S5, E48: For a Crowd-Free African Safari, Head for Tanzania’s Southern Circuit

An African safari doesn’t have to mean a traffic jam. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene travels to Tanzania’s southern circuit—visiting two parks most first-time safari-ers never consider—and discovers what happens when you trade the famous Great Migration crossing for a dry riverbed with not another human being in sight.

To get there, she consulted Elizabeth Gordon, co-founder of Extraordinary Journeys, who helped reframe what an African safari could be. What followed was eight days in Ruaha National Park and Nyerere National Park: a walking safari with a guide who reads the wind with a pouch of ash, a river full of hippos and crocodiles that Aislyn took to calling “danger soup,” and a fly camp on a lake where a ranger stayed up all night speaking hippo so she didn’t have to.

For a Crowd-Free African Safari, Head for Tanzania’s Southern Circuit

An African safari doesn’t have to mean a traffic jam. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene travels to Tanzania’s Southern Circuit—Ruaha National Park and Nyerere National Park—trading the famous Great Migration crossing for a dry riverbed with not another vehicle in sight. To plan the trip, she consulted Elizabeth Gordon, co-founder of Extraordinary Journeys, who helped reframe what a first safari could look like. What followed was 8 days with Nomad Tanzania: a walking safari with a guide who reads the wind with a pouch of ash, a river full of hippos and crocodiles Aislyn nicknamed “danger soup,” and a fly camp where a ranger stayed up all night speaking hippo so she didn’t have to.

Topics discussed in this episode

• Why Tanzania’s Southern Circuit—specifically Ruaha and Nyerere National Park—can be a better first safari than the Great Migration crossing: fewer people, better guides, wildlife that doesn’t know you’re there
• What a walking safari in Ruaha actually feels like: reading the wind with a pouch of ash, approaching a mother elephant and her calf without being detected, and learning the “Small Five”
• How guide Pay Mbaryo’s 15 years in the bush taught him that birds, buffalo, and elephants are all sharing information—and why a walking safari means joining that conversation instead of watching it from a jeep
• Boating the Rufiji River at Nyerere, where elephants digging for water reveal why the species is considered a keystone of the whole ecosystem
• What fly camping looks like when the crew digs a bathroom into the sand and a ranger stands watch all night for hippos on the move

Frequently asked questions

What is Tanzania’s Southern Circuit?

The Southern Circuit refers to Tanzania’s remote southern parks—primarily Ruaha National Park and Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve)—as opposed to the more heavily visited Northern Circuit (Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire). It offers fewer vehicles per sighting, walking and boat safaris, and strong populations of lions, elephants, and African wild dogs.

Is the Southern Circuit better than the Serengeti for a first safari?

It depends what you want. The Serengeti is unmatched for the sheer volume and density of wildlife, especially during the Great Migration. The Southern Circuit trades some of that density for solitude, walking and river-based safaris, and guides who aren’t competing over radio for the same sighting.

What is Ruaha National Park known for?

Ruaha is Tanzania’s largest national park and home to roughly 10 percent of Africa’s remaining lion population, along with leopards, African wild dogs, and baobab-studded terrain.

What is Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous)?

Nyerere National Park, renamed after Tanzania’s founding president Julius Nyerere, is centered on the Rufiji River and known for boat safaris, dense hippo and crocodile populations, and fly camping.

What is a walking safari?

A walking safari is an on-foot game walk led by an armed guide and ranger, focused on tracking, reading wind and animal sign, and observing wildlife up close without a vehicle.

People, places, and resources in this episode

• Extraordinary Journeys — bespoke safari company co-founded by Elizabeth Gordon
• Nomad Tanzania’s Kigelia camp, Ruaha National Park
• Nomad Tanzania’s Sand Rivers camp, Nyerere National Park
• Lion Landscapes — the carnivore conservation nonprofit Nomad’s Ruaha camps support
• “Has East Africa’s Great Migration Become Too Popular?” — the View From Afar episode on the 2025 Great Migration overcrowding controversy

Full transcript

Aislyn Greene: The hippos are on the move. There was this naughtiness like, time to go. Come on, they’re waiting for you.

