows. We see Potto, beautiful eyes. Great! Minutes later a ‘palm civet’, an omnivore who hunts everything that moves. Very active over our heads.

The next day, get out of bed early. Our ‘boatman’ arrives punctually at 5H30, we leave 2 minutes later for a very adventurous eight hour trip to Ouesso over a beautiful tributary of the Congo Basin. Untethered, an adventure of a lifetime.

South Africa – surprising!

27 July 2020

‘South Africa, perhaps the most visited country in southern Africa and therefore you would almost think that it is not the most original choice. But nothing could be further from the truth! Of course, it is not for nothing that a country is so popular! If, like me, you can travel the country for a few weeks, it’s incredible what you get to see in that relatively short time. Because of its good infrastructure, facilities and accommodations to everyone’s wishes, it is a wonderful country to travel through. And what a variety! One minute I’m cycling through Cape Town and standing in front of the cathedral where Desmond Tutu was bishop, the next minute an immense whale leaps out of the water at Hermanus in front of my eyes. Culinary I am spoiled at a top restaurant in Franschhoek and taste the wines that come from the vineyards behind it on a winery. And then the landscapes, from rolling hills, wild coasts and endless pine forests with lakes to the imposing mountains of the Drakensbergen. I visit the Mountain Kingdom Lesotho and discover the mountains on horseback and again and again that extremely friendly population. The journey continues to the natural areas of Hluhluwe and Isimangaliso.

Rwanda what are you unique!

27 July 2020

Natalie was one of the attendees at Untamed’s Trade Day Drink at the Holiday Fair 2019 was lucky to win an all-time eight-day trip for two people through Rwanda. As an experienced travel specialist, she enjoyed an unforgettable adventure that introduced her to the most beautiful thing that the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’ has to offer.

Sao Tomé and Principe, Where the world can’t find you

27 July 2020

At the beginning of October, Africa specialist Mariëtte Boomsma will accompany our top travel agents on the annual Untamed Travelling tour to the tropical Sao Tomé en Principe, a destination that hardly anyone from the group has heard of. They are two small islands about 250 km from the African west coast. Together they form the second smallest country in Africa. Sao Tomé is about 850 km2 and Principe less than 150 km2. It was ‘discovered’ by the Portuguese around the 15th century and became independent in 1975. From Europe, only the TAP Air Portugal flies to this destination, so few tourists – especially Portuguese – go.

Family trip South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique

27 July 2020

We travel with the whole family – my parents, brother and sister-in-law, my husband and our children – off to Africa. Wildlife safaris in South Africa and Botswana and a sun-drenched beach resort on Mozambique await us. Because we are with a rather large company, the choice for private villas is quickly made.

Asante Sana Selous!

27 July 2020

I already know the African bush well, but every time I look for new locations that I have not yet discovered. This time I travel to Selous, a game reserve i have long been curious about, located in the south of Tanzania. I stay here for a week and stay in different lodges because it allows me to better discover the diversity of a single area.

Exploring the lesser-known safari regions of South Africa

27 July 2020

‘South Africa, the world in one country’ with an unprecedented variety of accommodations and attractions. But how do you make the right choices for a tour in a destination where many have gone before you? Which stay guarantees a safari experience that touches you and makes you long for more? Our travel specialist Petra went out with ten independent travel agents to let them experience the added value of a private reserve/concession versus national park itself.

The Tribal Peoples of Cameroon

26 February 2020

Cameroon is also called ‘all of Africa in one country’, because all the landscape types of Africa are found there. It is also a country of great cultural diversity; about 210 different population groups live there. In December 2019, together with travel photographer Henk Bothof, I made a cultural trip to the tribal peoples in Cameroon, where we visited a number of isolated and still authentic tribes.