Safari Blog

Hey Brett, we got back yesterday morning safe and sound. However, we were worn out and I planned to email today. Sorry you had to contact me first.

We had a wonderful time. Every detail worked perfectly including the in country flights. We thought our Safari Air pilot was very cute and looked forward to seeing him on each connection! (Another case of Khaki Fever! Brett).

The camps were great. We liked the lay out and atmosphere of Shinde the best. The lodge area was inviting and pretty and we enjoyed nightly chats and drinks around the fire. The water also offered different opportunities which we enjoyed. Our guide Balipe was the best we have had. We learned so much from him and he was fun. We did an almost 4 hour walking tour one morning. Great! Food was also very good!

Savute Safari Lodge was also very good. We liked our guide Gee a lot. A quiet, gentle type. His dad is a guide a Shinde so it was great to meet him. We saw lots of animals at Savute including lion, leopard and cheetah. We did have rain on one morning but at the end of our drive.

Everything from William meeting us at the airport to massages to the lodges and animals could not have been better. You cared for every detail and it showed in the results. I am sure we will be contact again about our next adventure. We have talked about Kenya or Tanzania maybe next year. Any suggests on which is better?

KH

Brett,

First of all, thanks for your excellent service. As one has to be careful these days with internet services, you proved there is hope.

The first camp, Little Kwara was a pleasure. Relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. Rangers knowledgeable and keen to go for customer requests. Accomodation very good. Food reasonable.

Second camp, Chiefs Camp was too much for us. It comes across as a 5 star hotel. At arrival and after all drives one is greeted by an army of staff, needing to pamper you. The game vehicles are washed after each drive and the atmosphere is a little artificial. All of these "unwanted" extras make the price for Chiefs too high, something I would not do again. Food was not good. The chef needs to go on a cooking course, as most of the meat was chewing gum. In comparison with Kwara, this camp was a disappointment (money-worth compared). Game drives were good, good game and good rangers (NB we had a flown in freelancer, an excellent ranger).

Savuti Safari Lodge, was a similar experience to Kwara. Friendly staff and very very good service: food was excellent. Nice cottages. Well worth it.

For all camps, I have to admit that I had done too little homework, thinking that the Delta would be good all the time. But we came at the end of the dry season, where most game had left the Ddelta, probably gone north. As the wet season hadn't come yet, the birdlife was also at a season low. Only at Savutei, after a few fat thunder showers, storks and raptors seemed to return in larger numbers.

My next trip should include camps that provide service like Kwara but need to have bird hides, something I missed in all of the camps. The experience nonetheless was fantastic, as I am passionate about the bush. I can also enjoy the bullfrog as it emerges after a rainshower.

Only organisational glitch: at arrival in Maun (15:00) our plane for Kwara had left already: the departure time of our light plane was 13:00, the time we left JHB. We were, however, able to board on a 16:40 plane to Kwara. (Kwando did not book the light air transfers correctly and apologized on the phone to me - Brett)

Peter

Dear Renate,

You arranged a wonderful trip for my husband and me (from 8th to 25th September), and I wanted to thank you now we have recovered ! (Sorry for delay, firstly we were exhausted and secondly we had a load of unexpected things to do when we got home).

Everything went better than expected, we enjoyed every minute, congratulations on good organisation. The only problem was, our plane from Cairo being late in Jo'burg, we missed our connection and made you wait for us at Cape Town (sorry!). In the rush at Jo'burg we did not have time to get some Rands, and had intended to give you and our driver something, but did not - very sorry, please accept our apologies.

Just one thing I would suggest you add to your excellent "guidelines", for people who hire cars - we were surprised to find that in South Africa garages do not accept credit cards for petrol, but only cash. It is worth mentioning this, as in Europe people usually pay by credit card. (And in the US people rarely pay anything in cash!)

But we did so enjoy South Africa - it really was the "trip of a lifetime". We will have to come again some time!