That, my friends, is the sound of a group of hippos, also known as a bloat of hippos. Getting going in the morning. And until I visited southern Tanzania last October, I had no idea that a bloat of hippos talking to one another sounds very much like a bad brass band warming up.

What’s the point of a hippo? Literally just sits there all day and it’s not true, but oh my gosh, they’re so cute. They just blow.

And yet these pointless blobs, something that we decided on from the safety of our gorgeous patio while sipping freshly brewed coffee are one of the most dangerous animals you could meet on safari. Like you really, really don’t want to make them mad. I’m Aislyn Greene and this is Unpacked, and today we’re unpacking a side of Tanzania where very few people go. A place that, if you’re a first time safari goer, might just be the best possible place to start.

Let’s begin at the beginning. I’ve worked in travel for nearly 2 decades, so I really don’t feel compelled to do the touristy stuff anymore. In fact, it really makes me really want to run in the absolute opposite direction. But when it came to my first safari last year, I really wanted to see the Great Migration in Tanzania. I was surprised by how strong that pull was. However, the planning for that first trip also coincided with the Great Migration controversy in 2025, which went viral and inspired an episode of our View From Afar podcast. There’s a link in the show notes if you want to listen. And I knew that I, too, had fallen victim to the lure of social media. So I reached out to someone who could put me back on the right track.

Elizabeth Gordon: The migration let me start is incredible. And it is a it’s a magical experience. And it’s this natural phenomenon. You don’t see any other place. But when there’s 150 people trying to see it, it is not magical. You’re surrounded with people. It happened to me in the Mara, and I don’t know if people just think the migration is the only way you can see the wildlife in Africa, but it isn’t.

Aislyn: That’s Elizabeth Gordon, the co-founder of a very cool travel company called Extraordinary Journeys that designs bespoke trips primarily in Africa, South America and Asia. Her parents both lived and worked here long before she was born. Her mother joined the Peace Corps, worked in Uganda, met Elizabeth’s father on a flight to Ethiopia. Her mom got her pilot’s license and built a house on a game park outside Nairobi. So cool. So Elizabeth was born in Kenya and grew up splitting her time between there and France. Ultimately, she went to university in Beijing and managed safari camps in Namibia before she and her mother started extraordinary journeys. And as Elizabeth shared this story with me, this is the philosophy that convinced me to try something totally different.

Elizabeth: What we really try to do is get people to understand what a safari is about. It’s not just about seeing the wildlife, it’s about smelling it, feeling it, walking, boating, being away from people. A lot of the safari, it’s like, turn off your phone and get away from it all.

Aislyn: I mean, that’s what I want from nature at home. So why would I look for anything else on safari? It really helped reframe my thinking. Elizabeth pointed me to one of Tanzania’s lesser known chapters, The Southern Circuit, and specifically to two parks that aren’t usually on a first time visitor’s list. The first one is called Ruaha.

Elizabeth: The national Park. I think it’s 10 percent of the continent’s lions are in Ruaha. It’s great for lions. No one knows about it. Great for leopards. Amazing, wild dogs. You’re going to see tons of wild dogs out there. Baobabs. It’s really beautiful. And there’s so much wildlife and you’re not going to be sharing it with anyone else.

Aislyn: And then she mentioned a second park, which has a name that tends to trip people up.

Elizabeth: It’s called Nyerere National Park. They changed the name. It used to be called the Selous, and they only changed the name a few years ago. And I think people think it’s a new park, but it’s actually been there forever.

Aislyn: The park is centered around the great Rufiji River, and while it doesn’t have the same game concentration as the Serengeti or even Ruaha, there’s a sense of space that Elizabeth says you don’t get anywhere else. Plus, you get the best guides.

