Brett and Jako created a magical trip for Bill and his party. They wanted to maximise their time while on a safari to Southern Africa and ensure they saw the best on offer! Starting in Botswana, they headed to the Central Kalahari for an amazing game and bushmen safari experience. They stayed at Haina Kalahari Lodge before heading to the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve where they stayed at Khwai Tented Camp in the Khwai community area. From Moremi the group travelled in the Chobe National Park where they stayed at Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge, elevated on a hill with amazing views of the surrounding bush. Victoria Falls was the next stop and the group stayed at the David Livingstone Lodge on the Zambia side of the falls.
The group then headed into South Africa where they visited the Greater Kruger area. The first stop was Inyati Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand area then onto nThambo Tree Camp, in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. Both areas share unfenced borders with the Kruger National Park which allows the game to move freely. From Kruger the group visited Cape Town with their own arrangements.
Hi Brett,
We’ve been home exactly a week now. We finished the safari that you organized for us and then spent three nights in Cape Town, enjoying the sights, Robben Island and the Cape Peninsula. I meant to contact you earlier, even while on safari, but there’s that old bugaboo about best laid plans ….
I wanted to let you know that the four of us had a fantastic time. All of the camps were terrific, and we saw lots of animals and birds. It was everything that we wished for. I’d particularly like to mention the travel arrangements that you coordinated for us. Everything was perfect and on time. It’s pretty amazing to be in the middle of [relative] nowhere – e.g., standing along the empty Savute airstrip, when a plane appears on time out of the blue (Major Blue, haha), lands, picks us up, and whisks us off to Kasane, where there’s a driver waiting for us. Absolutely amazing that every one of those arrangements went off without a hitch. Truly a credit to you, Jako, and the rest of your team. Thanks a lot for being so professional!
We enjoyed each of the camps, each of which was a fair bit different from the one that preceded it or followed it. The staff, guide, facilities, and food at Haina Kalahari were great – welcoming and accommodating. I think that two nights there were right, as there was fewer game, as expected, in the Kalahari than at the other locations. It was a good camp to go first. The host, hostess, and our guide were friendly, accommodating, and informative. We took advantage of their Bushman experience demonstration, which was fun and informative.
Bushmen interaction at Haina
The Khwai River tented camp was wonderful. A small operation , but they make up for it with enthusiasm and attention to detail. All of the personnel were very friendly and accommodating, and they arranged for a special sundowner experience and a dinner out in the bush. Both were magical. Plus, the guiding at this camp was by far the best of all five camps. Our guide was an excellent tracker, and it was memorable to be involved in several couple-of-hour “chases” that always wound up finding the animals he was tracking. It was amazing to watch him work. Although the tent accommodation was the most basic of all five camps (but still a step up from our tenting experience in Tanzania four years earlier), I’d go back there in a heartbeat – for the game tracking experience and the friendly staff.
Big game in Khwai
The Ghoha Hills lodge is situated in a unique location up on a hillside and was the most luxurious of the five, and the host and hostess were delightful. They spent a lot of time with the four of us and shared a lot of insights about life in Botswana and the safari lodge business. They are people that one would like to have as next-door neighbors. The only downside of this lodge is that it is a full hour’s drive from the game concentration in the Savute area. I suspect that the other Savute lodges are quite a bit closer. We compensated by going on full-day game drives, rather than an early morning game drive and a late afternoon game drive.
Ghoha Hills’ beautiful pool
Victoria Falls was impressive, and I’m glad that we made the effort to go there. The drive from Kasane and crossing the border at the Zambezi River was interesting and without issue. The driver whisked us through immigration. The very long queue of large trucks waiting to cross the river, one at a time, on a ferry was amazing. I understand that the queue is sometimes 3-5 days long! The David Livingstone Safari Lodge was a very nice hotel, with all of the amenities and a very courteous and helpful staff. They helped us arrange a short helicopter flight over the falls, which I think would be essential for anyone visiting the falls.
David Livingstone Lodge
The Inyati Lodge in Sabi Sands was very impressive – beautiful location, accommodations, and food in a wonderful setting. In jest, I accused the guide of arranging with animal “wranglers” to stage the animals for us, for we had impressive game viewing within thirty seconds of leaving camp just about every game drive. The first was a large male leopard which we followed as he walked back through camp and into the bush on the other side. The guide and tracker at this camp were also very impressive – they always got the animal they were after. They were very informative, with lots of facts about the animals, the bush, etc. However, I rate the guide at Khwai River just a notch better, as he did all of his tracking on his own, without radio help from other vehicles. Nonetheless, this was excellent guiding and tracking. The whole experience was top-notch, and the game availability in Sabi Sands is absolutely amazing. Not that there is anything particularly special about the “big five”, but we saw the “big five” three of the three-and-a-half days there! I told my wife that if one wanted to do a quick Safari, a day-and a half’s travel from the US plus another day-and-a-half to get home again plus five nights at Inyati would yield just about all of the animals in just over a week.
The main areas at Inyati
If we were to do this exact safari again, I would have placed the nThambo Tree Lodge fourth, not fifth. Coming after our experience at Inyati, anything would have paled in comparison, I believe. We had a great experience at nThambo, and our guide and tracker were friendly and excellent. I really appreciated our guide’s quiet competence. We also saw the “big five” on two of our three days at this camp.
nThambo Tree camp chalets
Brett, I hope it’s clear how happy I am that we arranged this particular safari – it was all good! I want to thank you again for making sure that all of the arrangements went off like clockwork.
