Our stay went very well, we are delighted!

Victoria Falls was wahou !!! The cruise on the Chobe River was great! We saw (up close) lots of crocs, hippos, elephants, impalas, baboons, buffaloes, etc. A successful introduction!

Getting to grips with the vehicles took a long time, but the explanations were relatively clear. The cars were top-notch, the equipment in good condition and the inventory complete (a colander and tea towels may be missing).

The Savuti campsite is great: we heard lions, hyenas, elephants and unidentified noises at night, it was great! Safaris in the area brought us our first herd of elephants and our first lions! On the other hand, no Leopard at Leopard Rock – and yet we looked! ;-)

In Mbudi, the hippos a stone’s throw from our campsite gave us a scare when they growled at us during our evening barbecue. We weren’t too fussy at the time, but as always, it was one of the best memories of the trip! The mokoro ride was also a great moment, peaceful and refreshing after the hours on the tracks. The safari along the Khwai River the next morning was incredible! Giraffes, elephants and hippos were all there! We experienced our first elephant mock charge… lots of excitement and lots of fun in the end!

The safari between North Gate and Xakanaxa began with a big detour to see five lions indicated by super-friendly guides. Then we had a great picnic at the hippo pool observatory, where we met two off-duty lodge guides who were great fun to chat with while watching the hippos at our feet. The Xakanaxa campsite is also very good. At breakfast on the first day, two elephants passed over the pitch, and when we folded our tent the next morning, 3 of them brushed past us… one of them even rubbed against the car’s rear-view mirror!!!!

In Maun, the Thamalakane Lodge is great and the restaurant delicious! What’s more, the hippos came at night to graze in front of our rooms! The flight over the Okavango Delta was excellent! Not too shaky, but a plethora of elephants and buffalo (and even a feline!) seen from the sky, as well as the delta landscape as far as the eye can see! Super!

The ferry to cross the Boteti River… does it deserve the name “ferry”? ;-)))) It’s absolutely wonderful, and the experience is worth the stress of driving into the water with the car to climb as best you can on this amazing platform! The Khumaga campsite is very good, but we didn’t hear much except the frogs at night. The safari along the river (in the evening and the next morning) was not very fruitful, as we hardly saw any animals, perhaps because of the rain in the previous hours. However, the scenery was very beautiful.

The road to South Camp was long and chaotic, but on arrival we received a warm welcome from the campsite elephant! In the evening, we just set down near the permanent waterhole… and a troop of 12 lionesses and lion cubs arrived an hour later! We saw them playing, interacting… and gazing detachedly at a drinking elephant (who was less zen-like)… magic! They then joined a bull a little further on, and 3 other elephants took the opportunity to join the water. A memorable evening! The baobabs of Baines (after a short detour to the South Camp waterhole, where this time there was a lion lying in the grass) on the way back are well worth the detour. The scenery is unusual and we saw our only oryx of the trip.

All in all, it was a wonderful stay, rich in emotions! We’d like to thank you for the perfect organization of this trip and for your responsiveness to program changes. It’s great to be able to leave with an agency as competent and friendly as yours!

Published on: 2 November 2021