Elizabeth: A lot of the top guides, they all want to go to these areas. They don’t want to be competing and sitting at the migration. They love the wilderness. I think you also get the fun of exploring, like going back to Serengeti. Everyone’s on their radios. Everyone knows where the wildlife is. There’s none of this like understanding where the animals are and looking for them. And maybe you’ll see them. Maybe you won’t. So when you find something you were part of the journey, like you’re looking at the prints and you’re learning about it, and maybe you’ll see like feathers all over the place and be like, oh, something happened here. What do you think happened? And that’s the puzzle and figuring it out. And then suddenly you see the lion and you’re like, wow, that’s crazy.

Aislyn: There are camps in both parks run by a company called Nomad, and they are unusual in that they’re trying to do Safari a little different.

Elizabeth: They’re working so closely with local Tanzanians and to support camps who are as involved, and they have local schools that they work with, and they do a lot of health initiatives. Every guide owns their vehicle. So I think that’s very empowering and that’s huge. And so I also like that you’re going to be staying in camps where the mission is aligned as well.

Aislyn: And at the end of the day, the guides really are your experience. They are the people you spend the most time with and the people who bring the landscape to life for you. More on that after the break.

Just getting to southern Tanzania feels like an adventure. You fly in, usually early in the morning on a tiny bush plane.

Aislyn: How are you feeling? Good. Can you be more specific? Poor. That’s the same thing. It’s Mahele season. That means beautiful. It’s 6:30 a.m. and we’re looking out at our planes. They are petite. I see why they recommend Dramamine for these. Our first bush plane ride heading to Ruaha National Park. And we’ll see what the day holds.

That is me and my wife, Jeanie, leaving Dar es Salaam and practicing our Swahili. One of the most fun languages I’ve ever learned, by the way. But we didn’t talk for much of the flight because what was happening outside our windows was so incredible. We were there in October, and the landscape was a sea of brown, sage green, golden yellow, with the occasional streak of a wild animal. It’s just earth. And then suddenly we were landing on a patch of earth that to my safari unrefined eyes did not look like a landing strip.

Aislyn: We just landed on what did not appear to be a runway, but was forest. And then suddenly just a big circle. And we landed there. There’s nothing around us. Oh, it’s a nomad camp. But maybe that’s gonna be us on the way back.

Radio: Up in the air.

Aislyn: So even after my conversation with Elizabeth, a tiny part of me had been worried we were missing out by not starting in the Serengeti. But the moment our safari jeep left the landing strip, we got what I like to think of as a gift from the safari gods.

We’ve had our first sighting already, a female lion. Wow. Didn’t expect that. We literally just left the airstrip. She looks super content and like she does not care at all that we’re here. But.

In case you don’t speak, whisper. Yes. It was a lion and a lioness resting in the shade of tangled shrub. Just a lively little reminder that Ruaha is home to roughly ten percent of Africa’s remaining lion population. We carried that win with us all the way to our first camp, nomad Kigelia. Yeah.

James: So uh, kigelia. And as I said earlier, my name is James. I’m currently a relief manager of this beautiful camp, and this is a one of my favorite camp.

Aislyn: We were sitting in a covered tent with James, the camp manager, and we were looking out at a dry riverbed, sipping sparkling water and marveling at everything. We had to ask James, like, why do you like this camp so much?

James: I like it because this is still very much. And again, it gives you like the vibe of being in the bush. And at the same time, even the material that we see that we build, the base is actually sourced from the local. No, no bling bling. Yeah. No. Yes. Simple. Simple. Cozy and comfortable.

Aislyn: Zuri.

James: Yeah. Is it Mzuri now?

Aislyn: Is every friend of mine.

James: I see? Yeah. So. the best atmosphere. Yeah. There is. There is for sure. Yeah.

Sarah Harris: Where do you sit at night?

Aislyn: It’s so.

Sarah: Bad.

