Zambezi Safari Testimonials

Hi Chris,

Hope you are well and back from a successful trip to Durban.

We got back a couple of days ago after a brilliant time in Paris, Venice, Tuscany and London - great weather wherever we went and far too much good food and wine. It was all such a contrast to Gabon, but I can assure you, we are already boring the living daylights out of everyone about our amazing holiday!

We have started sorting photos and on first glance, I hope you can trump us, as we have too many less-than-perfect ones. But will make sure we send you the better ones.

Again, thanks for all your tremendous organisation and for your company - it really was a trip to remember. And hopefully another one to somewhere as exotic will be on the cards in the next year or three. Oh by the way, my sister is very keen to go sometime - in spite of my crowing about the black guinea-fowl (which is already causing others to roll their eyes!)

Hope business going well.

All the best,

Mike and Sue

Hi Chris,

After returning from Africa and our daughter's wedding I finally have time to tell you about our trip. I wanted to thank you for the wonderful plans made for us at the camps. We thoroughly enjoyed the beauty, accomodations, food, and staff at the camps. It was more luxurious than expected for sure. Chamilandu gave us the opportunity to fall asleep to the sounds of hippos! That was fun! We made a special connection with the staff there - Wayne and Peter did a fabulous job to make us at home and make the experience the best it could be. We actually spotted 4 of the "big five" the first two days and of course there are no rhinos there. We really got lucky!

Kuyenda was a great camp too, but it was unfortunate that we did not meet the regular director and guide that is so well known. We did enjoy our stay there and Fanwell was so very personable and sweet! We saw lots there too!

Livingstone and the Islands of Siankaba was a perfect way to end our trip. The beauty of the Zambezi River and the lodge there was spectacular!  We really loved the helicopter rider over the falls and Ryan did the bungy over the river too! (Crazy to us of course!)

All in all we would recommend your company very highly - especially the plans for the Bush Company.

Thanks for all your helpfulness in planning our trip. We are hooked on Africa and plan to return someday.

Sincerely,

Jeff and Judy Powell

Hi Chris

Hope you are well. What a coincidence - I was just in the process of typing out an email to you when yours came in !!!!

Well as you know we are back in the UK now which is very depressing as we had an absolultely fantastic holiday - I think it was actually one of my best trips I've ever had to Africa!!!! Both myself and Bruce want to say thank you so much for arranging such an amazing trip for us - it was absolutely perfect.

Uganda was absolutely stunning and it was very strange to see such a green African country as we are used to going to places like Namibia/Botswana which are obviously very dry. Our driver George was fantastic - both in terms of driving skills and general knowledge about everywhere we visited and Uganda in general and he definitely made our holiday into the fantastic trip it was. We loved all the camps that we stayed in - our favourites being Mantana Kibale Tented Camp (where the staff were so friendly and willing to help with anything) and Ishasha Wilderness Camp which is set in the most beautiful setting and again has the friendliest staff who went out of their way to make our stay memorable. We were also very lucky in Ishasha and found 2 of the tree climbing lions up a tree!!!!

Rwanda was a big highlight for me as it has been one of my lifelong dreams to go and see the mountain gorillas. I couldn't believe how close we got to them and also how peaceful and gentle they were. The big silverback was only about 4 metres from us and it was the most incredible experience I have ever had. We were also really lucky to see a 5 day old baby (that the guides didn't tell us about in advance as they didn't think we'd see it!!). The mother just sat beside the path holding the baby and it was almost as if she was showing it off to us all as we walked past!!!

After a sad farewell to George in Uganda we were met by our driver in Tanzania - another George!!! Again he was absolutely fantastic and we had real good fun with him and the other guest on our safari Lizette. We absolutely loved the authentic camping trip that we did and the other 3 guys who went ahead and set up camp and cooked for us (Du Du, Hamza and Mushi) were brilliant. After seeing so many programmes on TV about Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti it was absolutely incredible to be there. In the Serengeti we actually stayed in the Wild Frontiers semi-permanent camp as it was empty so we had it all to ourselves and again the staff were absolutely fantastic and nothing was ever too much trouble for them.

