Over 40 Years of Adventure in the World's Wildest Places But they are done in our own special style:
We do not travel where the tourist masses go.
Tropical Ice operates many different types of trips, including vehicle game-viewing safaris; Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro climbs; walking safaris; and tiger safaris in India. With the exception of one or two small exclusive hotels, we stay only in our own private camps. We understand that a safari should be more than “seeing”, it’s all about “learning”. With this in mind we place great emphasis on
the quality and experience of our guides, fully aware that this is where the ultimate success of a safari lies. In Kenya we travel only in our own specially designed 4×4 safari vehicles. The concept of Tropical Ice is more important today than it was over 30 years ago when we started. Owing to population expansion the natural wildlife habitats are being threatened today as never before. We know where the places are that one can still find an Africa unchanged, where roads are few and people fewer. Our mission is to continue seeking these places out so that we can introduce our visitors to the wilderness we grew up in.
20/08/2025
Wow!!!
The only time we question an elephants intelligence is when it smells Alex's feet 😂. This bull may have got more ethan he bargained for! Amazingly he even tickled Alex's feet before calmly moving on.
The bull elephants at one of our camps become increasingly friendly and curious as the season goes on.
Given how much time Alex and Iain have spent down here over the last few decades, and how smart elephants are, we wonder if the bulls recognise them as individuals and are comfortable with their presence.
These classic pics were shared by some adventurers who climbed Kilimanjaro with Iain back in 2002. It was so nice to have them back again for a great walk 23 years later!
"Kili and Beyond" trips were Tropical Ice's bread and butter for many years before the Great Walk stole our attention. That trip was Iain's 30th ascent of the mountain!
If you have any really old pics from Tropical Ice trips that you did please reach out and share them with us. The company turns 50 in a couple of years and we are trying to gather as many golden oldie moments as possible!
We strongly believe camps and lodges should never have a fence around them. Fences create such a disconnection from the wildlife and mean you miss out on very special moments like this gorgeous bull wandering through our mobile camp yesterday.
Fenced areas remove habitat from the ecosystem. This has a disproportionate impact because camps and lodges are often in prime habitat such as forest patches or treed areas and on crossing points on rivers. Given habitat loss is the biggest driver of biodiversity decline, this issue should be talked about more.
No camp can claim to be fully eco-friendly if it is fenced. With the number of lodges expanding by the day, the cumulative effect of this is massive.
This bull was moving through our mobile camp looking for doum palm nuts that are an important part of his diet. He was so mellow and unphased by our presence. When we move on in a day's time, this site will be all his again.
That is proper ecotourism - no permanent infrastructure and minimal to no footprint or disturbance.
(...A sign behind the desk of Iain's old climbing friend, Doug Tompkins, when he owned the clothing company Esprit)
Iain writes;
Well, here we are again. The 2025 season of our Great Walk of Africa has started. We are a few safaris in now and from all accounts they have been terrific, with elephants aplenty... and lions too. Our safari machinery: staff, camps, vehicles are all functioning smoothly; our food is the only thing we don't worry about, because we know that Lou and Kahiu will have produced royally. They always do, and there are 35 years of experience behind their catering to prove it.
So why do Alex, James and I worry at the start of the Great Walk season every year? I've now been doing this worrying for 48 years, but, in truth, the answer is a simple one. If we are going to run this safari safely and well, then we have to worry. The Great Walk of Africa is not a 'normal' safari, where visitors are moving through the numerous African hotel/lodge circuits; or flying in on a helicopter to some glitzy 'glamp' which has taken 3 days for 30 Kenyan staff members to erect (the tourists who can pay for this actually think that they are camping).
We worry because the Great Walk of Africa is a whole different kettle of fish. Tropical Ice is operating a safari, which is expeditionary in nature, where we take our visitors on a 100 mile walk through a huge remote chunk of uninhabited, uncultivated, wilderness. We are not 'looking' at Africa from a vehicle window, or the glassy bubble of a vibrating helicopter. We are in it completely, on our feet, seeing the animals on their terms... and we can do this because we know our route intimately. We know how to approach the wildlife. We know where it's safe to go – and most importantly – where it isn't. We have the best trackers in Africa. Our clients' safety is everything...and if we didn't worry about it then we wouldn't be doing our jobs well enough.
So, here's the rub! If you are an active person, who is looking for an uncompromising adventure, a person who finds the idea of leaving the world behind you for two weeks a pleasurable one... perhaps a person who isn't driven by the constant need to 'communicate' with every friend you think you have...then you shouldn't think twice about it, simply “commit, and then figure it out”.
Which brings me to where I started. Alex has just finished a Great Walk. I'm up next... I'm thinking, what do I need to pack? What did I think of last year, which would make this year better? You might ask; is it going to be hot or cold at night? Are they really going to be able to provide my personal dietary requests, or are they just saying so? What will our camp toilets be like? What kind of shoes should I take for the river crossings? I know these guys are on their game. Oh hell... I might as well just “commit, and then figure it out”.
04/08/2025
Fun on the Great Walk of Africa! A few snaps from a recent trip.
