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Welcome to the African Wildlife Safari! Let us give you just a taste of what you might experience...
With the majestic Jebel Hafeet providing a spectacular backdrop to your trip, you enter a world of great herds and rolling African landscapes. As you wind through the landscape, you catch sight of giraffes, zebras, rhinos, antelopes and even lions.
The safari starts at the African Village. From a distance, this cluster of low buildings looks like an outpost on the edge of a panoramic African landscape, framed by distant mountains. On arrival, you see that these buildings contain all you need for the start of your safari. Standing in the shade of a trellis, the vista beckons to you to experience the adventure.
Boarding the large safari vehicle, you head into the desert lands of North Kenya. The driver knows the area well and may promise some close encounters with wildlife as you proceed into Africa. The driver also tells you about the endangered animals of this area and what is being done by the Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort (AWPR) and our partners to protect them.
In front of you is a vast open plain with sparse vegetation and occasional, distant rock outcrops. It really is huge, extending to far-off mountains. The road winds through open grassland, giving you views that are constantly changing.
As you progress, a herd of startled gazelles runs bounding in front of your path. You continue down into a wadi, filled with lush vegetation and animals resting in the shade. Then you're crossing a plain and, suddenly, lions appear on each side. Some of them are resting under a shady tree, cubs are playing and the patriarch is watching you warily.
The road turns to the left as you pass between two hulking rocks. Then there's an open view of another plain, dotted with gazelles and zebras. In the distance, the driver may point out a herd of magnificent Fringe-eared oryx. Behind them, a group of White rhinos gather round a small watering hole with many birds scattered all around it.
Beyond the rhinos, the vehicles enter the shade of riverine woodland with a cooling canopy of fever trees. There in the river, bordered by a lush palm grove, you see hippos, some of them standing at the edge but most in the water. Your driver alerts you to potential dangers of hippos and the need to be wary at all times. As the vehicle splashes across the river the group of hippos seem to part to let you by, now on both sides, some very close.
Next on the drive through Africa is the Kalahari Desert. The truck makes a quick turn to the south, and you have views of a large open area ahead filled with Greater kudu, gazelles, and herds of impala. White rhinos may also be visible just beyond a rise near shore as it follows a loop in the trail through antelopes and wildebeest herds.
As you are near the end of the Kalahari, the safari vehicle heads across a bridge, into what the driver describes as a well-known cheetah area. The road passes through rocky ridges dotted with trees. Passing these rocks you may see a pair of cheetah standing under a tree to the right, close enough to see their eyes focus on you! Behind the cheetahs at a safe distance, you see a herd of wildebeest, then perhaps a pack of hunting dogs as you leave the Kalahari.
The Saharan Safari exhibits the highly endangered wildlife of the world’s greatest desert. On this safari you drive down into a plain full of wildlife on all sides, with addax, Scimitar-horned oryx and gazelles as far as you can see. After winding past more Dorcas and Dama gazelles, you curve to the left, cross a bridge – and realise you are being watched by a group of Patas monkeys. Some are keeping watch from the branches of a dead tree, some are at a watering hole and others are perched precariously on the rocks above. Mingling amongst them is a herd of Barbary goats, a Saharan species now almost extinct in the wild.
After the safari, your driver brings you back to the African Overlook where you disembark. From there you can walk through the African World Desert, back to the Oasis Gardens.
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