Dear Liselle,
Thank you very much for your message and for taking the time for following up. I am very sorry for not replying sooner, but I just returned to the states Monday evening and it has been a whirlwind time since then. Before I got your message I had also wanted to write you to thank you so very much for the AMAZING trip you had put together for Pam and me. We could not have been any more impressed or had a better time. Even before we got picked up on Monday in Vic Falls, we received a call that the driver will be 5 minutes late. We would have never noticed, but it was a very nice gesture and in fact he was there right at 10:05. All the other transfers (and there were many of them) were lined up perfectly and there was never a delay and everybody was extremely nice and professional. We were amazed by the efficiency of everything. And Sango was even better. To be honest, we were a bit concerned after seeing the pictures that it was a lot more upscale than what we had envisioned and we were afraid that it would be a bit too “Abercrombie and Kentish” – just too many folks from the city clad in over the top safari gear. But it was nothing like it and we loved every minute of it and wish we could have stayed longer. It was wonderful to hear that Sango was started by a local and tried to employ as many locals as possible
– and to also train them and provide for them in many different ways. It appeared to be a VERY well run family company, which was so nice to see and to support. And the place was fantastic and while extremely comfortable and beautiful, also managed to respect the landscape where it was located and included a lot of environmentally friendly technology and materials.
Thankfully no azur pool overlooking the bush. We lucked out that for the first two days we had our very own guide – Joel – who was fantastic and went out of his way to make it a very special trip and adventure. We saw everything, including lions and lots of leopards, and only missed out on wild dogs and aardvarks. I was very impressed and never would have guessed that we saw all the animals we ended up seeing. We spent most of our time observing leopards – one day it was an adult which we followed for over 3 hours and the next days we watched two young cups for quite a while.
But back to Sango, the accommodations, the food and particularly the people at the camp were fantastic and it is truly a gem. Almost don’t want to give out a secret, but I will recommend it to anybody I know heading in that direction as I very much hope that the camp will remain successful. And I will gladly recommend you and your company for doing such an outstanding job with regard to ease of communication and putting together a trip that was perfect from pick-up to drop-off.
Thank you so very much for all of your help, recommendations and assistance. I truly appreciate it and I know that Pam feels the same way.
I wish I could return right away, but I am off to Sri Lanka next for yet another marathon, but Pam and I are signed up to run the Comrades marathon next June in Durban and we hope to have enough time to add a week or so to discover new parts of Southern Africa – we are still missing passport stamps from Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Namibia. We probably won’t know how much time we will have until next year and thus won’t start planning anything until the Spring of 2012, but I may contact you to seek your assistance and advice with regard to new adventures in a gorgeous part of the world.
By the way, the Kingdom Hotel in Vic Falls was very good and comfortable and convenient for us since the marathon started right outside the hotel. The grounds are beautiful and I like the more natural look of the pool and interior, but it has a bit of a family theme park ambiance and I am glad we did not have dinners at the restaurant there since they had a bit of a “cultural show”
entertaining diners, which is just not my thing. But the rooms were very spacious and very clean. In fact, where ever we went in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia, everything was extremely clean and nicely maintained – regardless of whether it was 5 star or 1 star.
Dinner at the Vic Falls Hotel is fabulous and so is the service and view – even at night. We also spend two days volunteering at Lion Encounter in Zambia, which was a magical experience. We got to go behind the scene of an amazing operation to reintroduce lions into the wild. We spend hours walking lion cubs through the bush and “babysat”
7 lion cubs in a small enclosure for over 2 hours. It was an amazing experience to scratch a few lions, have them lick our hands and just sit around them and relax. I would not recommend the Royal Livingstone in Livingstone, Zambia. Nice looking hotel but very snobbish service.
We were told that since were aren’t guest that we can’t have dinner at the restaurant because it was totally booked and we needed reservations. We ended up eating at the bar and could see the entire restaurant – with hardly anybody there all night long. That was the only place where we did not feel welcome (and we were dressed up going to a place like that).
Both Pam and I have had many amazing experiences around the world – literally on all 7 continents and at the North Pole. But this trip was one of the top trips for sure.
Again, thank you very much for everything and I will be in touch.
All the best, Sarah
Guest stayed at: Sango Safari Camp and The Kingdom hotel at Victoria Falls
