Boat Safaris Africa | Types, Where to Go & Travel Guide
African boat safaris provide a distinctive viewpoint on wildlife, enabling exploration of waterways abundant with life. Notable destinations comprise the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Chobe River, the Lower Zambezi in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Various boat safari experiences are available, including houseboat cruises, canoeing safaris, and Mokoro excursions.
A boating safari provides you with a unique, tranquil and complementary way to appreciate the varied wildlife in East Africa.
A boating safari can be a thrilling, calm and complementing activity to the vehicle safaris offered during an Kabira safari and can be added to your adventure. These water excursions give you a chance to take a deep breath and enjoy the fresh and clean air while keeping a lookout for the ever present crocodiles. The grunting hippos create their own particular soundtrack, claiming their domain on the water. Our boating safaris are similar to a game drive, offered in small groups with a professional guide.
Where to go on a Boating Safari
A boating safari allows you to experience the rich wildlife and breathtaking environment on a Tanzania safari from a fresh perspective. You can float along rivers, lakes and marshes and witness animals such as hippo, crocodile, elephant, buffalo, birds and more.
If you want to do a boating safari, let our skilled safari planners know about this trip. They will design the perfect boating safari itinerary for you, tailored to your interests, budget, and the time of year you plan to travel.
The Kabira boating safari amid Tanzania’s colossal tangle of wildlife-filled lakes and canals, the Rufiji River, takes you through the sprawling Nyerere National Park. September and October, when the dry season is at its height, can bring hazardous boating conditions because of low water.
Adjoining Ruaha National Park in the far south is Usangu Expedition Camp, which runs boating safaris through the channels and tributaries of the Great Ruaha River. Birding is great in this location with a variety of resident and migratory wetland species, and elephant and antelope are often spotted on the coast.
Stay at Rubondo Island Camp on Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake, and enjoy adventurous and romantic boat adventures. The evergreen vegetation on the island is lush and it is home to an amazing diversity of wildlife. Look out over the shoreline for the African fish eagle in the treetops, see hundreds of weavers building intricate and delicate nests and check the shallow water for the spotted-necked otter. Sometimes you can witness forest elephant coming out from the jungle for drink and for bath.
Or take a boat safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, cruising the rivers including the 32 kilometre Kazinga Channel which links Lake Edward and Lake George. The greatest way to view this natural wildlife corridor is on a boat safari, gliding past pods of hippos whose nostrils are above the water, watching buffalo cooling off along the beaches and observing elephants come to drink. The vivid banks of the channel are alive with water-birds, a delightful picture of life beside the river.