Good morning, Yes, we are back and had a wonderful vacation!  I'll give you our honest feedback.  We just loved Kirkman's Kamp.  In truth we actually saw more animals just driving in our rental car through Kruger National Park ourselves, but the experience of the drive was awesome.  For example, we saw a leopard eating it's impala kill and had the ability to sit under it in our land rover for about 45 minutes while a hyena was nearby.  This is something we wouldn't have seen on our own car drive.  The staff there gave us first class treatment - with greeting us as we arrived and giving us fresh moist towels to clean up with.  For the game drive, we loved the touch of having hot water bottles and blankets to keep us warm! They wound up giving us two game drives (we thought there was just one evening one and a walk). The food there was excellent and the room/accommodations superb.  Everyone needs an escort to their room as animals can be everywhere.  In fact, they said the night before a lion chased an impala through their camp! Too bad we couldn't have afforded another night because we might have been able to spot the only animal of the big five we never got to see, the lion. Riley's Rock was unique.  My sister was disappointed with it initially feeling it was too 'rustic', but the rest of us really loved the look and 'feel' of it.  She wound up coming around to really loving it - who wouldn't with all the dinners under the stars around a fire? We were blessed with having our first dinner with Ted Riley himself.  Apparently he had guests that were in for some important conservation business and it allowed for some very serious and interesting dinner conversation with all of us...a great and memorable experience. Interestingly, they asked about how we booked their hotel and we told them about you (and they were quite grateful).  How had you heard about them?  We also loved the Swaziland excursions we took through Swazi-Travel. Kosi-Forest Lodge though beautiful, was probably our least favorite.   The place was truly lovely yet simplistic. We loved the look of the tiki torches around so we can find our room at night.   It would be a much better place to stay in the spring or summer as it was too cold to go snorkeling.  It was also more geared for honeymoon couples. The food was tasty and it's presentation very nice. Thula Thula was nice, though disappointing for game viewing.  If I had it to do over again, I would have stayed one day there (just because my wife read the book), and two days at a big game reserve hotel.  They don't have the big 5 there - and really the main thing to see is their signature elephants, which are breathtaking.  The tracker and driver were magnificent, but they excelled more on the bush walks.  We only got to see elephants and rhino there...they have no lions and in 3 game drives we never saw buffalo or leopard either.  In fact they hadn't seen a leopard since last December.  The tented accommodations were nicer, in our opinion, then Kosi-Forest Lodge. They were bigger.  Both had family tents, which might have been preferred for us - if less expensive.  The meals were good and we especially liked that there was a game meat option each day. We wound up downloading the South Africa map for our GPS and we are glad we did.  While it wasn't perfect, it did fill in missing spots when using the directions provided. The GPS did wind up giving us totally wrong directions to Thula Thula though. Looking back, it would have been better doing the trip in reverse...as it is hard to top seeing so many animals (Kruger and Kirkman's Kamp). Again, thank you so much for organizing the trip for us - it was really a once in a lifetime experience and our whole family has memories that won't be forgotten! P.S. - your telephone call to us at Kosi Bay was a wonderful touch and much appreciated. The Toro family

Dear Jeff and Camille – So nice to get your holiday greeting and bad me for not ever writing “officially” to thank you both for the most amazing experience of my life – Simbambili and my safari experience.  Your nose and ears must have been itching dozens upon dozens of times as I’ve recounted my adventure to friends and family and colleagues – and most recently, in our holiday letter.  It still seems a bit like a dream…Funny, people have said things like, “Wow, now you can check that off your bucket list.” And I always reply, “Check it off?!  Now I just want to go on safari again and again!” My time at Simbambili was life changing and life enhancing and there’s something about Africa that seems to have gotten under my skin.  Guess that happens doesn’t it? Endless thanks to you both for helping to make my childhood dream come true!  You guys rock! Happy holidays and all good things to you in the New Year ahead! Warmly, Melissa

Lise & Jeff, The safari was awesome.  Among the many amazing animals and landscapes, we saw 3 kills - a pride of lions kill a cape buffalo, and twice saw cheetahs kill a gazelle. Solomon was really 100% responsible for making the trip so awesome.  More than just a driver, he was unbelievably knowledgeable about absolutely everything - animals, plants, star constellations, geology, Tanzanian and African history, demographics.  We didn't ask a single question that he didn't know the answer to, and we asked a lot of questions.  We requested, and he and the camps obliged, for him to eat dinner with us and the other guests because he was so enjoyable to talk to.  Not only was he smart, he was funny, considerate, polite, jovial.  He also had an "instinct" for what animals were about to do - for example, one day there were a ton of trucks watching a leopard from a distance.  Not only did he watch the leopard, but he watched where the leopard was LOOKING.  He said "I think I know where it's going next" and drove us away from all of the other trucks.  It jumped out of its tree and disappeared in the grass.  A moment later, it emerged from the tall grass and jumped onto a log 10 yards from where Solomon had positioned our truck.  Not one of the other trucks had done the same, and we got an up-close-and-personal view of the leopard.  Then it walked right towards us and around the front of the truck. We have some amazing photos from the trip and I am getting a ton of questions about it.  I tell everyone that if they ever go to Tanzania, they absolutely need to use Solomon as their guide.  He went above-and-beyond the entire 10 days and it really made our trip special. Dylan

Liesl, Yes, we had a safe journey home.  That JoBerg to Atlanta flight is so long. Wow! But at least we had the lay flat seats so we were able to try to sleep more comfortably. Londolozi ended up being our absolute favorite...loved the suites, the staff and the Internet. Tom and Jerry ended up to be the best guides by a mile.  Wish I could have gone back to re-tip them bigger. We did promise to send a movie to Jerry, our tracker, and I am having a hard time getting a physical address for Londolozi complete with zip code. an you get me that? Botswana was great but much different and I know that was what you were trying to do. The elephants at Kings Pool And the lions at Mombo were incredible.  At Mombo we saw a Wild Dog named solo, who was abandon by her pack and adopted by Jackals.  They just put a movie on National Geographic called a wild dogs tale  about her life. My birthday was spent on a helicopter and a train in Livingstone.  The falls were incredible. We also white water rafted that weekend as well.  Very kind people in Zambia. Thanks again for the African Queen boat trip.  We enjoyed that very much. We will keep your name handy when/if we decide to come back. I would love a referral for South America including Maccu Piccu and the Galápagos Islands.  And also one for Japan. Thanks! Kathy Deal

Dear Liesl, Thanks for your note.  We did have a wonderful  trip and thought you would be interested in the following comments. 1.  The Westcliff Hotel was just adequate.  But we did get a good nights sleep. 2.  We found all of the lodges to be wonderful.   The accommodations, the food, and most importantly the staff at each place were extraordinary. 3.  One criticism.  If we were to plan the trip again we would eliminate Jao and substitute Mambo.  We would have liked to have seen far more big predators, which were scarce in the Delta.  We were told over and over again that Mambo offered much better viewing of predators. We would love to return one day to Abu.  We found it a very special place.  We did have a memorable trip and we thank you for your arrangements. Lynne and Harold Handler