Aislyn: By the way. That’s Sarah Harris who heads up product for Nomad and is a total badass in her own right. We could 100 percent do an episode on her own adventures as we were ushered to our room, which was basically a suite made of canvas with a staircase leading to the most magnificent star beds I’ve ever seen. James explained that Kigelia is so remote that animals like to just walk right through camp.

James: So walking there during the day by yourself is totally okay. Yeah, just make sure you have your ears and eyes open because we in the day. Yeah, we do have, uh, our elephant is he normally come around the camp. So during the day you might see them feeding around. Yeah. And if they’re really close, just get back to your room. Yeah. Grab the walkie talkie. Call me. Then I’ll have someone come and escort you. So you just put it on, and then you call me, Jimbo. Then you will come and escort you. But in the evening, after six forty five. Do not walk by yourself.

Aislyn: So after settling in and learning about all the ways to keep creatures big and small out of our tent, we headed out to meet our guides. At this camp there is Rafael, who would do the game drives and Pay who would be our walking guide. Because one of the best ways to experience Ruaha is via your own two feet, no vehicle, just you, a guide, a ranger, and the bush.

Pay Mbaryo: Okay guys, my name is Pay and before we walk, we have got safety briefing.

Aislyn: Now I gotta admit, first time safari goer. I had visions of being consumed by a lion.

Pay: When we walk, we walk in a single file, arm length distance, between one person to the other. I will be using hand sign, and if I put my arm like this, this is stop. If I close the fist, that is freeze. If I put it like this, we go in our haunches. And if I do like this or do like this, we go back slowly. We retreat back slowly. If you run, animal have got an instinct behavior that if something run away from it, that will give it a chance to chase. So we do not run at all.

Aislyn: Did this put me at ease? Not really. But it did make me feel fully alive. All of my senses were tuned in to the sights, the sounds, the smells around us in a way that I definitely don’t do on my average hike at home. It was a really hot, dry day, and the rustle of the grass as we crossed the plain was intoxicating. I was sweating from nerves and heat, keeping my ears and eyes tuned for lions, of course. But what I soon discovered is that the true beauty of a walk in the bush is that you stop looking for the big animals and you start seeing everything else. As we moved, Pay read the ground like a newspaper and he read the air.

Pay: So when I’m walking, I either use dust or ash and will tell me the wind direction.

Aislyn: Wow.

Pay: Yeah. Like here. Now we are downwind.

Aislyn: He carries a little pouch of ash and taps it into the air to read the wind. Because if you’re downwind, an elephant can’t smell you. And that morning, apparently, the wind was good.

Aislyn: Good. Wind for elephant approaching. Yeah.

Pay: It’s like witchcraft. Good.

Aislyn: What I loved about Pay, what I still love about him is that his whole goal is to observe the animals without them ever registering our presence.

Pay: Thee’s a mother and a baby.

Aislyn: It’s a mother and a baby. Pay just stopped to take his little bag out and check the wind because we’re getting close to a mother and a baby. Oh, wow. We can see them right there. How would you know if they knew we were here?

Pay: They will actually start to speculate using their trunk and try to see if they can get a wind message.

Aislyn: We saw that yesterday.

Pay: Yeah.

Aislyn: Because the mom and her were separated. The baby was separated. Yeah. Across the road. And she started to do that.

Pay: Sampling our smell. But now they are actually relaxed, doing what they will be doing in natural state. And this tells that they haven’t seen us or heard about us.

Aislyn: So we’ll just keep on going. Yeah. And I love.

Pay: I love leaving them without noticing that I was there.

Aislyn: And then Pay showed us the really small stuff, the stuff you would never see from a Jeep. Like for example, there were these tiny divots in the sand that to my eyes looked like nothing. But to Pay. They indicate an entire world of activity.

Pay: Guys, we have got something happening here.

Aislyn: Oh yeah.

Pay: If you look curiously, there is, uh, something fighting the ants, and soon it will be caught and will be injected with chemical or be paralyzed. So by the time we were here, it is when the killing and hunting was happening. But stay two minutes. The ants will not be able to struggle anymore.

