There is no better feeling than setting everything ready to embark on a trip to Africa. Having your travel bag and camera at hand knowing you are going to have extraordinary wildlife encounters, the excitement is unrivalled. In this article I found you the most amazing African safari quotes to get you even more excited to pack your bags.
You can also find some travel quotes from the famous Traveltomtom in this blog, LOL! Yes, yes all of them made up by myself from my continuous journey around the world.
Africa is one of the most captivating travel destinations in the world and no wonder that so many well known people found beautiful words to describe this continent in famous safari captions. Let’s start with someone we all know…
Walt Disney once said: All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. It became a famous travel quote, but it is so very true! If seeing wildlife in Africa is on top of your bucket list than chase that dream, make it happen!
The following safari quotes will surely help you getting into the mood for wildlife encounters. Find many famous safari sayings, captions and adventure quotes about Africa in the list below.
1. 'The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to.’, is a famous safari saying said by many people, but a safari quote that I have written down in capitals in my note book.
As of January 2020 I have traveled to more than 100 countries, but only seen 4 countries in Africa so far. This captions is definitely inspiring me personally and therefore I put it atop of this long list with quotes about safari.
2. ‘One cannot resist the lure of Africa.’, said Rudyard Kipling, an Indian born English man who was the author of the Jungle Book.
3. 'But African time was not the same as American time… As African time passed; I surmised that the pace of Western countries was insane, that the speed of modern technology accomplished nothing, and that because Africa was going its own way at its own pace for its own reasons, it was a refuge and a resting place.' - Paul Edward Theroux, an American travel writer and novelist.
This man is also the one who came up with the famous travel quote and instagram caption: ‘Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.’ Kind of sounds like my own travel quote: ‘If you don’t have a destination you can never get lost!’ - Traveltomtom.
4. 'I hope you have an experience that alters the course of your life because, after Africa, nothing has ever been the same’ - Suzanne Evans, an English journalist and politician.
Dreaming of getting up close and personal with the mountain gorillas? Click here to read all my tips for a mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda!
5. ‘Nothing but breathing the air of Africa, and actually walking through it, can communicate the indescribable sensations.’ - said by William Burchell, an English explorer who traveled in Africa in the early 1800’s.
I totally agree with his safari quote as there is something really special walking through the African savannah as you observe the beauty of the flora and fauna.
6. ‘There is nothing better than experiencing wildlife in its natural habitat!’
7. ‘Africa is full of humanity; the incredible African people!’ These last two safari captions for Instagram I actually used myself in the past.
8. ‘Africa is not a country, but it is a continent like no other. It has that which is elegantly vast or awfully little.’ - said by L. Douglas Wilder, the first elected African-American Governor.
An amazing off the beaten path Africa travel destination is the island of Madagascar. Still not discovered by mass tourism and a great authentic experience. Check out my ultimate Madagascar travel blog and itinerary.
9. 'The most hazardous part of our expedition to Africa was crossing Piccadilly Circus.’. This Africa travel quote comes from Joseph Thompson, who led many expeditions into the African continent in the late 1800’s and played an important role in the partition of Africa.
Mind you that Joseph Thompson was an explorer unlike many others in his time and he is also been quoted as: ‘He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far!’, actually a great travel quote for the adventurers among us.
10. ‘I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body of water went’ - David Livingstone, the first European who discovered Victoria Falls in 1855.
Unfortunately I still have never been to Victoria Falls but visited Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brasil multiple times and had the exact same feeling! Victoria Falls are one of the biggest waterfalls in the entire globe with a width of 1.7km and a height of 108m.
Related: Safaris on the Chobe River in Namibia and Botswana! Check out this blog + vlog with some incredible footage of a group of 40 running giraffes captured with my drone on safari in Chobe National Park.
Kneeling down to one of THE LAST 2 NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS IN THE WORLD! A very unique but sad experience, meeting an animal living under 24h surveillance in a conservancy area in Kenya that is functionally extinct. Check out my complete blog post about visiting the last two Northern White Rhinos at Ol Pejeta.
11. 'Why is it you can never hope to describe the emotion Africa creates? You are lifted. Out of whatever pit, unbound from whatever tie, released from whatever fear. You are lifted and you see it all from above.' Francesca Marciano, Italian actress and author of the book Rules of the Wild.
