My camping and safari adventure in southern Africa!
Background: My wife, Marjorie, grew up on Réunion Island, a French island in the Indian ocean, and her family is friends with a couple on Réunion named David and Geraldine who run a tour company for camping/safari trips in southern Africa — covering the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. My wife and I joined her dad along with David the guide in Johannesburg in April 2019 to kick off two weeks of camping, safari, and adventure! It was one of the greatest trips of my life, and I'd love to recommend David's offerings to readers of this site! David is a wonderful person, very funny and laid-back, and a fantastic guide; I can't recommend him highly enough. He took care of every detail of everything, and was infinitely patient and helpful throughout the trip. David and Geraldine's tour company is called IKAMU; here's his website (you can click on English on the right side); check it out! You can also see lots of photos of our trip and their other trips on the IKAMU Facebook page.
Our campsite on Kubu Island. Marjorie, David, and me (and Pascal's shadow at left).
I'm putting this here in my Cool Stuff in Paris website although it's got nothing to do with Paris — this is simply the best place I have to post travel info. If you happen to be in the sweet spot of being a francophile who loves camping and wants to have adventures in southern Africa, you will love traveling and exploring with David! David speaks very good English; all of the African countries he travels in use English for things like border crossings, campground check-ins, etc. But his main language is French and I happen to speak French and were traveling with an all-French group (besides me) so most of our day-to-day conversation was in French. I learned a million new French words! Animals, plants, names for camping tools and terms I'd never heard before, etc. Anyway, David has been mostly advertising to francophone tourists, but I asked him if he was interested in working with anglophone tour groups as well, and he said absolutely!
Giraffes in Chobe National Park (Botswana).
Here are a few pages I wrote with info and stories from our trip...
Featured articles
- Our accommodations and set-up — practical info; our camper, food and drink, water and electricity, laundry services, etc.
- Summary of our trip, week 1 — our day-by-day schedule; where we camped, where we went on safari, etc. Week 1 was South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
- Summary of our trip, week 2 — Botswana, Namibia, and back to South Africa.
- Shopping and packing for an African camping/safari adventure! What to bring, things I wish I'd brought, things I brought that I didn't need, etc.
- Pale person success story: I went camping in Africa for two weeks and didn't get sunburned! Here's how I did it.
- Frequently asked questions about camping and safari in Africa
- More pics from our trip!
Quick links
- My Africa trip: home
- Our accommodations and set-up
- Summary and itinerary, week 1
- Summary and itinerary, week 2
- Shopping and packing for camping and safari in Africa
- Pale person success story: I went camping in Africa for two weeks and didn't get sunburned!
- FAQs about my Africa camping/safari trip
- More pics from my trip
- IKAMU website | (English version)
- IKAMU Facebook page
- Back to Cool Stuff in Paris