Aislyn: And that’s when we learned about the small five, you know, like the big five, but small.

Pay: So small five. We have got anti lion, which is the larvae stage of the left wing. We have got leopard tortoise rhinobatos. We have got the elephant shrew. And what else. Buffalo Weaver

Aislyn: Pay attempted to dig an ant lion from the sand but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Pay: I am getting this. But today. I found a nice one.

Aislyn: I mean a master tracker with a rifle strapped to his back, defeated by a tiny ant lion. That’s funny. Over the next few hours, we saw so much. We stumbled across a beehive the size of a baby hippo. We saw depressions left in the landscape from animals who took a break to lick minerals from the soil like electrolyte tablets for big game. We learned to make toothbrushes from a tree with antibacterial properties. And suddenly the walk is over. We’ve survived it, and we end with the most luxurious breakfast beside a dry river bed. There are eggs and bacon and pastries and the most phenomenal coffee. So we sat down, and that’s when the elephants decided to really put on a show. No joke. As we’re sitting there sipping our coffee and orange juice, a dozen elephants moseyed down into the riverbed and started tunneling with her trunks down into the sandy soil.

Pay: Just keep observing this. This elephant here, this family, you see, they’re still moving slowly, feeling where the water is a little bit closer. It’s where those stop and they will start digging. Just keep observing this, uh, this big female here. Okay. Whenever she stopped and, um, freezing a little bit, you see the trunk is down.

Aislyn: And we sat there for what felt like an hour, and there was not another human being in sight. I kept thinking that if we’d gone north, we’d be in a line of people waiting for something to happen. Instead, we were the only people for miles watching a family of elephants dig for water. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I felt like I had been let in on a secret. Like why there are so many baby elephants in Ruaha.

Pay: Yeah, there’s a time that from 2009, there was very crazy poaching and the number really went down not only in Ruaha the whole of the country. And this was like we were losing one elephant every 15 seconds. I was a big campaign, and actually we were lucky to bring it down to zero. By 2017, we had zero elephant poaching. So the number has recovered. We used to have 100,000 elephants in the country, and the number dropped up to 60,000. So we lost 40 percent of the elephant. And now the number has gone up to 80 percent, 80,000, which is quite good sign. And they’re enjoying we’re seeing so many babies.

Aislyn: And then Pay connected the elephants with the hippos.

Pay: But this is, uh, an implication of use during the rainy season when elephants are walking in a soft wet ground, the the small elephant tracks can collect water and this may attract pumba warthogs because of the small size. And they go and roll there and wash their body. If they repeat the same behavior for a long time, it may attract buffalo, it may attract elephant because elephant have got a big body, they actually will use more of the mud and they have got digging tools. Their front feet can dig really well, and their tusks getting more mud and high demand of mud will expand the area quite fast. This area will be used for a couple of years, maybe 20 years. The pool will expand. And when the hippo comes here during rainy season, they don’t necessarily go back to the river because they will be big pool that will accommodate Hippo during the dry season. The rainy season, some of the area like very much used can be enough to accommodate 20 hippos. And it started just from the elephant, one footprint. Yeah.

Aislyn: And this is why the elephant is a keystone species.

Pay: If you take elephant away from the nature, an African bushes, they have to crop or be dense and bushy. No pathway. There will be no horse like this. And the whole ecosystem will collapse.

Aislyn: As we ate this magnificent breakfast and the elephants continued to search for water, Pay shared more of his own journey. Um, today we did our very first walking safari with Pay.

Pay, How did it go? How did we do? I guess that’s the question. Did we pass the test?

Pay: Actually, it did behave very nicely. You were keen, listening and asking questions, which made it very interesting. You know, when you walk you up into small things like, you know, droppings. It’s such a small thing, like dick, dick, territorial markings and it’s hard to spot. But if you show people those small nature stuff and they get excited and you feel also happy to share and imagine approaching that elephant family. And we left without being noticed that we were there. That was very cool experience.

