Celebrate David Livingstone’s Bicentenary

19th March 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone - explorer, writer, missionary and medic. Fêted by some as “Africa’s first freedom fighter” and by many for his anti-slavery campaigns, Livingstone was one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa. His abilities to travel lightly (i.e. without dozens of soldiers in tow), and to reassure chiefs that he was not a threat, gained him passage through their uncharted territory, and often their friendship. He died in Zambia and his body was famously carried out to Westminster Abbey; his heart was left in Africa.

Malawi

Expert Africa has a one-off itinerary focusing on Livingstone’s explorations in Malawi, and using Robin Pope Safaris' camps there. It takes in Blantyre, a town named after his Scottish birthplace, and safari activities by the Shire River and in Liwonde National Park, which he travelled along and through. And it concludes at Lake Malawi, the water Livingstone discovered and famously christened the ‘Lake of Stars’.

Package: Expert Africa offers this 11-night trip, available from March, from £3,576 pp (two sharing) including flights (London), all transfers, accommodation, all meals, most activities and park fees.

Victoria Falls

Perhaps Livingstone’s most famous African discovery, the Victoria Falls span the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, interrupting the Zambezi River. A giddying sight, they are 700m wide, 108m high and boast the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Combine the falls with a South Luangwa boat-based safari.

Package: Expert Africa offers an eight-night trip from £3,015 pp (two sharing) in March, including overnight flights (London), all transfers, accommodation, most meals and most activities.

Zambia

Livingstone was the first European to see Lake Bangweulu, and he died in the Bangweulu Wetlands in 1873, on the edge of the flood plain. His heart is buried here beneath a Mvula tree, marked by the Livingstone Memorial. Bangweulu is a varied, offbeat region, with superb birdwatching – including the much-sought shoebill - and interesting wildlife amid rural Zambian life. Old ‘Africa hands’ will enjoy combining this with Kasanka and the South Luangwa.

Package: Expert Africa offers the 11-night Black Lechwe Safari from £4,721 pp (two sharing), including flights (London), all transfers, accommodation, all meals, most drinks and all activities.

Zanzibar

Many of Livingstone’s journeys began and ended, sensibly, in Zanzibar. It was from here that, in 1866, he set out to seek the source of the Nile, for instance. In the island’s main city, Stone Town, is Livingstone House, where the man himself prepared his last expedition to the interior of Tanganyika.

Package: Expert Africa offers the five-night Clove Beach Add-on (designed to combine with a Tanzania safari) from £448 pp (two sharing), including return flights from Dar es Salaam, transfers and accommodation (three nights’ half board, two nights B&B).

Zambezi River

In 1855, whilst on an expedition to find a route following the Zambezi River to the Indian Ocean, Livingstone reached the Zambezi’s great waterfall and named it for Queen Victoria. His statue still overlooks the Zimbabwean side of the Victoria Falls, sporting on its base the controversial epitaph: “Missionary | Explorer | Liberator”.

Package: Expert Africa offers the nine-day Slender Mongoose Safari in the lower Zambezi from £3,244 pp (two sharing) including flights (London), seven nights' accommodation (split between two camps), full board, most drinks, all activities, transfers, park fees and laundry.

For more information, visit expertafrica.com.