Piragis Northwoods Company E-Newsletter January 13, 2010

Explore the Wilds of Africa
If Africa has been on your list, there is no better time to go and see it for yourself. I am working together with southern Africa’s most respected guiding company to produce a special trip to see the highlights of Botswana in April. Our small group of 8 will fly from Atlanta directly to Johannesburg where we overnight and fly on the next day to Maun on the edge of the Okavango Delta. Our guides from Wilderness Safaris meet us there and fly us by bush plane to the heart of the Kalahari at Deception Valley where the book “Cry of the Kalahari” took place in the 1970’s. Deception is an ancient river bed now dried up to a grassy valley teeming with antelope and the predators that rely on them for survival. There is no better African adventure story than the real life adventures of Delia and Mark Owens who lived here for 7 years as young zoologists studying and blending with the wildlife. Read the book and you’ll want to go.

Wilderness Safaris is famous for it’s 60 plus lodges and camps in 5 countries of southern Africa. We’ll leave the high priced luxury camps to others and WS will guide us on a true African tent safari as we all visualize it with a bit of luxury of our own. Tent camps will be our home for two weeks as we fly from location to location to get the best of Botswana and maximize our time in the field. I’ll let the photos to show you just how comfortable this life will be. It will be early up every morning to see as much as we can when animals and birds are most active. We’ll have opportunity to walk in the private concessions that W.S. oversees within the national parks. Because WS has special privileges in the parks we will be able to drive at night to see even more when the big cats are hunting. Over the course of 14 days our privately escorted group will stay in 4 camps, record up to 200 bird species, the big 5 of African game species and a dozen different ungulates in desert, forest, marsh and dry savanna habitats. There is no place in Africa that has this diversity species and quality of wild land. Botswana is one of Africa’s success stories with one of its highest per capita GNP and living standards. 40% of its land is protected for nature and the government is building a future economy with ecotourism at the core of a plan to feed its people and protect the wildlife.

I hope you find the photos attractive. Please use the links to learn more about our partners in this adventure. I did my first trip to Botswana in October. Driving over 2400 miles we visited the public areas of these same parks. I soaked up some of the most marvelous sights I’ve ever seen on that trip. It all made me want to go back as often as possible. This trip is designed to get much more out of two weeks by flying between locations to save time and staying in extremely comfortable safari tent camps within the private concessions of the parks where we’ll have more freedom and solitude.

If you think you’d like to join me in April in Africa please call anytime or email me with your questions. The group is open to adults in good health and with an adventurous spirit. Maximum group size is 8. Itinerary starts in Johannesburg on April_. Clients are welcome to fly to Africa a day or two early to adapt to the time zone. The cost includes all in country flights starting in Maun and ending in Livingstone, all meals, drinks, guides and camp staff. Return to the US on April 15.

Trip Cost per person from Maun $6588.

Estimated Cost of Airfare on Delta from Atlanta $1600 rt

Steve Piragis will be happy to answer questions and talk trips! For questions, please contact him by phone at 1-800-223-6565 or email: steve@piragis.com.

for many more pictures and a sample itinerary, click here:
http://www.piragis.com/africaadventure2010.html