We were really sad to say goodbye to George as he made our trip absolutely fabulous - he had a great sense of humour and we laughed out way round Tanzania.

A HUGE thanks again for arranging such a fantastic trip for us - all the places we stayed were amazing and all the people we met were really friendly and eager to help us out. Please say a big thanks to both George's who drove us round as without them our trip would not have been so enjoyable.

Happy Christmas to both of you and we will be in touch again when we arrange our next trip!!!!

Kind regards

Marianne

Hi Chris,

Thought I'd send you a few lines to let you know about our trip to Zimbabwe. The whole show was very well organised and all transfers etc ran like clockwork. When Mike contacted you initially he told you that we were allergic to too many people and we'd prefer to be on our own as much as possible and that was exactly what we got, perfect.

At Somnalisa Terry and Shiona were   and we particularly enjoyed our first stay there, as there was just Mike and I so we were able to do much more than we would have in a larger group. Also as we are happy to rough it we went a lot of places and did a lot of stuff which we would have otherwise missed out on; this was the case when we returned there and found a group which included a very loud American female around whom, apparently, the Universe revolves - still she kept the lions out of camp at night so it wasn't all bad.Otherwise the whole experience at Somnalisa was superb and I will recommend it to any wouldbe Safari-ists.

Our first real bush camp was also fantastic, 4-30am starts every day and 6 hour walks in soft sand sure helps you sleep in the afternoon heat. The guys   and had set up a good camp,we learned a lot of bushcraft from Tendecar and Felix and apart from the walks some of the afternoon/evening waterhole visits were just incredible.

The third camp on the Zambezi was also superb, Steve had put a lot of thought and effort into setting up the site, it was very comfortable and the food just amazing as it was at all three locations; I don't know how they do it, my catering on camping trips consists of porridge and Cup-a-Soup and Mike is now demanding an improvement. Our time with Steve was way too short but the amount of variety we crammed into the days meant we got the maximum fun out of it. In one day we started at 5am and walked to a spring then followed a valley looking for another spring (dried up). We then spent a couple of hours re-opening an old logging road with an axe which left Mike with blistered hands (softy) then another walk into thick bush looking for another spring but we had to retreat when the buffalo began to outnumber the hiding places. Back to the camp for lunch then an afternoon spent whitewater canoeing with Steve and his mate Paul then trying to catch Tigerfish in the evening.

It's only now that I'm home and turning it over in my mind that I'm getting the full picture of how much we did. The only downside to the trip was that I got really bad food poisoning right at the end which made the journey home an absolute nightmare as I had been sick for nearly 5 days by the time we got back and had lost nearly 17pounds in weight.The possible cause was the water I swallowed whilst drowning in the Zambezi during our rafting trip, now there's an experience to remember.

Anyway,thank you for organising a wonderful holiday, it was more than I ever imagined.

CHEERS

Dave Doig

Hi Chris

Many thanks for checking in - I had a fabulous trip and really appreciate your recommendations. The itinerary was perfectly balanced for me. I particularly enjoyed The Hide and would like to return to Zimbabwe as soon as I can manage it financially.

Game, specifically elephants, was not as prolific as I had hoped for but that's the way it goes. Bird life was super. Everything else was perfect including getting spanked on the Zambezi. It was pretty hot in the afternoons in Hwange but not half as debilitating as I feared.

Chris, I also really am very grateful for you having arranged the excess baggage for me - the 50 plus pounds of children's clothing is already at the good Hope Orphanage in Bulawayo and this could not have been achieved without your help. Thank goodness I took a hard copy of the info from your contact as the "usual suspect" behind the counter swore blind there was no annotation on the PNR. (We all know better).