Aislyn: You may have noticed that pie sounds a bit like a soft spoken David Attenborough, with a dash of Darwin and Jane Goodall thrown in. And that’s because he’s worked in the natural world his entire life.

Pay: This is my 15th year in the bush, and I started up, as, you know, a farmer being in a bush with my father. And later on, when I qualified as a guide and went back to park ranger training and become a park ranger.

Aislyn: He grew up in the north in the Gorongosa district, and his grandfather was the best hunter in the village. so pie can find his way home across an unmarked wilderness with what he calls a natural GPS. We were out there for walking for, what, 3 hours? 3 and a half hours?

So we didn’t get lost. If we had been out there by ourselves, we would never be seen again. So how do you navigate?

Pay: Actually, that’s a very interesting question. And I also wonder how do I not get lost? Yeah. Because I have got this natural GPS. Yeah. Because having, uh, an awareness of the direction of the sun and knowing the landscape like a river.

Aislyn: And then I asked him about the rifle he carried on our trip. Have you ever had to use it? You did not have to use it today, for the record.

Pay: Actually, if you are well trained as a walking guide, you don’t even wish to use a rifle. So for my 10 years experience of working, I never had to use the rifle. And I work as if I don’t have rifle.

Aislyn: Pay explains. That’s because he’s always listening. Birds share information with the buffalo and elephants and impalas warning each other when humans are coming. So while we were walking, Pay is reading a conversation happening all around us, and walking with him taught me how to tune into that conversation at least a little bit. To think about the wind and the birds above, and how even a single bee might be out to surveil us on behalf of the hive. Pay says it’s so different from being in the Jeep.

Pay: You see, these are quite special moments, and you have got to actually attempt to stretch up your body, enhance your senses of hearing, smelling, you know, adrenaline pumping into when you’re approaching such potentially dangerous animal, but you are actually with good company and you are safe. You feel engaged with activity and do not necessarily become a spectator of the show. You are part of the show.

Aislyn: You’re part of the show. Everything about Nomad Kigelia and Ruaha invites you to be a part of the show. And after the break, we’re taking that show to the river.

A few days later, we waved goodbye to the team and headed for our second camp. You know, the one with the confusing name? It used to be called the Selous. Now it’s Nyerere, named for the first president and founding father of Tanzania. And here the whole rhythm of the trip changed because we were on the water and while the Nomad Kigelia camp was certainly luxurious in its understated way. The nomad sand rivers literally took my breath away. The Rufiji River was the first thing we saw walking into our room. This wide, curving expanse dotted with submerged hippos divided by sandbars and reflecting the magnificent blue sky. Equally magnificent, the stone room with one side totally exposed to the open air. The staff prepped us on how to deal with the local wildlife like put toothpaste, which is basically monkey candy, in a provided lockbox, radio staff about any monkey presence , and watch out for the resident hippo, Bruno. And by the way, you don’t go looking for Bruno. Bruno just lets you know that he’s there. And if he does, you pick up that radio, you call the staff and you wait till he’s done doing whatever he’s doing. And then it was time for our first River safari. Jeannie and I clambered into a low slung boat, and our captain gave us the safety briefing.

Gerald: Don’t. Don’t touch water, please.

Aislyn: Yes. I’d like to keep all my fingers.

While the Rufiji River looks tranquil. I started referring to it lovingly as danger soup because it is filled, and I really mean filled with hippos and crocodiles. Who would think nothing of separating you from your fingers, limbs, or life. And this is where I fully grasped the power and glory of a hippo. One of our guides was an elegant man named, Gerald, who was in his 4th year with Nomad and back in the camp’s open air community area, Gerald handed us a hippo skull and gave us the real tour.

Gerald: This is like a canine for attacking. Oh, okay. And this is a spear.

Aislyn: Delightful, yes. Gerald then explained that hippos sharpen their own teeth before a fight and that you can hear them do it. Ah! And then he said, this.

Gerald: Sounds like me. Single bite that can be divided. Oh my God.

