Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs B from Bristol

"We very much enjoyed our time at Selous Impala. It is located in a lovely position overlooking the river. The accommodation was comfortable and the food good. All the staff were friendly and efficient.

We had our own vehicle ( there were 3 of us ) with driver and guide , both of whom were friendly and a pleasure to be with. We had good game viewing - lions, wild dog , elephant . The guide was very knowledgable . It was also good to have the river trips available. We did 2 of these, one of which was a fishing trip where ( somehow ) we managed to catch a rather large catfish from a sandbank in the middle of the river, which 5 minutes before had been occupied by a couple of very large crocodiles. As well as close encounters with a lot of large crocodiles, there was excellent bird life to see, and hippos and elephant both on the banks and in the water.

We also enjoyed the scenery of the Selous with its combination of bush and water."

"This was our next stop after having been at Selous. The landscape was quite different - more open , hotter.

The camp was excellent. The location overlooking a dried river bed was interesting - with elephants, jackal , monkeys wandering around ( and lion ).

The game viewing turned out to be even better than we had had in Selous. On our first drive , we made a rapid detour to see a leopard , photogenically perched in a tree. We then came across a large pride of lions, over 20 strong. On our second day , we encountered a mother cheetah with 2 cubs. Our guide ( Samson ) was sure it was hunting and we watched as it attempted on about 5 occasions to run down impala. This took some time and the camp brought out a packed lunch for us so that we could continue to watch. Just as it looked as if the cheetah would never succeed, it pursued and dragged down an impala - a grisly lunch for the cubs , right in front of us. All this goes to show is that the guiding here was excellent.

The accommodation was very comfortable. Each night , dinner was held a short distance from the camp , under the stars and next to a roaring fire. On the second night it was not only the fire that was roaring. We were dining in the dry sandy river bed and over coffee suddenly heard loud growling . The camp manager ( Rian ? - big South African - excellent) flashed his light to reveal about 6 lions prowling and looking straight at us about 75 yards away. We were very calmly ushered back to the camp , where the same lions , and the rest of the 20 strong pride were to wander through during the night, with very loud roaring. I was impressed with the professionalism of the staff. It sounds scary, but we didn't feel in danger and it was all rather exciting !"

"Matemwe was very comfortable, with excellent food and friendly staff. Its setting allows lovely views over the sea and reef , and I enjoyed watching the many fishing dhows going out early in the morning.

It is not possible to swim in the sea from the beach because of sea urchins and quite rough sea when the tide is up. When the tide was out , there are good walks along the beach and you can wade out to the reef ( carefully avoiding the sea urchins ).
To swim in the sea , we needed to go on a couple of excursions off the beach in the hotel's dhow. These were great fun ( although I thought they were quite expensive ). One was a snorkelling trip to Mnemba - excellent snorkelling with lots of fish. The other was a trip out to a white sandbank in the ocean, which was spectacularly beautiful , and where we also did some snorkelling and swam with dolphins.

We also went to Stone Town one day, which was very interesting ( in fact , I think if I had my time again , rather than 7 nights on the beach I would have a couple staying in Stone Town ).

One thing that did surprise me a bit was that Zanzibar was not as steamy hot as I had expected. This wasn't a problem ( it certainly wasn't cold ! ) , just a bit surprising. The Matemwe location is quite windy , especially in the second part of the afternoon ."