We are perched expectantly in an open Land Rover, binoculars ready, eyes scanning left and right when, beyond a clump of trees, we spot them. Our driver edges our jeep off road, cutting a swath through the shrubs towards the three elegant necks rising above the canopy.
In a clearing on the side of an incline, five statuesque giraffes stand grazing, while all around a herd of gambolling wildebeest, with two-week-old babies in tow, kick up a cloud of dust.
Further down the valley, we spot a few lazy waterbucks meandering through the tall grass while an alert single kudu, turns its ear towards the dawn breeze. Minutes later, two rare black rhinos wander into sight.
Across continents
It could be a scene out of Africa. Except that this is an entirely malaria-free zone. For we are — would you believe it — on safari, in Kent at the recently opened Livingstone Safari Lodge.
Situated on 100 acres and just 70 miles south-east of London, the aim of the lodge is to replicate, as far as possible, the experience of the African savannah.
Nearly 300 wild animals from 17 species roam free here, including zebra, ostrich, eland, roan antelope, lechwe, black buck and — since this is England, after all — indigenous foxes and pheasants.
I had driven down the previous evening with my wife, Pamela, and our 12-year-old daughter, Kayla, in time for an evening safari and a sun-downer on the verandah of our tented camp overlooking the game.
Appealing idea
Having grown up in Africa, I have been passionate about the bush since I was a boy, so the idea of a safari-like experience so close to London was appealing.
I was intrigued when Damian Aspinall, a millionaire and a fervent conservationist, mentioned a few months ago that he was opening "Britain's first African safari experience" on an open land adjacent to his Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, between Ashford and Folkestone.
I was raring to get out there, but could it match the real deal? On our one-hour dusk safari, whisked around by Bob O'Connor — the park's managing director, I wondered whether, despite the lack of predators, there have been any fights between different species.
Animal instincts
"Aye," Bob says, "we had a problem with the foxes stealing the ostrich eggs. And some bother with a mad, dominant male wildebeest that kept charging at the rhinos. Eventually, we had to move him out."
The animals, Bob explained, have been brought here from different zoos and are not as wild as it first appears. Every morning, the keeper drives around with buckets of vegetables that he tosses onto the grass to supplement their diets.
The rhinos sleep in a barn at night to keep them warm, and many of the animals have been given human names. "It is a very British safari," Bob further explains.
"We have health and safety on our backs for everything — and that is why our vehicles are equipped with seat belts and nobody is allowed out of the vehicles."
Nevertheless, the place has much to recommend it. The campsite, comprising nine bespoke safari tents imported from South Africa, and tastefully decorated with carpets, two single beds and fluffy warm duvets, offers a level of comfort almost approaching that of an African private game park. The food, too, is outstanding — our four-course dinner in the lapa (a gazebo-type structure) was cooked by three on-site chefs and the menu included flamed roast-beef fillet, marinated baby chicken, a delicious assortment of salads, and a rich chocolate gateau for dessert.
Shame they were not more adventurous with the menu, perhaps adding kudu steak, but according to Bob, the English do not go for such exotic tastes. That night in the tent, we heard wailing, squawking and barking and I felt a sense of being in the wild. In the morning, we saw the sun rise through our tent flaps and ascend over the valley of antelopes and the farmland and English Channel beyond.
But as our family gazed out on this very English scene, and compared it with what we had experienced in Africa, we had contrasting responses.
Kayla's verdict was "trying to put another country into your own is an impossible task. They've made a good attempt, but it's not an African experience and it will never be a substitute for the real thing."
Curious hybrid
Pamela, on the other hand, said she would visit again. "It's a taste of Africa, and it takes me just a little bit out of Britain — there aren't many places close to London which offer that."
Livingstone Safari Lodge is a curious hybrid — a British game reserve that is more than an open zoo but incomparable to an African safari.
Ironically, I had gone to see the animals, but since 100 acres is small, you can take them all in one drive, which paradoxically detracts from that breathless, charged question — "what will we see today?" — that propels you off on a genuine African safari.
Instead, the part that lingers most in the mind is the luxury camping in situ: going to bed in a comfy tent assailed by the noises of the wild, and waking up to a steaming hot cup of coffee while gazing upon the grace of a giraffe.
Go there...Kent
From the UAE
From Dubai: Emirates flies daily Fare: Dh2,570
Qatar Airways flies three times a week to London via Doha. Fare: Dh1,720
Austrian Airlines flies daily via Vienna. Fare: Dh1,680
Alitalia flies daily via Milan. Fare: Dh1,650
British Airways flies daily to London. Fare: Dh1,600
From Abu Dhabi: Etihad flies daily to London Fare: Dh2,170
British Airways flies daily to London. Fare: Dh1,900
(All fares exclusive of taxes)
— Information courtesy: MMI Travel
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