"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right"
...Nelson Mandela
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August 07 Botswana from California |
Hi Stephen,
It was absolutely terrific. It went from great to better to even better!!!!
Oddballs was beautiful. When we arrived there was a hippo playing in the pool just in front of the camp :) Elephants walked through the camp at night and the walking and mokoro rides really let us feel in touch with the land.
When we arrived at the Santawani Lodge the staff was there to sing for us!! We got there in time for an evening drive and in the first few minutes came across a pride of lions on the hunt. The next day we saw elephants, giraffes, zebra and many hippos. The watering hole in front of the lodge attracted elephants, warthogs and baboons.
The Savuti portion bought us more lions, this time during the day when we could get better photos. We even saw two cheetahs and a leopard. We spotted a jackal, but (due to the vehicle, see below) could only see the top of his head and ears above the tall grass Elephants continually walked past our campsite.
At Chobe the sunset cruise bought new wonders. Crocodiles, birds really close up, and an enormous herd of hippos lounging in the sun sleeping piled on top of each other.
The cruise on the Ichobezi was wonderful. herds of buffalo, elephants, giraffes, zebra and of course impala , kudo and other antelope filled the banks. We visited the traditional village and they took as out on small boats where we got up close to some enormous crocodiles, in the evening we watched elephants crossing the river
Victoria Falls was awesome and the Royal Livingstone wonderful. Monkeys and zebras on the hotel grounds and baboons out by the falls seemed completely unconcerned by the presence of humans and let us walk right up to them. We visited the Zimbabwe side and also did the lion walk there. It was an amazing experience we were able to stroke the lions (cubs, 16 months old) and walk with them holding their tails!!!
We had a couple of minor SNAFUs, but nothing that really messed us up. - We never did meet with Jason, he had the wrong flight info and went to meet us at the earlier flight despite the fact that his father died that morning. The airport called Audi camp who picked us up and we interfaced with Delta Air to get an earlier flight into Oddballs than was scheduled after that all our connections went smoothly.
- The Royal Livingstone neglected to get our VISA info to customs so we had to pay to get in at the border. The nice lady behind the counter "felt sorry for us" and accepted $100 (total) instead of the $100 / visa it officially cost.
- We were disappointed in the vehicle that was used for our Savuti portion of the safari. Kenson was a great guide and he provided excellent service the camp set up was wonderful. He's running a small business and was quite proud that he'd just added this car, purchasing it 2 days ago. BUT it was a compact Toyota pick up.! It was inadequate as a safari vehicle.
- It didn't have the suspension to handle the bumpy roads, it's wheels were 1/2 the size of the safari vehicles, making the drives even on the roads outside of the park uncomfortable.
- He couldn't make it up one of the hills in the park, he couldn't do a river crossing and since the bridge was down into Moremi, we ended up bypassing that park altogether.
- Our photo taking was hampered as we were down inside the small truck, rather than being raised up in a safari vehicle. This meant that we weren't above the bush level and couldn't get some shots as the animals were lost in the grass.
- AND he didn't have a radio which meant that we didn't get advised when an animal was sighted.
- Kenson indicated that he was going to mount some seats over the pick up portion of the truck which will definitely help with the game viewing, but the small wheels and suspension still make this an uncomfortable car to ride in and when booking future safaris with this operator, you should check what vehicle he is using.
Despite the truck, we enjoyed the Savuti portion of our safari. Kenson is a great guide, he provided a super camping experience, we really felt pampered. use him - just check on the vehicle.
We hated to leave Africa and wished we could have stayed longer. This safari was truly a wonderful at times, magical experience.
We saw just about everything lions, zebras, giraffes, hippos, buffalo, lots of elephants, crocodiles, baboons monkeys, impalas, other antelope, birds, a hyena, even two leopards (although they were a long way off) and a pair of cheetahs!!! Between us we took over 9,000 photos and over 2 hours of video.
Thank you Stephen for arranging this marvelous trip for us.
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