Once again , thanks - an apologies.

Best wishes,

Helen Bones

Places Helen visited with her husband: Nottens Bush Camp & Ngala Lodge

Good morning to you

It is 9:00am here.I hope this finds you doing well. It’s been a busy week getting back to work, etc. We ended up with a new battery for our car....your comment about finding out what went wrong there made us smile You takes such good care of us!!

We did see the big 5, lots of them, plus so many more......hyenas, honey badgers, a mongoose, baboons, bushbabies, hippos, giraffes, warthogs, all sorts of antelope and impalas and the birds....my goodness, they are so beautiful and there are so many kinds. We saw a Yellow-throated Longclaw and our driver, Landon, said he hadn’t seen one for about 6 years!! Some of the bugs were a bit large The people at Lion Sands were the best. They made every moment special. It was hard to leave them.

We had hired a driver to take our extra clothes from Cape Town to Franschhoek and drop us at the airport for the trip to Lion Sands on Wednesday and boy did that work out nicely. He was waiting for us when we returned from Nelspruit on Saturday, drove us to Franschhoek and came back on Monday afternoon and took us back to Cape Town to catch our flight home. When we got to Franschhoek, we checked into our spacious room and strolled around to see the place. It’s so lovely. We had a nice dinner with the other guests. The food was super. On Sunday we walked to the town and had lunch. We walked to a winery near the Country House as well. For dinner that night we had room service and set up a table outside our room on the patio/veranda with candle light. It was so relaxing and nice. After breakfast Monday, we had their driver take us to a couple of wineries to do some tasting. The area is so very beautiful. We had him let us off in the town so we could have lunch and walk about. The people at the Country House were so nice and helpful. Check out time was at 10:30 so they stored our luggage for us and even offered us a room to shower if we wanted before we left. Daryl, our driver, came at about 5pm. He drove us through Stellenbosch so we could see it. We needed more time that’s for sure....we will just have to come back!

This may be more info than you need but now you know how great it all was. We can’t thank you enough for all of you wonderful guidance. You helped make what could be our ‘once in a life time’ trip so very special.

Let’s keep in touch!

Thank you thank you

Jim and Sally

Places Sally & Jim Visited: Lions Sands Ivory Lodge & Franshoek Country House

Hi Liselle,

thanks a lot for Gary' and Nancy's link. We met them on our great safari. Concerning your feeback question, we can say that everything was perfect. We really enjoyed our trip. The lodge was a great mixture of nature life and good standard. We really loved the Kensington place with its great customer service. The 138 in Hermanus was very different from the other places as it was more familiar. We also liked it.

So overall, we thank you a lot for the great organisation and also for your high responsiveness. We will recommend you.

Kind regards,

Nina

Places Nina visited: Honeyguide Khoka Moya,Kensington Place, The Bay Hotel, 138 Marine & Franschhoek Country House.

Thanks, Brett - it's no big deal on the rooms, and the Air Namibia stress is quickly dropping from memory altogether. (Air Namibia's e-ticket system was not operating correctly and the camp managers made some odd room allocations - Brett)

We had a truly fantastic holiday and we are grateful for all your help in shaping it and arranging everything. The whole Wilderness / Sefofane thing works very well and a trip which looked very complex on paper was remarkably smooth.

Andrew

Andrew and Jane visited The River Club, Little Vumbura, Jao Camp and Kings Pool. They then proceeded to Little Kulala and also Little Ongava in Namibia.

Brett many thanks for arranging a fabulous holiday in Africa for us. Ezard house was great too. Good to have met you.

David

David and Catherine visited The River Club, Little Vumbura, Jao Camp, Kings Pool and Ezard House.

Hi Brett

The safari at KwaMbili was BRILLIANT!

Mel and Niel are lovely and the place was just what we were looking for - very lovely but not too full on and nice and small. All the staff were fantastic including the guides and chefs.