Aislyn: So when you hear that sound, you’re just like, nope, I’m gonna make sure I’m far, far away. Over the next several days, we settled into the rhythms of Safari on a River. We motored down the Rufiji and at times were charged by overprotective hippos. We puttered into a narrow neck of the river and spotted the elusive colobus monkeys tucked into trees. We saw an incredible number of birds, and we saw the people who flocked to this part of the world for those birds. It all instilled in me a newfound passion for Tanzania’s aviary community. We went on game drives with Gerald to search for hippos and learned how a giraffe drinks water.

One day we watched a hippo slide cartoonishly from a sandbar into the river and absolutely entertaining and delightful thing. And again, we saw no other people save maybe a few other guests. It was just us and the river ecosystem. And then close to the end of our trip, we went fly camping. That’s where you. Well, not you, but the team sets up camp in a scenic spot. And our nomad team chose a spot on a lake that was just absolutely teeming with hippos and crocodiles. I mean, it seemed teeming to me. But when I saw where they had placed our tent so close to the lake. I could get into a staring contest with a crocodile, I momentarily yearned for my elegant room overlooking the river far, far above the danger soup. But then we went on a tour of the camp. There were 2 tents, one for changing and one for sleeping beneath the stars. There was a full bathroom, like en suite level bathroom.

This is the washroom. Wow. Toilet. Oh my God.

Gerald: When you come for a shower, you stand up here, okay?

Aislyn: Yep. They dug a toilet into the sand. It had a very nice toilet seat and rigged a shower that could actually deliver hot water.

And then back there is the kitchen and our chef. Jumbo. Jumbo. We’re approaching the bar. Happy hour. Thank you so much. And then. Oh, there’s a hippo right there. So we get to have fireside hippo watching. Beautiful fire and a hippo. I know you staged it perfectly.

Gerald: It’s amazing.

Aislyn: Wow.

So, yeah, very far from camping. Utter luxury. We also trusted that Gerald and our ranger, who stayed up all night watching over the camp, knew how to speak Hippo. Because while these lovely hippos float in the water all day, surrounded by plants like water lettuce, hippos are night eaters. They leave the water en masse to graze on land, just like cows. And like any animal, they have their routines. They use the same paths every night to exit the river and the same paths to return to the river. So as we learned while fly camping, you never, ever want to put yourself in one of those paths. And if you are in tune with the landscape, you can actually ID those spots through sight and smell. So while our tent site felt random to us, it was totally intentional.

So we ate dinner and sipped gin and tonics under the stars, then fell asleep to the sound of the wind. The next morning we woke safe and sound and delighted in another perfectly prepared breakfast against my new favorite soundtrack. The big hippo brass band. So, why the southern circuit? Why Ruaha and Nyiri instead of the famous crossing in the north? Because of the waterhole with the two elephant families and not a single other car. Because of the lionesses sleeping beneath the stars. Because of a leopard who walked off to hunt and never clocked us because we were outnumbered by hippos and crocodiles, and mostly because we got to be part of the show instead of watching it from a traffic jam. So go. That’s my advice. Go. Go outside your comfort zone. I promise you, it’s worth the occasional zip of fear that you will surely have. If you want to see these camps for yourself. I’ve included a ton of resources in the show notes, including a link to Extraordinary Journeys, and come back next week for a short bonus episode because there is one more piece of this trip I want to tell you about.

One morning we drove out of the park to a small village to meet the people at Lion Landscapes, who are working on what happens when a lion leaves the park and meets a herd of cattle, and the humans who depend on that cattle for their livelihood. It turns out that saving everyone involves camera traps, school desks and a point system. That’s next time. This has been Unpacked by Afar and I’m Aislyn Greene. We’ll see you then.

If you’re ready for more travel inspiration and Intel like this, visit Afar.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We are @AfarMedia. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland. Music from Chris Colin and Epidemic Sound. This podcast is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to their other fine shows like Culture Kids and The Explorers Podcast.