An out of Africa experience can be had closer to home, if you know where to look. Find exotic and native wildlife on your doorstep (or near enough) on page 64 of May’s The Simple Things. Or read on for our picks of safari glamping and armchair safaris.

Dawn to dusk encounters

Safari-style tents for glamping with wildlife on the doorstep

Bear Lodge, Port Lympne, Kent
Family-sized tents look out across the safari park’s rhino, bear and cheetah paddocks aspinallfoundation.org/port-lympne

Knepp Safaris, near Horsham, West Sussex
The Knepp Castle Estate’s rewilding project on arable land. Keep a night vigil for bats, owls and nightingales in your own bell tent or yurt.
kneppsafaris.co.uk

Bleasdale Estate, Lancashire
Wake to the dawn chorus and watch wild deer from a canvas retreat in the Forest of Bowland. lanternandlarks.co.uk

Cledan Valley, Carno, Powys
Hide out at this secluded site and you might spot otters or hares, and red kites overhead. cledanvalley.co.uk

Armchair safaris

Spy on shy species via these webcams (David Attenborough-style commentary, optional)

The ospreys of Loch Garten return each year between April and August to nest at the RSPB’s Abernethy reserve in Scotland.
rspb.org.uk/lochgarten

Grey seals haul out on the spit at South Walney Island.
cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk

The comings and goings of waders and waterfowl at the Wildfowl and Wetfland Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire are mesmerising.
wwt.org.uk/slimbridge

Life inside a bat cave (the roost where some of Devon’s greater horseshoe bats hang out) is just as topsy-turvy as it sounds.
devonbatproject.org

The colony of Atlantic puffins that breeds on Burhou, a small island off Alderney in the Channel Islands, is beamed live from an offshore camera between April and July. teachingthroughnature.co.uk