Just back from Africa's Wildlife

Hi Patricia,

It depends on how active you are and what you would define as strenuous.  We had a lot of early mornings.  Given the nature of game drives while at the lodges, wake calls were between 5:00 and 5:30 with a light breakfast and then out for several hours on the game drive.  Roads were often bumpy and dusty.  You do need to be able to climb into and out of the safari vehicles, although sometimes they set up steps for those who needed them.  After a late breakfast or lunch we would have a few hours to relax before another game drive or boat cruise, leaving about 3:30 until sunset.  You always have the option of not going out on a drive. All of the lodges had places to just relax. The days we transferred from one place to another started at a more reasonable hour.  I didn't think the walk to Victoria Falls was strenuous. 

I would think general fitness, ability to navigate uneven surfaces and climb into and out of the vehicles is more a factor than age.  I would guess most of our tour mates were in their 60's and 70's, but most were in what I would consider pretty good shape.

We flew from JFK on Emirates which is one of Odyssey's preferred airlines for South Africa.  The flight from JFK to Dubai is 12 hr 45 min and from Dubai to Johannesburg it was 8 hr.  Return flight from Cape Town to Dubai was 9 hr 30 min.  Long flights but well worth it for such a great trip.  

In Victoria Falls, we had a 2 game drives, one to the Rhino preserve and one from the lodge.  In Chobe we had the opportunity to take 4 game drives and a boat safari, with the option of going on another boat safari or a visit to a village in Namibia instead of a game drive.  In Zambezi, you have 5 opportunities for game drives and you can choose want you want to do.  Choices are a game drive, a bush walk, a canoe ride, sunset river cruise or tiger fishing.  You can do all as game drives if you choose. So in total, you have time for 12 game viewing opportunities.  Two of the game drives in Zambezi continued after sunset.

There were 16 people on our tour.  I'm not sure what you mean about how far we traveled each day.  If you are asking how long the game drives were, they generally lasted about 3 to 3 1/2 hours.  

Comparing this tour to the one we took with Odyssey to Kenya and Tanzania, I would say we saw more animals total in Kenya & Tanzania.  However, this tour had the bush walk which was unique and the boat safaris where we saw many hippos, elephants and crocs. We also had several close views of several rhinos. 

We did Africa's Wildlife in 2015 and Classic Safari in 2016. We loved both - you can't go wrong. Africa is our favorite destination.

You'll see more animals and a greater variety of animals on the Classic Safari. But Africa's Wildlife has fewer competing vehicles and the QUALITY of viewing may be better even though the QUANTITY of animals is less. Africa's Wildlife includes viewing from boats (which we loved), more bird viewing, as well as a greater variety of non-safari experiences.

Today's itinerary of the Classic Safari is much better than the one I experienced in 2015. But transportation between safari sites is still more tiring on Classic Safari than it is on Africa's Wildlife.

You can read my trip report here but remember the Classic Safari itinerary is now different (it eliminates the lengthy "back-track" transportation between sites) and better.
docs.google.com/document/d/1vyj-DLSJoirtf-cPVWfAPMvAqpLnLp7Jwi7BtpOBSws/pub