Best wishes

Lynn

Hi, Chris,

I just wanted to 'report' back from my trip to Zambia in early June and let you know how wonderful everything was - in the true sense of the word. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were impressed with how well everything was organised - a fantastic experience! I can certainly recommend your organisation and your expertise. The bushcamps I found very impressive indeed - I didn't expect such luxury and such good food and the game drives and the walks were thoroughly enjoyable and the 'experience' of Dean MacGregor was a bonus...! We thought that Ollie and Dean were a good team at Kapamba. We certainly saw a lot of animals including a lion kill (which I cried all the way through, sentimental old me), the camps were small so there weren't too many people and not too many trucks either - ideal! We also enjoyed Livingstone and went on a river cruise on the mighty Zambezi and went to the Victoria Falls - out of this world! All in all I loved what I experienced and I want to go back to Africa at some point - Dean suggested (when I asked him about Namibia) that it would be feasible to just hire a car and drive through yourself - any thoughts on that??

Anyhow - a big THANK YOU for a great trip!!!

Sabine

Hi Chris,

Our trip was fabulous, truly memorable. Thanks again for all your
help, particularly making the last minute adjustments when we had an
issue with our flights from Europe. Everything went smoothly the
remainder of the trip and all of the accomodations were wonderful.

Most difficult part was leaving!

Thanks again for everything.

Best regards,

Amy Salcido

Chris,

Yes, we did have a wonderful time. All the arrangements worked fine - the camps were wonderful, game was plentiful and we saw everything that we could have reasonably have hoped for.

It was great to meet Phil & Babette at Kuyenda, they were there for 2 of our 3 days.

In hindsight, we probably didn't need 3 nights at Kuyenda & Chendeni - due to other people arriving and leaving at different times to us we found day 3 at each a bit repetitive.

Hope this helps and very many thanks to you all at Zambezi Travel for your help in organising it all so efficiently.

Kind regards

John & Eileen.

Hello Chris,

I couldn't possibly fault the trip in anyway Chris, straight from the word go everything was organised, flights and transfers were my biggest worry but everything just fell into place. Terry and Shona are wonderful people and great hosts. Terry's knowledge of the bush made it all the more enjoyable, anything we asked he was able to answer and the tracking with him was great. The Somalisa camp was an amazing experience, one I won't forget.

The outside camping with (I forget his name) was a totally different experience, the walking part was most enjoyable and we didn't go with the attitude that we wanted to see everything. We just walked and saw what we saw, the animals in there natural state unaware we were even there sometimes was awe inspiring.

Next with Steve Edwards, again I can't fault it. A great guy with a good personality and was so much fun to be around. The canoeing and the white water rafting totally brilliant, I could go into so much more information on all our experiences but I'd be writing for ages, especially since I can only type with 2 fingers I'd be here all night. Lol.

My father said he will also contact you and let you know his thoughts but it is on much the same lines as my thoughts. It's the best holiday I've had in a very long time and won't be forgotten. Thanks for all the help and organising this amazing trip for us.

Cheers,

Mike Doig

P.S Any chance you could move Zimbabwe a bit closer to the UK, long trip but well worth it. Thanks again.

Hi Chris,

Sorry I've been a while in replying. The holiday was absolutely superb. The only snag was the Visa charges which I wasn't aware of.

Here are my ratings (just for fun)

Mfuwe Lodge:

Accommodation and lodge 8/10

Service and staff 7/10

Food 6/10 (pleasant/average, but only 3 candles per 7 or so people made finding things on the plate quite hard!)

Schedule of day 7/10 (fixed)

Quality of game viewing in April 10/10 (amazing!)

Guides 9/10

Total 78%

Kasaka River Lodge

Accommodation and lodge 10/10 (stunning place, the website doesn't do this place justice)

Service and staff 10/10 (absolutely without fault. Really lovely hosts)

Food 8/10 (the odd thing was truly unpleasant, the rest was worthy of a fine restaraunt. Chef a character too!)