We are so pleased that we stayed in a private lodge rather than in Kruger as it was amazing to have giraffes and warthogs, kudo and others wandering around us all day!

We payed extra to have 2 safari drives to the south which was fine as we had an amazing time, but would have been good to understand a little more about the structure of the drives and where we would go (although it must be very difficult as this depends so much on the weather).

Thanks for your help with organising it

Regards
Fiona, Kate abd Dora

Liselle,

We are back home and yes, we are already missing South Africa.

Chapungu was everything we could possibly want…..we saw a large variety of animals, our ranger (Janco) and tracker (Aurela) were both exceptional. Janco’s knowledge of the area and wildlife, personality and quick wit really made the experience extra special. The accommodation, service and cuisine at Chapungu were superb. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and could not have been more pleased. The transfers provided were with friendly, professional drivers. The SAA Airlink and Express flights were great, with no hassles or delays.

Capetown was a delight. We opted to pick up the rental car reserved and added a Navigation system………and drove all over the peninsula the first full day. We found, however, that it was hard to concentrate on the lovely scenery and truly experience the Cape peninsula because we were too concerned and a bit stressed over shifting gears on the left, driving on the left, etc. I ended up hiring a personal driver for the remainder of the Capetown stay so that we could enjoy the Wineland and surrounding area to its fullest. Three nights in Capetown were not nearly enough to do the area justice……..it was just a taste (amazing area). If we had planned to be in Capetown for at least a week, minimum --- the car would have made been the better option because we would have had time to acclimate to the differences in driving……….but with such a short time in Capetown, I believe a driver was a better choice.

The Portswood Hotel was in a great location. The service and friendliness of the staff was great. The actual accommodations were moderate, modest………which was not a problem, but I would definitely consider this a moderate, 2-3 star property. Narrow halls, poor lighting. The biggest negative factor was the noise level……..there seems to be minimal insulation at best and we found the street noise and noise outside the property to be a detriment when trying to sleep. More than once the first night we got up to check to make sure there was not an open window because the noises were so apparent that it seemed there must be an open window (but there was not). Two men were having a discussion down the block in the middle of the night and I would swear that they were under our window (on the 3rd floor) – but when I checked – they were half a block down the street.

This is not intended to be any type of complaint as we were very happy overall with our entire stay in South Africa. is an amazing place and I hope my next trip allows at least a month to enjoy.

Thank you for your assistance.

Best regards,

jp .

Places Visited: Chupunga Tented Lodge & Portswood Hotel

Liselle,

We had a simply terrific time!! Everything was absolutely perfect. We actually met some of your other customers while on safari, Nina and Axel from Munich, Germany. The safari was wonderful. We saw four of the big five on our very first night! Then rhinos the next day. Amazing. And, elephants were everywhere. They were munching on a tree right next to the dining area one day. One morning, we had an elephant munching on a tree in front of out tent and could not get out to get to our 4x4 for a bit! Pretty neat. Gary got simply amazing pictures.

The rest of the trip was awesome as well. We went wine tasting in Franschhoek, whale watching in Hermanus. The accommodations were excellent. We usually stay in less expensive places when traveling in the States, but it was nice to know that we had a comfortable bed to sleep in at the end of a busy day. For myself, I'd keep the tents of the Honeyguide camp, though!! It was just wonderful. If you need any recommendations, feel free to have people contact me. We had a great time and truly appreciate your help!

N

Places Visited: Honeyguide Khoka Moya,Plumwood Inn & Auberge Burgundy.

Hi Liselle

It was awesome! The staff, lodge, room and game viewing was the highlight of our trip. We saw 4 of the big five, missing the buffalo. But we had the chance to see a leopard which is rare from what I've heard. The staff was excellent and the food. We loved our room and will probably book the same room again. My husband and I are already talking about returning next year along with several friends. Thanks for your help and recommendation.

Juliet

Places Visited: Thornubush Game Lodge