Advertising a 2020 Trip to Chad with Chalo Africa

Dates: Arrival in Chad on February 21, 2020 – Departure from Chad on March 11, 2020

Introduction
Chad has true otherworldly beauty: seas of orange-yellow sand, multi-coloured oases, and surreal rock formations. After all, most of the country is a part of the Sahara Desert. But Chad also has one of the world’s largest single herd of elephants, about 130 lions, and over 10,000 Central African savanna buffalo, which range in colour from jet-black to orange. This is wild adventuring, including driving hundreds of kilometres across the Sahara, seeing rock paintings up to 12,000 years old, and coming face to face with elephants whose recovery is one of the most heartwarming of wildlife conservation stories.

Trip Highlights
• The elephants of Zakouma National Park and their story of hope
• Flocks of birds that completely blanket the sky and earth
• The one and only picture-book Sahara Desert – the world’s largest desert – with all possible shades of orange and yellow
• Prehistoric rock paintings and petroglyphs showing people dancing, herding, and hunting, and depicting the wildlife that flourished millennia ago
• Dromedaries drinking huge amounts of water very quickly
• Lions, buffaloes, Kordofan giraffes, and all manner of antelope including tiang and roan

Note: The portions of this trip that traverse the Sahara Desert can be challenging because of the heat, dust, driving conditions, and distances covered. Please take this into consideration before you sign up for this trip.

Brief Itinerary
Day 1: Arriving in N’Djamena, Chad. Overnight lodging at the Hilton Hotel.
Day 2: Fly from N’Djamena to Abéché and then drive from Abéché to Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve. Ennedi is one of the only 38 World Heritage Sites in the world chosen for both its natural and cultural/historical significance. Overnight lodging: Tent in mobile desert camp.
Days 3 through 6: Ennedi. The Ennedi Plateau/Massif is a sandstone bulwark in the middle of the Sahara Desert. 75% of it has yet to be explored. That’s where we come in! This is a spectacular landscape marked by sandstone cliffs, natural arches, labyrinths, and bizarre rock formations. This is also the land of the Toubou – one of Africa’s most traditional and least known peoples. We’ll see them bring massive herds of dromedaries or Arabian camels to drink at Guelta d’Archei, the only watering hole around these parts, situated amidst a dramatic and towering gorge.
Day 7 & 8: Through the Sahara Desert to the Lakes of Ounianga. From pure sand to the multi-hued Ounianga Lakes, a huge and classic oasis right in the middle of sand as far as the eye can see.
Days 9: The Lakes of Ounianga
Days 10 & 11: Through the Sahara Desert to the Oasis of Faya-Largeau.
Day 12: Fly back to N’Djamena. Overnight lodging at the Hilton Hotel.
Day 13: Fly to Zakouma National Park. You’ve likely been to the Masai Mara, Serengeti, and other such places. And in your travels you’ve been hearing one word being whispered time and again: Zakouma. Well, we’ll take a 2-hour flight from N’Djamena to Zakouma National Park today to make that whisper a reality. Overnight lodging at the Camp Tinga.
Days 14 through 18: Zakouma National Park, one of the most remarkable conservation stories ever. Experience the thrill as thousands of crowned cranes and tens of thousands of quelea take flight; witness mega-herds of elephants and buffaloes and also see lions (a healthy population of around 130), pale-toned Kordofan giraffes, genets, civets, African wildcats, servals, pale foxes, side-striped jackals, bushbucks, Bohor reedbucks, tiangs, (pronking) Lelwel hartebeests, waterbucks, roan antelopes, red-fronted gazelles, oribi, Buffon’s cob, whitetailed mongoose, and baboons!
Day 19: Fly back to N’Djamena. Overnight lodging at the Hilton Hotel.
Day 20: Leaving N’Djamena. Ma’a as-salamah! A la prochaine!

Your Guides
For the Ennedi/Ounianga section of the trip, we will have a local guide who knows the area well. For the Zakouma section of the trip, we will have both a local guide as well as Zarek Cockar, one of Kenya’s few accredited gold-level guides, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the region’s ecology. We will also have a professional interpreter on the trip who can participate as needed.

Cost
The cost of this trip is EUR 9,795 per person. There is a single supplement of EUR 850.

The cost includes:
• 4 internal flights within Chad as indicated
• Transport by car in 3 Toyota 4×4 vehicles
• Fuel, drivers, and English-speaking guides or interpreters
• Accommodation and meals as indicated
• Daily activities as indicated

The cost does not include:
• Flight to get to N’Djamena at the start of the trip and flight leaving N’Djamena at the end of the trip
• Meals at the hotel in N’Djamena or in the city
• Any applicable visas
• Travel insurance
• Any drinks except bottled & filtered water