Natural Selection’s Guided Cycling Safari

Cycling safaris are gaining in popularity because they’re active, immersive, and more sustainable than traditional safari models. More importantly, they’re exhilarating—nothing compares to the thrill of viewing game from a saddle, and venturing where noisy diesel-powered Land Cruisers can’t. Botswana specialists Natural Selections is blazing a trail with a multi-day cycling safari, the first of its kind in the Okavango Delta, home to one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife. Following ancient migratory routes carved by elephants, guests pedal past skulking hyenas, loping giraffes, and wallowing hippos, covering 25 to 45 miles per day through acacia woodlands and savannah and breaking each night in a new mobile camp set up with private tents and fire-heated showers. (The luggage is transported separately, so no need to bikepack.) Crew handle the take down of each camp so guests can set out early when wildlife is most active. Sightings of large elephant herds, lions, and Cape buffalo—one of the most dangerous of all—are all possible and guides are trained to read both animal body language and tracks, always keeping the peloton at a safe viewing distance. Interest in the cycling tour has been so great since Natural Selections launched in late 2022, the outfitter added a four-night cycling safari in another iconic landscape, the Makgadikgadi salt pan in north-eastern Botswana’s Kalahari desert, last November.

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