Hi Brett,
Have been meaning to write, but have been busy doing up the photo album to show my children and work colleagues who now all want to go to Africa.
The safari was great. All the connections worked out well, even though not having any details ourselves on flights and times between camps was a bit nerve wracking, but we came to rely on the guys to sort out details for us.
The meals were tremendous, considering that they were cooked on open fires. No generators at any bush camps, bar Oddballs enclave, so recharging of camera batteries was a bit of a challenge. Just made us not quite so trigger happy. The guides, cooks and helper were good value- very friendly and helpful and I guess we gave them a few laughs at our expense at times due to our ignorance of the country, animals and customs, and the fact that they all speak a lot more languages than we do, so could say all sorts of things we’d never know about.
I’m glad we did the trip in the order we did, going from the very lush Chundukwa area and the magical Falls to the extreme heat and dryness of Savuti (saw so many small animals, male ellies and birds!), to Xakanaxa with both wet and dry areas (saw amazing herds of zebra, impala, a leopard and a 12 member pride of lions (2 males, females and large cubs) which shifted to within a kilometre of our camp, and terrific bird life, especially the colony of storks on the boat trip) to Oddballs enclave which was very wet, but starting to quickly dry up so we felt sorry for our poor mokoro poler dragging us through the thicker reed areas on the search for some elusive lions, but saw up close 15 giraffe in a herd the morning we were due to leave. Going the other way around, with the temp in the tent at Savuti 40 degrees C would have been very tiring, but you would have appreciated the water at Chundukwa even more. I have some amazing photos of the landscape from the planes. Kasane to Savuti looks like a huge burnt paddock with dead trees and even the mopane forests look dead from up above, with so many tracks leading to and from the few remaining waterholes, with elephants clustered under the few trees which had a leafy top. The elephants at Savuti were up close and everywhere, esp at dusk when they came in for water.
We really had a great time, and thanks again for organizing things for us, and for taking the time to meet us at the hotel. We missed your last email, having left home earlier that day to fly to Sydney, so thanks for showing up. It was good to put a name to a face, rather than just being an image on paper.
All the best for the future, with your family and the business and good luck with the new bank.
Cheers,
John and Dorothy Devlin
Guests visited Chundukwa River Lodge, Fly Camp Savuti, Fly Camp Xakanaxa and Oddballs Enclave
