My Top 5 Wildlife Experiences While Backpacking

My recent Pacific Islands trip saw me backpack to a few new countries including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. As a long term backpacker, I am always reminiscing on such trips and chat often turns to previous experiences when the sun goes down. It’s a great backpacker way to break the ice over a few beers at night, as we tell tales of days gone by. Being back in Africa on a 5 country trip recently had us all chatting about animals and wildlife. On that particular trip, we visited a giraffe centre, spent two days touring the famous Maasai Mara National Park and also saw plenty of other animals in the wild.

Of the three of us backpacking in Africa together, we all had different animal and wildlife experiences from my time swimming with sharks in Beliza, feeding hyenas in Ethiopia and Malina being on safari, in numerous zoos and cat cafes to Russell’s story from years ago when he saw the elusive black rhino. The black rhino came up as a particularly significant point. The reason is, it is quite rare, is an endangered species and of course one of the sought after “big five”. When I first heard of the “big five”, I always thought it meant the biggest mammals, so I always assumed lion, elephant, hippo etc. but I was later to learn they are not all included. In fact the real big five includes the water buffalo, which surprised me as I had seen quite a lot of them. Before we get into birdwatching, kissing giraffes and crocodile stroking, here are the real “big five”:
1.Lion. 2.Leopard. 3.Rhinocerous. 4.Water Buffalo. 5.Elephant.

But here are my own “big five wildlife experiences”!!

1.Feeding Hyenas in Harar, Ethiopia

So the story goes. I was backpacking in Addis Ababa in 2013 and the thought came up to get a night bus to Dire Dawa and then onwards to the city of Harar with one purpose – to feed hyenas! Yes as crazy as it sounds, this is still one of my personal travel highlights and of course one of my own big five.

For starters, the bus from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa was a death bus. I thought I was going to die. Cracked windows, breakdowns, full of too many people carrying all sorts of things, banging intill a cow on the road. But alas we made to wonderful Harar. Firstly I toured the city and checked into my hotel in Harar. Then it was time at dusk to head out of town to feed hyenas, mouth to mouth! Read my full report on hyena feeding in Harar here.

2.Touching Crocodiles in Kachikally, The Gambia

The madness continued a whopping three years later when I visited (NOT backpacked as I was with NO luggage!) The Gambia. From my base in Brufut, I headed on a tour of the capital city Banjul, before visiting Kachikally. This special centre has a crocodile museum and the chance to stroke an awake crocodile! So I did it. A crazy and scary moment perhaps, but one that I felt I had to do. You can read all about my crocodile stroking here.

3.Seeing the Bird of Paradise in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

When I was growing up in Northern Ireland, my Great Granda had an aviary and he loved a bit of bird watching. Those memories came flooding back to me recently when I was backpacking in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea. This part of the top five is therefore my most recent experience on the list and one of the coolest.

We were doing a tour of Port Moresby and decided to visit the popular Port Moresby Nature Park. This turned out to be a decision inspired, for two main reasons – we saw the Bird of Paradise! Native to Papua New Guinea. Plus, a cute green eclectus parrot took a liking to my green hat and backpack and jumped on me.

4.A Night Forest Tour in Forest of Dean

England and it’s mysterious forests provide some exciting experiences and my favourite to date was a night tour in the famous Forest of Dean. As well as owls and wild birds, we saw the famous foxes and wild boar. The next day we also went foraging for food, finding wild food to cook. I ended up cooking and eating partridge!

5.Kissing a Giraffe in Nairobi, Kenya

My lasting memory from Kenya wasn’t the Maasai Mara National Park, nor our night trip to Malaba, nor a night on the rip in the capital city Nairobi, no! My highlight was when we headed to the Giraffe Centre on the edge of Nairobi and I got to kiss a giraffe face to face! This was surely one of my favourite wildlife and animal experiences, you can read about my cool trip to the giraffe centre near Nairobi.

As well as all these wild animal experiences, I have also been in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Suriname, Guyana and Tanzania. Other memories include the time I stayed on the gorgeous Sloth Island in Guyana, which involved a multiple boat journey via Parika and Bartica. There are also some unusual and unexpected places where you can see wildlife, including Gibraltar and Belize.

You can also read about some of my safari experiences, which have taken place in Tanzania, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Eswatini (Swaziland). Some of the national parks I have visited include Maasai Park (in Kenya), the Serengeti (in Tanzania), Białowieża (in Poland) and the Western Tasmanian wilderness (in Australia).

There was also the time I visited Probiscus monkeys in Malaysia, the monkeys of Gibraltar and feeding kangaroos. Another one I left off this list, which was very cute was when I hugged a koala at Lone Pine in Brisbane, Australia.