Experience an unforgettable learning holiday together in the African wilderness

Great Plains, an iconic conservation organisation, is proud to offer its younger guests The Young Explorers Programme in their Botswana and Kenya safari camps. Children aged five and up can anticipate a holiday of a lifetime with Great Plains, where they will bond as a family seeing their favourite animals in their natural habitat for the first time. These Young Explorers will also learn basic survival skills, how to track animal prints, conservation principles and so much more as they explore the freedom and purity of Africa.

"I look forward to sharing the best things with people I love, and for many, that special moment on safari to one of our camps is that best thing. I smile when I hear the stories growing larger over the dinner or campfire as a family relives the day, the lions and leopards, the canoe trail. After all, the one campfire rule is never to let the facts get in the way of a great story! But it’s all about sharing these moments, isn’t it? So, spend a moment exploring what we offer families, for that exceptionally curated, family safari," commented Dereck Joubert, CEO, and founder of Great Plains.

Great Plains is delighted to have new family accommodation for group bookings and multi-generational travellers to enjoy in Kenya. Two new spacious family suites at Mara Nyika Camp and a modern private 2-bedroomed villa located in the trees, the Mara Jahazi Suite, will be available from mid-2021.

Family safaris with Great Plains are available at three Kenyan properties where families will bond together on game drives, horseback, hot-air balloon rides, mountain biking, guided walks and sundowners with Maasai warriors. When guests of The Young Explorers Programme in Kenya aren’t enjoying cycling on the plains, a game drive, or making a splash in the camp pool, they will have a chance to visit a local school, learn ceremonial traditions of the young Maasai and even practice local bush beading with Maasai ladies at a neighbouring village. Once each young explorer completes their course and activity book with their guide and family, they receive a certificate for graduating from the Great Plains Young Explorers programme with a badge and certificate. They return home as proud Conservation Ambassadors.

"We can all remember the liberating freedom, as kids, when we had the freedom to be outside all day, making stuff from sticks, catching tadpoles, and climbing trees. We were all explorers of some kind, we still are. As children, we explore, we discover, we get lost in our adventures, but we always return the wiser and more enlightened. Safaris with kids are much the same– a time to stimulate all the senses- although we try not to lose them!" said Joubert.

The Young Explorers Programme encourages children to become their most adventurous selves by stepping away from traditional everyday life, so they return home with an entirely new perspective as Great Plains Conservation Ambassador graduates. Upon arrival at camp, children will receive a Great Plains Young Explorers pack, including a compass, torch, an activity book, traditional board games and a letter from a Motswana pen pal. The specially created activity book, filled with exciting information and games, includes basic Setswana or Swahili vocabulary, animal tracks, a safari journal, facts on flora, fauna and the night sky constellations of the southern hemisphere. Young guests are paired with an exceptionally trained guide who will host, teach and care for them with their families throughout their stay.

Botswana is a beautiful family safari destination, and the private concessions allow extreme flexibility to explore the area by foot, canoe and vehicle, day and night. Sample activities for Young Explorers staying in the Great Plains Botswana properties include: practicing how to use binoculars in the wild, understanding Bayei survival skills such as animal tracking, casting a rod and learning how to fish on a boat or canoe - all catch and release, another demonstration of subtle ethics Great Plains love to impart on their younger guests. Young Explorers will also have the opportunity to make local jewellery or a traditional bangle from grass and practice bush cooking by creating a family breakfast on an open fire under a bush chef’s guidance. Children and teens will learn from their guides about the vegetation and wildlife they see during the morning or evening game-drive, whether it is testing their newly acquired tracking skills or seeing creepy crawlies and nocturnal animals by moonlight or with a flashlight.

"We aim to develop new naturalists, to encourage those that have already started on this journey and to provide a safe place for that outdoor experience that is unavailable to so many today. At the same time, for every family we host, we set aside some money to host local children in our Conservation Camps, so this naturalist journey is shared locally. The bonds that are re-established on safari, in nature, go far beyond those we have at home. These regenerative moments make a lifetime of new family memories together, and Great Plains would like to facilitate these memories for you," said Dereck and Beverly Joubert, co-founders of Great Plains.

www.greatplainsconservation.com