Schedule of day 10/10 (flexible start times and choice of activity.... a relaxing safari)

Quality of game viewing in April 5/10 (dense undergrowth made spotting hard, but amazing leopard and lion sightings)

Guides 9/10

Total 87%

I think we'll speak again next year !

Paul Jones

Vicky Hope

Well Chris what a fantastic time we had! Thank you so much for organizing it so well for us you did a brilliant job. We particularly loved the Luangwa and the Bush Camps and had a really excellent time with Phil and Barbette. The Zambezi was also great fun and I think the last camp Kasaka was our least favourite but I that was because I think we had been so totally spoilt at the other camps. Ivan will be in touch as well as I know he wanted to thank you personally.
Thanks again Chris
Lesley

Hi Chris

Good to hear from you. We are (unfortunately) settled back at home and work - we'd much rather still be in Zambia.

We were going to email you tonight anyway to thank you for arranging the trip for us, we had a really great time. All the camps were great in their own way.

We're really pleased that you managed to work Kapamba back into the trip for us. It certainly met our expectations as a camp with the added bonus that the guide, Dean MacGregor, turned out to be the guide from the first ever place we stayed in Africa, in Zimbabwe back in 1999. It was really good to catch up with him again. Game viewing was good here. We saw our first proper leopard in the wild which was exciting. We also managed to find lions with a zebra kill just a couple of hours after they brought it down which was really interesting.

We're also really glad we ended up going to Bilimungwe. It was a lovely camp; we really enjoyed spending time watching the baboons and warthogs at the waterhole. It was made extra special because we were the only guests for the first two nights so we got a really good chance to get to know the people there - Nigel the manager was good fun. Unfortunately Manda was on leave so we didn't get to meet him but our guide, Derek Solomon, was very good and did manage to get us 6 leopard sightings plus a pride of lions hunting within 36 hours of arriving there! 

Chamilandu was also great. I thought the guide there, Freya Reder, was very good. She was really informative. Game viewing was good here as well and Freya produced a great finale on our final night when we found lions hunting and this time they were successful so we saw them with the kill and having to fight the hyenas off.

All the camps were very good in terms of the standard of accommodation, food, staff etc. We were really well looked after and far too well fed - definitely need to diet now! We met a lot of great people and very few of the other guests were people we didn't enjoy spending time with. The fact that we got to walk in the bush every day was wonderful and certainly made the trip special for us. In so many other places there seems to be a bit of wariness about venturing out on foot, so the fact that this was a key feature of the camps was great for us.

Things ran very smoothly. We got to Chaminuka with time to get a reasonable feel for the place which was nice and we had a relaxed afternoon there.

So, all in all we had a really great time and would certainly be keen to go back before too very long. Thanks for all your help with this. We would certainly be happy to ask you to put together any of our future trips to Zambia.

Kind regards
Malcolm and Sue

(abbreviated version)

Hi Chris,
 
We did indeed have a most amazing adventure and unique experience. We feel so privileged to have had this opportunity of seeing and living in, albeit for a short period of time, what must be one of Africa's greatest wildernesses- Botswana! As I spend time now reflecting on what we have experienced, I find it so difficult put into words how I feel and and tell others about our safari. As you know, photographs, although wonderful to have, can only show limited images. They cannot show the beauty of the stars in the African night sky, the simple joy of chatting around the campfire after watching the most spectacular sunsets, or the wonderful sounds of the bush, from the rumbling of elephant and roaring of lion close by to the beautiful sound of a scops owl perched in a nearby tree. It is also difficult to express the excitement of knowing that lions had passed through the camp during the night and seeing their tracks close to your tent!

I am sure that this will not be our last trip to Africa. As someone said to me - it gets under your skin! Indeed leaving Botswana, in particular, was very emotiional for me. 

Finally, thank you for lending me you camera batteries etc which I will return in th next week or so. Unfortunately, I had a camera problem in Savuti which meant that I was unable to use it for the last few days, but we did have back up cameras and Joe also took photos for me and transfered them to disk in Kasane.
 
Kind Regards
Annette