Here is another safari caption for Instagram by Francesca Marciano: 'When you leave Africa, as the plane lifts, you feel that more than leaving a continent you’re leaving a state of mind. Whatever awaits you at the other end of your journey will be of a different order of existence.’
12. 'Having travelled to some African countries, I find myself, like so many visitors to Africa before me, intoxicated with the continent. And I am not referring to the animals, as much as I have been enthralled by them during safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Rather I am referring to the African people.’ - a safari quote by Dennis Prager, American radio talk show host and writer.
13. 'For as long as I can remember, I have been passionately intrigued by ‘Africa,’ by the word itself, by its flora and fauna, its topographical diversity and grandeur; but above all else, by the sheer variety of the colors of its people, from tan and sepia to jet and ebony.' - is a of similar African quote by Henry Louis Gates, an American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual according to Wikipedia.
14. 'In Africa you have space… there is a profound sense of space here, space and sky.' - said by Thabo Mbeki, the second president of South Africa.
15. 'There is something about going on safari that makes you forget about life and feel like a kid in a zoo again. Searching for wild animals in their natural habitat who are trying to hide from you. It is like a game of hide and seek for adults with mutual respect between humans and wildlife.’ - Traveltomtom
16. 'The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands’, said Sir Richard Burton after another expedition into the heart of Africa. Sir Richard Burton together with John Hanning Speke were the first Europeans to search for the source of the Nile in central Africa in the mid 1800’s.
17. 'The biggest lesson from Africa was that the joy of life comes mostly from relationships and friendships, not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields; they laughed all the time.' - Andrew Shue, American actor from the series Melrose Place in the 90’s.
18. 'It’s really beautiful. It feels like God visits everywhere else but lives in Africa.’ - said the famous Will Smith.
Want to visit the famous Baobab trees in Madagascar? Click on the link to get a dose of Africa travel inspiration and see some amazing photos.
19. 'You have to understand that there is a romance to Africa! You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the hand of God. You watch the slow lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. In Africa, in the midday heat, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world.' - a highly inspiring safari quote by Jodi Picoult, an American wrtiter with an estimate of almost 15 million books in print.
20. 'I love Africa…each day, each breath, she consumes me. I have never changed so much in such a short time.’, said Michael Burke, CEO of Louis Vuitton. As I said Africa travel is unlike everywhere else in the world. Dealing with constant changes of cultures, people, climates, landscapes, dangers, regulations, etc. demands a lot of a traveler.
Related: Tiger Safari in Dudhwa National Park in India! Including a vlog of me eventually getting to see tigers in the wild! FANTASTIC!
21. 'I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.’ - Ernest Hemingway, a famous American writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 loved waking up in Africa.
22. 'You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can’t hate Africa and not hate yourself.' - Malcolm X, an American Muslim minister and human rights activist.
23. 'I believe there is no sickness of the heart too great, it cannot be cursed by a dose of Africa. Families must go there to learn why they belong together on this earth, adolescents to discover humility, lovers to plumb old but untried wells of passion, honeymooners to seal marriages with a shared sense of bafflement, those shopworn with life to find a tonic for futility, the aged to recognize a symmetry to twilight. I know this all sounds a bit much, but if I have ever seen magic, it has been in Africa.’, said John Hemingway a famous film maker of the wild corners of our planet. A long but captivating Africa travel quote.
24. 'You cannot leave Africa, Africa said. It is always with you, there inside your head. Our rivers run in currents in the swirl of your thumbprints; our drumbeats counting out your pulse; our coastline the silhouette of your soul.' - comes from the poem Africa Smiled by Bridget Dore.
25. 'If there were one more thing I could do, it would be to go on safari once again.’ - an often heard quote about safari by Karen Blixen, a Danish author also known under the pseudonym Tania Blixen.
26. 'When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find out that it is the same in all her music.' - also an Africa quote by Karen blixen.
27. 'You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.’, is another safari caption for Instagram that is often used.
28. 'People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.’, a regularly used safari caption for instagram by David Attenborough
29. 'Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a photographer’s paradise, a hunter’s Valhalla, an escapist’s Utopia. It is what you will, and it withstands all interpretations. It is the last vestige of a dead world or the cradle of a shiny new one. To a lot of people, as to me, it is just home.' - by Beryl Markham an English/Kenyan adventurer. She was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West.