Look what folks are saying about OUTSIDER on Amazon.com...
If you have read, and enjoyed, OUTSIDER, and bought it from Amazon, we would very much appreciate it if you could send them a review of the book.
“Iain tells three stories – the story of moving from U.K. to Kenya as a child and choosing to stay on after independence and become a Kenyan citizen; the story of becoming a world-class rock climber and mountaineer; and the story of creating a business providing walking safaris for clients who don't want to be placed in a comfortable cocoon and carried by others from place to place. Iain tells these stories smoothly and with style, and I read the whole book in under two days during which time not much got done.” Bernard Rivers (U.S.A.)
“A page burner. Easy to read. Exciting. If you want to know about climbing and unique safari experiences in Kenya, a must read.” Peter Werbel (U.S.A.)
“Iain writes of his schooldays with brutal honesty, and the development of his life as the foremost climber in Kenya – with excursions far afield. This is a great book!” Raymond St. John Burke (U.S.A.)
“In addition to the riveting adventures the author provides thought-provoking life lessons.” Francine M Baldus (U.S.A.)
“If you have an interest in Africa this belongs in your library.” Brian Hummel, M.D. (U.S.A.)
“Africa old hands such as Allan are an endangered species in a world where adventure and safari travel is suffering from homogenisation, box ticking and social media culture. This book will make you want to walk with him while you still can.” Denis Costello (U.K.)
“From the petty snobbery of the dying days of colonial Kenya and its effect on his immediate family, through incredible mountaineering exploits as a trail blazer on Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, to his subsequent life as a safari guide in one of Africa's last great wilderness areas. This is a humorous and thoughtful memoir with great insights into the human psyche.” Judith Shaw (U.K.)
25/06/2025
Preparations underway for the commencement of our 2025 Great Walk of Africa season, which kicks off this weekend. We have 8 departures scheduled through to October. Still one or two spaces remaining, so book up soon if you are interested.
30/05/2025
These photos were all taken on a single Great Walk of Africa last season!
The trip combines the physical activity and mental challenge of the world's iconic hikes (think the Inca Trail, Everest Basecamp, or Milford Track) with the abundant wildlife of an African safari.
In fact, the wildlife is even better and more memeorable when seen on its own terms, eye level, on foot...
This is genuine adventure. The type of challenge you have to rise to and will feel deeply rewarded by.
Our 2026 dates are now available, and in two weeks we head down there for the season, just in time for an epic Okavango flood!
We will cross the Okavango Delta in speed boats with a mobile camp, going further and deeper in than anyone else. We have the flexibility to camp wherever we want, letting the wildlife and the delta waters guide us. There is such a sense of freedom and carefree fun that comes with this. You are not passengers, but participants in an adventure that rolls back the years.
This is Botswana away from the crowds, packed with wildlife, and full of good times.
The type of trip our guides go on with their families for their own holidays...
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Tropical Ice was started by Iain Allan in 1978 as a technical-climbing guiding company on the peaks of Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. It very quickly expanded into “Nepal-style” trekking on the remoter slopes of these mountains.
Taking advantage of Kenya’s ban on big game hunting in 1977, and the resulting vacuum within the tourist industry, Iain began to search out a remote, unspoiled region of wilderness in Kenya with the idea of beginning big game country walking safaris. He quickly settled on 8,300 square mile (22,000 square km) Tsavo.
This was a new, quite radical concept for the time. East African national parks had always been places visitors could only drive in. Walking could only be done in the hunting blocks bordering some of the parks. To walk inside a park was unthinkable at the time. Iain’s idea was to model Tropical Ice’s walking safaris on the traditional hunting safari: leave the vehicles behind, get out into the bush, search out the game with experienced trackers, and finally shoot the wildlife with cameras, not guns. Fortunately he had the backing of Tsavo’s legendary senior warden, Bill Woodley, and Tropical Ice has never looked back.
In our long history we’ve learned a lot about the bush, and our walking safaris have been refined and organised to deliver the wonderful complexities of Africa’s wilderness to our clients. We found that mountaineering has much in common with walking in the African bush: they both require long apprenticeships; we took the tools and skills that we’d learned on the mountains with us, knowing that safety and caution are the only prerequisites for survival. We never take it for granted.
Tropical Ice operates many different types of trips, including vehicle game-viewing safaris; Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro climbs; walking safaris; or combinations of all. But they are done in our own special style:
We do not travel where the tourist masses go.
With the exception of one or two small exclusive hotels, we stay only in our own private camps.
We understand that an African safari should be more than “seeing”, it’s all about “learning”.
With this in mind we place great emphasis on the quality and experience of our guides, fully aware that this is where the ultimate success of a safari lies.
We travel only in our own specially designed 4×4 safari vehicles.
The concept of Tropical Ice is more important today than it was over 30 years ago when we started. Owing to population expansion the natural habitat of Africa is being threatened today as never before. We know where the places are that one can still find an Africa unchanged,where roads are few and people fewer.Our mission is to continue seeking these places out so that we can introduce our visitors to the wilderness we grew up in.
