Tribes Travel

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Tribes Travel

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    Review

     

    1. Jenny Chantler
    2. 04/06/2010
    3. 1
    4. Botswana, Zambia

    5. Overall level of satisfaction

      • Excellent

      Excellent

    7. It was planned as the holiday of a lifetime and it was!

    8. Tribes service

      • Excellent

      Excellent

    10. Tribes has been so wonderful to deal with in every way, particularly over their generous handling of "the ash cloud" crisis. My brother recommended the company, and my consultant Julie, and he was spot on.

    11. Expectations

      • Excellent

      Excellent

    13. The meticulous organisation and variety of camps chosen allowed me to extract the absolute maximum out of the 2 weeks. It was worth every penny.

    14. Guides

      • Excellent

      Excellent

    16. Generally first class, though it was clear from the highly experienced and knowledgeable guide at Kwara that he was due for his holiday - he was pretty exhausted! Also the one at Xakanaxa, though clearly knowledgeable, lacked people skills at times.

    17. Social & Environmental Responsibility

      • Excellent

      Excellent

    19. Botswana's attitude to conservation and wildlife seems admirable and I admired all the camp efforts to use solar power, oil lamps or candles, and even recycle water as at Nxai Pan. Zambia may have further to go, but I was glad to have visited a village outside Livingstone to understand their challenges a bit more.

    20. Other comments

    21. June was a good time for me as I'm not brilliant in the heat despite having lived in West Africa. It was often really quite cold at night and I could have done with a jumper as well as my fleece and lightweight jerkin. Only got bitten by insects when I arrived home as I had stopped applying insect repellant! It is definitely an eating safari so forget about acquiring excess pounds for the duration. Night drives in the private concessions were exciting if occasionally scary at times. The night skies were stupendous everywhere. I was also really glad to have opted for a couple of walks, to feel sand and earth under my feet, to learn a bit more about plants and insects and also to burn off a few calories! I found my policy of being interested in seeing everything, rather than concentrating on something specific, was hugely successful. I can "tick off" the Big Five plus two of the Rare Five, and really felt as though I was getting into the fabric of the country, or perhaps it was the country getting into the fabric of me.

    1. Accommodation

    1. Kwara Camp

    2. Kwara Camp in Okavango Delta, Botswana
      • Excellent

      Excellent

    4. A bit simpler than some but I loved the atmosphere and got on really well with the manageress, with whom I have exchanged contact details. The nights were wonderfully musical, with hippos so close and painted reed frogs sounding like Alpine cow bells. I began to understand the advantages here of army type trucks over Land Cruisers with canopies.

    1. Lebala Camp

    2. Lebala - superb tented camp in Botswana
      • Excellent

      Excellent

    4. My excellent guide here was new to the camp and there was initially a bit of a power struggle between him and I and the more established tracker. With the support of the excellent manager however, all was sorted and with a different tracker, we had a hugely successful and fun experience. It was here whilst looking for birds that we came across 4 lionesses hunting with 2 young cubs, tracking and killing a warthog. Grim but fascinating.

    1. Nxai Pan Camp

    2. Nxai Pan Camp, Botswana
      • Excellent

      Excellent

    4. The only guest for this my first camp, but I was treated like a queen! It was lovely to have the old San bushman join us for supper one evening to later tell stories and sing a song around the campfire. I learned a very great deal here, having both guide and San tracker to myself. Whilst looking for birds we nearly ran over an exquisite young leopard just learning to fend for itself and also saw cheetahs, honey badgers and jackals, whilst 43 giraffes came to say goodbye at the airstrip!

    1. Sussi and Chuma

    2. Sussi and Chuma, luxury lodge on Zambezi River
      • Excellent

      Excellent

    4. A different experience with perhaps less sense of adventure, but the setting and style of the camp is beautiful. Visiting Victoria Falls and getting so close to a White Rhino was a brilliant way to spend a birthday, particularly when supper ended with the unexpected singing and dancing accompaniment to an enormous chocolate cake! I really enjoyed visiting the local village and school as well.

    1. Xakanaxa Camp

    2. Xakanaxa Camp, Botswana
      • Good

      Good

    4. Busier, highly efficient and beautiful at night, but a little less personal than I had been spoilt with at Nxai Pan. Also the guide was my least favourite. However, with another guide on the transfer to Kwara, we saw so many amazing sights on the river that we were half an hour late! Major elephant viewing here.

    1. Experiences

    1. Meeting the Botswanan people

    2. Meeting the Botswanan people
      • Don't even think about missing this!

      Don't even think about missing this!

    4. I just fell in love with Botswana and its people. I don't feel another African country could delight me as much. I tried hard to learn some setswana phrases and was pleased with the encouragement.

    1. On safari in the Okavango Delta

    2. On safari in the Okavango Delta
      • Don't even think about missing this!

      Don't even think about missing this!

    4. I was glad to have experienced this as a contrast to the northern Kalahari, which I also loved, even though I was too late for the zebra herds there. The Delta is positively teeming with wildlife both in and around the water. Travelling by mekoro canoe was amazing, whilst sunsets are quite spectacular.
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