Kids
on
IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO
INTRODUCE YOUR CHILD TO
THE WILD – BUT CHOOSING
YOUR DESTINATION
CAREFULLY WILL HELP
EVERYONE HAVE MORE FUN.
JANINE STEPHENS EXPLORES
THE BEST OPTIONS.
These days, business people spend
fortunes to go to the bush to be
taught life lessons – how to trust your
instincts and how to stay on track. If
safaris can breathe new life into jaded
26 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE
professionals, imagine the wonder they
hold for young minds.
Going on safari with your children
doesn’t need to be about the uncontested
health benefits of ditching screen time
and tuning in to nature (but they are
legion, from reducing the stress of the
“directed attention” of our urban lives
and replacing it with what one scholar
calls “soft fascination” to encouraging
thinking and creativity.) Seeing the
impossible scale of a giraffe or elephant
for the first time is a gift, and safaris offer
so many chances to better understand
life, death and the wider world. Done
right, a safari can ignite a love of nature in
youngsters that will provide them with a
source of pleasure for life.
Kristin Palitza, founder of Agaaain, an
online guide “for modern parents” in Cape
Town, says she took her daughter on her
first safari to Tanzania when the child was
18 months old. They visited Ngorongoro
Crater and the Serengeti National Park for
a lodge-based, guided experience. “It was
absolutely amazing to see a small child
respond with great excitement to the
animals,” Palitza says.
There were many moments of wonder,
but the trip required a lot of car time. “It’s
probably better for families with toddlers
to visit smaller game parks, where you can
do short game drives and spend a lot of
time in the lodge and swimming pool,”