30. 'I suppose that Africa must be all things to all readers.’ - another African safari caption by Beryl Markham.
31. ‘The African bush is another planet! The atmosphere and the sounds of the night are simply magical!’ - said the famous Traveltomtom. LOL! But I did use this safari quotes for Instagram back in 2016 already.
32. 'One of the great things about traveling in Africa is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.’ - Edith Wharton who won several awards for her novels in the early 1900’s.
33. ‘Traveling in Africa can be challenging, but the smiles of the people and the sounds of the animals make it worthwhile.’ - again another Africa travel and safari quote by Traveltomtom.
34. 'Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths? Could it be because Africa is the place of all our beginnings, the cradle of mankind, where our species first stood upright on the savannahs long time ago?' - captivating safari quote by Brian Jackman, an award winning journalist for the BBC and Britain’s foremost writer on African wildlife safaris.
35. 'Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world' - Gustave Flaubert. A travel quote that I really love. Especially when climbing mountains this always comes up in my mind. Read about my Langtang Valley trekking in Nepal.
36. 'Africa has her mysteries and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them.' - said by Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa was a South African singer.
Related: Boat Safaris in Caprivi, the Zambezi Region of Namibia! See my vlog about this off the beaten path destination in Namibia.
37. 'I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.’ - oh David Attenborough I feel you! I wish I could time travel 5,000 years back and see what our beautiful planet was like back then.
38. ‘The million stars on my African safari were better than all the 5 star hotels in the world combined' - Traveltomtom
39. 'To witness that calm rhythm of life revives our worn souls and recaptures a feeling of belonging to the natural world. No one can return from the Serengeti unchanged, tawny lions will forever prowl our memory and great herds throng our imagination.' - a famous safari saying by George Schaller, a German - American mammalogist also known as world’s most recognised preeminent field biologist.
40. 'To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted’, said Bill Bryson after coming back from a wildlife safari in Africa.
Related: Porini Rhino Camp | Sustainability in Ol Pejeta, Kenya!
41. 'There is always something new out of on safari in Africa’! - said by Pliny the Elder, an Roman author who died in 79 AD. Therefore probably one of the oldest quotes about Africa out there!
42. 'Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.’ - a funny safari quote by W. C. Fields, an American actor and writer. Seems like it was his first time off the beaten track! ;)
43. 'Few can sojourn long within the unspoilt wilderness of a game sanctuary, surrounded on all sides by its confiding animals, without absorbing its atmosphere; the Spirit of the Wild is quick to assert supremacy, and no man of any sensibility can resist her.' - an old school safari quote by James Stevenson-Hamilton, the first warden (1902) of the what is nowadays known as the Kruger National Park.
44. 'What I was really overwhelmed with in Africa was its tremendous natural beauty; I got to go to some pretty amazing places. Every other weekend we got a day or two off to go on a wildlife safari and see some natural wonders of Africa’ - Dutch exchange student in South Africa.
45. 'There is a language going on out there – the language of the wild. Roars, snorts, trumpets, squeals, whoops and chirps have meaning derived over eons of expression… we have yet to become fluent in the language – and music – of the wild.' - Boyd Norton, wildlife photographer, environmental activist and author of 17 books about African safari.
Africa is a continent that consists of one of the most striking landscapes and wildlife that surely will inspire you to travel more of Africa and come back again and again. It is something unique like nowhere else in the world! Be ready to pack your bags and set off for an adventure of a lifetime!
I hope the above Africa quotes and safari captions were helpful for your upcoming trip to Africa. In case you have any questions about traveling don't hesitate to send me a message on my Instagram account @traveltomtom. More than happy to help you out! Enjoy the pictures and wanderlust vibes on my Instagram as Im trying to travel to every country in the world as of 2020.
I set off on an adventure in December 2012 and as of today I am still traveling the world continuously! How do people afford to travel? Click on the link to read MY STORY or interested how to make money from a travel blog then have a look in the link.
The photos used in this article are fromKim Paffen, an award winning travel photographer and part of the traveltomtom team. She has traveled numerous times all over Africa. Read more of her work: Complete Uganda Travel Guide, Ultimate Uganda itinerary, Northern Madagascar travel tips and many more.
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