With school vacations looming and summer breaks in the northern hemisphere it is often hard to think about what to do to entertain your children. My thoughts have been on the ocean for the last couple of weeks highlighting some of the awesome activity we have on our shores in South Africa! Some of my topics are [...]
Traveling with Children to Africa
With the midyear break looming many people have their vacations planned and will soon be gathering the family together for the annual summer break. The other day I found an app that you download that helps you pack for your vacation! I thought to myself “wow, we really don’t have to think about much these [...]
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Photo of the Week – an old favorite!
I was reminded of this special photo today as it popped into my inbox. I didn’t actually know the origin of the photo until I read the newsletter (thanks to The Safari Book). Here is a quick summary of where it came from: This fabulous image has been around since 1979 and was taken by Paul Dutton. [...]
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Feedback from Clients
We have received some great feedback from a few clients that have recently traveled with us. It’s often something that is quite hard to get as clients are so busy catching up with life once they return from their vacations that they don’t have a chance to send through their thoughts. So, when we do [...]
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Photo of the Week – Happy Father’s Day
In honor of all the Dads out there celebrating Father’s Day on Sunday, enjoy this special day with your family! Father’s Day is celebrated at various times during the year, depending on where you come from. The vast majority of countries however celebrate on the 3rd Sunday in June. This includes South Africa and we wish all our Dads a [...]
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The Rare Lunar Eclipse – Africa
Yesterday I mentioned that there was going to be a central lunar eclipse tonight, and Africa is one of the best places to be seeing this. As long as you have clear skies this is the case – there are no clear skies in Cape Town today! With massive storms lashing our coastline we are [...]
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A Piece of South African History – Youth Day
This week in South Africa we remember a very important day. June the 16th marks Youth Day and has been declared a National Holiday. Youth Day goes back to 1976, when on the morning of the 16th of June, high school students started what was intended to be a peaceful march in Soweto (South Western [...]
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Photo of the Week – Wild Dogs in Madikwe
We are privileged to have this image from Stephen Raffay along with the beautiful Zebra images that we posted earlier this week on our Facebook page. Stephen is an avid wildlife photographer and has captured some awesome wildlife moments. This particular pack of Wild Dogs were tracked from just outside Tau Camp in the Malaria Free Madikwe Reserve [...]
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A Winter Highlight – Whale Watching in South Africa
I continue with the theme of winter wildlife viewing off South Africa’s shores. So I have to mention one of the biggest seasons that we have in the Cape – the Whale Watching season. Whale watching has been so well promoted over the last few years in South Africa, that we actually have visitors coming [...]
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An unprovoked attack by an Elephant
Not so long ago I wrote about an incident where a Lion attacked a guest on a Walk in Victoria Falls. My main concern was that these are wild animals, we are in their territory and are WE not putting ourselves at risk, despite all the safety precautions, if something does go wrong? It is our [...]
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Anyone for the Sardine run?
South Africa is one of those amazing destinations when it doesn’t matter what time of the year you are visiting, there is always something to see! The various climatic zones between all the provinces means you have a wide choice of destinations, whenever you wish to travel. Although June is winter in the southern hemisphere (hence the 1st of June [...]
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Staff Review: Indigo Bay Island Resort & Spa
I have just travelled to Mozambique on the back of a trip to South Africa to check out some lodges and resorts. All in all it was a fab time, learning lots about Rani Resorts as well as looking at current travel logistics in Mozambique and how best to include the country into our itineraries. [...]
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Feedback
Hi Ilze- Nicole and I are back in the US and wanted to thank you again for all the help that you gave us to make our trip truly fantastic! We're happy to give you some feedback on some places that stood out to us, as well as some learnings for future travelers. I'll also try to address your questions in the respective sections. Below is a quick summary: South AfricaZambia
- Cape Town accommodations were fine. Nothing "special" but we knew that going in. It was very comfortable, clean and convenient.
- The lodge in Franschhoek was really nice.
- The Elephant Lodge was a really nice location. Very unique and charming.
- You definitely warned us about the distance between all locations - we probably should of listened. While it was great to see the towns that we did, it was often after a long day of driving only to have to leave again first thing in the morning.
- All in all, the locations and lodges were all lovely in S. Africa.
Mozambique
- Everything was amazing! LOVED Islands of Siankaba.
Kenya
- We've already given feedback here. It was an amazing island. Beautiful, tranquil, etc.
- The Banguerra Lodge had a lot of potential. It was beautiful, the food was good.
