Girls just want to have... Africa, it turns out. Because that's where it's all happening, on safari in the middle of nowhere, dressed in varying shades of khaki, surrounded by some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes on the planet and animals red in tooth and claw. It's the perfect antidote to over-stuffed diaries, carefully managed responsibilities and endless hours spent solving other people's problems. And for an entire legion of women in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have worked hard, raised families, built careers, managed households and supported everyone around them, the "screw it" moment is real and leads to adventure...

If you're reading this you probably know what we're talking about... That time when it all becomes too much. Not in a dramatic resign and storm out of the office way, but rather in a quiet, clear, absolutely certain moment of absolute clarity that enough is enough. Enough waiting for the right time, enough waiting for someone to come with you, enough putting Africa in the "someday" drawer where dreams go to gather dust. 

So you text your clutch of besties who know you and love you in spite of yourself, and the girls, because they've been thinking exactly the same thing, text back within 30 seconds. And just like that, Africa stops being a dream and starts being October, or next month, or even next week (hey, we're here, we can work miracles, we're women!).

Travelling together with old friends, new friends, sisters, colleagues, whoever, allows you to discover, with some surprise and considerable delight, that a holiday without compromise is a completely different animal from the family trip where everyone's needs come first, or the obligatory couples' holiday that involved negotiating every single itinerary decision from beginning to end. Africa, it turns out, was made for you!

Why the bush is brilliant for this

A safari strips everything back in the most glorious way. You swap the drudgery of same-old, same-old for the unexpected and exciting, where no two days are ever the same. There are no school runs, no deadlines, no supper to be cooked, no virtual meetings over-running by hours, no one needing anything from anyone. There is just the bush, the sky, the extraordinary abundance of life going about its business entirely indifferent to yours, and fellow women you love sitting on a game drive vehicle at five in the morning laughing at something that will still be funny 20 years from now.

The shared experience is the thing. Safari does something to people, recalibrating them, opening them up, stripping away the noise, the performance and the carefully maintained composure of daily life and replacing it with something more raw, more real and considerably more fun. Do that alongside your favourite people and what you get is not just a holiday but a proper, life-changing, deeply bonding adventure that will live rent-free inside your mind forever.

What a girls' safari actually looks like

Like the rest of Africa, a safari constantly surprises, and in the nicest ways. With beautifully appointed tented accommodation with en-suite bathrooms and amenities that would embarrass a good city hotel; exceptional food (and we mean genuinely, surprisingly, embarrassingly good food, the kind that makes you slightly annoyed you didn't know about it sooner); game drives at sunrise in open vehicles with guides who are among the most knowledgeable, warm and entertaining people you'll ever meet; sundowners in improbable places; star beds under skies that make you feel simultaneously very small and extraordinarily alive; and wildlife that will ambush your emotions. 

The African bush has a way of offering up exactly what you need to see at exactly the right moment, and somehow it always knows.

Forget Vegas, gamble on going wild

It's easy to replace familiar with more of the same like the slots and a suite at the Bellagio; the beach on Maui; a weekend in the Cotswalds... But taking a gamble on heading to the other side of the world reaps more rewards than it dishes out risks.

With Zafaris, we are you, so we know you and every single logistical detail from the moment you land to the moment you leave is handled completely, leaving you free to concentrate entirely on the business of having the time of your life with the people who get you. 

The lodges and camps that Zafaris works with are set up for exactly this kind of travel, safe and extraordinarily well-run and staffed by people who genuinely enjoy their guests and show it. Single supplement options exist for those who prefer their own space and twin-sharing works beautifully for those who don't mind. Which, after everything you've managed and organised and held together for everyone else for the past however many years, seems like a thoroughly reasonable ask.

Every woman who has ever been on safari with her closest friends comes back with the same look. It's not the tan (although there usually is a tan) but rather something behind the eyes... A particular kind of settled, replenished and quietly triumphant quality that comes from having done something purely and completely for yourself, in one of the most extraordinary places on earth, with the people who matter most. 

Africa does that. It gives you back to yourself in the best possible way, and once it has, you'll spend the rest of your life working out how to get back there. The girls are going and the only real question left is when!

Ready to stop waiting? Get in touch with Sian and Cara at Zafaris and let's start planning the trip the group has been talking about for far too long.

Text: Sharon Gilbert-Rivett