Victoria Falls to Cape Town

Seventeen nights and four countries, guided, from Victoria Falls down to Cape Town through Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Victoria Falls is the start, which the local name renders as the smoke that thunders, and from the air or the footbridge it is obvious why. Botswana comes next: the Chobe river front carries one of the densest elephant populations in Africa, and Elephant Sands is a lodge built round a waterhole the animals use at close range.

A private scenic flight over the Okavango Delta follows, which is the only sensible way to take in a river that runs inland and disappears into the sand rather than reaching the sea. Namibia comes next, with gravel roads, dune country and Etosha National Park, where the game concentrates round the waterholes in the dry season and lion, leopard and black rhino are all present. Western South Africa and Chapman’s Peak Drive carry the route into Cape Town.

Bike hire is included, on a KTM 790 Adventure with a BMW R1250 or R1300 GS available as an upgrade, and a discount applies for anyone bringing their own. Eighteen days for four countries is the most substantial tour Ride Expeditions run, and a good deal of the riding is on Namibian gravel, which is fast, loose and unforgiving of inattention. The dry season from May to October is the window for the game viewing. No wildlife sighting can be promised. What the route does deliver is a cross-section of southern Africa that no single-country trip can match: a waterfall, a delta, a desert, a game park and a city, in that order.