Overall Feedback Aside from the above, we were very very happy with all the other elements of our trip (food, boarding, activities, transfers). That said, we thought we’d summarize some things that may have made our trip a bit more seamless so that you can pass along to future customers. Looking forward to connecting at your convenience. Thanks again for your help in planning a truly amazing, life changing trip. I hope the feedback above is helpful, and in the context that it was intended - which is that all in all, we are VERY happy. Have a great day. Colby
- We really loved the Stanley.
- Travel time between parks.
Dear Jeffrey and Ilze, We will forward more pictures as we edit them. A friend recommended that we trek a second day, wished we had. It was an incredible experience. Be sure to tell you customers to wear really good gloves, the nettles are bothersome! I had only a knit glove that did not help. David wore very heavy gloves and he had no problem with his hands but those nasty nettles are everywhere. Makes no difference because after a certain point you forget the stings. Our mountain guide, Fidel, was great, very professional and very helpful preparing us for the trek. On the mountain we were met by 3 trackers that were equally wonderful. Our next trip will probably in 2014 unless I can talk David into an earlier one. Thank you again for making this so special. Carol
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, I just had to write to thank you for the magnificent planning of our honeymoon - this trip was an absolute dream come true. Steve and I loved every second of it, from Cape Town (where we both want to move to now) to the perfection of Lion Sands - you could not have choreographed a more perfect itinerary. Many, many thanks again for everything - it was such a pleasure getting to meet you in person, and I hope that we'll be able to work on a return trip very soon. All best wishes, Erika
Good morning! It sure was a terrific trip for all of us...thanks to both of you for putting up with my endless emails---I guess I worried unnecessarily! The stay at the Stanley was a perfect introduction to the city, and the hotel is wonderful, well preserved, very helpful and friendly staff, great location. We did the Kazuri bead factory one day, and volunteered the next. We had a really nice dinner in an alley down the road from the hotel...called BoBos which is a Turkish outdoor restaurant. Certainly nothing formal, outdoor seating with few amenities, but very good inexpensive food. Worth a look. Then had Gamewatchers pick us up to begin the safari...our driver Stephen was an excellent guide, full of info, very interactive. Took great care of us. The other driver, Tony, was also very good though I was not in his RangeRover too often. Sweetwaters was a great choice. Nothing negative to say there. Lodging very nice, food good, game sightings excellent, fun nighttime entertainment. We all enjoyed. Lake Nakuru was the following day. Unfortunately, I would say that of all the experiences, this was the least favorite. The lodge was quite good, food good, good location within the park. The lake water was apparently very high for this season due to prior months' rains, so the bird life was marginal. Game viewing ok, but of course nothing like the Mara. Mara Entim was one of the favorites of all the camps. Beautiful location, top quality staff, camping on the river's edge couldn't be beat, though the sounds of the hippos grunting all night long was very disruptive to our sleep! The game drives with the park staff were incredible with awesome sightings, just overall magnificent! We got to the NBO in plenty of time for flight out to EBB. I was very impressed with Gamewatchers and our guides. The only negative was Nakuru and the long drive. I think we would have been better off hitting a different park between Mt. Kenya and Mara making the drive less intense. In Entebbe, as you know, we changed lodging to the Karibu House instead of the Lake Vic Hotel. I would strongly suggest you look at Karibu. It's a guest house with about 6 rooms, excellent ownership, very secure location, great staff, good chef in the kitchen, all in all a perfect stop over. First day was Ndali Lodge which a beautiful setting. The owner is very friendly and spends time with the guests, though his staff is not as well trained as I would have expected given his British background, quality of the lodging. Enjoyed Kibale. Could have passed on the Bigodi walk I think, esp during mid day when very hot. Then QE park at Mweya...what a great setting. We loved it! A perfect end to the travel. The Kazinga channel ride as lots of fun as were the game drives, though I was a bit underwhelmed with the volume and diversity of the game in QE. Especially as I compared to the Mara or Mt. Kenya. The landscape and views are unbeatable, but not many animals. Example no giraffe, rhino, few lions. Despite that, we had a marvellous time there. The setting really is unbeatable. Entertainment at night with tribal dancers was fun. Our Wild Frontier guide was named Ham, and he was outstanding. Very personable, soft spoken, courteous, well informed, etc. I would highly recommend him to future travellers. We all really liked the variety that Uganda gave us after a week in Kenya. The varied terrain and different cultures were educational, and it fulfilled the desire I always had to get to this area of Africa. I would not really change anything on the itinerary except the Nakuru stop. Otherwise all lodging and guides were very well chosen You both did a great job for us....thanks loads. I wish we were headed back to the continent soon, but I fear it will be a few yers. Garth









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