Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs S from Uffington

"As safari novices, we were amazed to see so much wildlife from the veranda of our banda at Beho-Beho before we had set foot outside the camp. It is set above a spring-fed river ravine and offers tremendous views with an audio track to match. The bandas provide bush-style luxury where one can drift off to sleep under the mozzy-net listening to the night-sounds of the Selous. The wildlife is free to wander through the camp night and day – and does; the elephant blocking our way from the bar back to our banda was no alcohol-induced illusion!

After early tea or coffee, the first daily safari sets out at 6:30am with bush-breakfast served by your guide around 8:00am. It is back to base for a delicious lunch, then to be plied with delicious cakes at tea time and then out again for a shorter safari at 4:30pm. Sundowner cocktails are served in the bush, again by your guide, around 6:30pm before returning to camp by 7pm in time for dinner. Meals at Beho-Beho were always a delight and we enjoyed the house-party style, with guests and guides dining and mingling together and sharing safari stories.

We found the longer morning safari to be ideal for longer trips by vehicle with the shorter, afternoon excursion being a good opportunity to take a walking safari. But it is entirely the guests’ choice what they want to do and the guides devote themselves to making every minute an experience and delight.

Beho-Beho is clearly run by a highly motivated and competent team. Guest numbers are kept low and standards very high. The aim is to create the ambiance of a lodge for family and guests – as indeed Beho-Beho originally was – and it certainly worked for us."

"Just half an hour flight from Dar es Salaam, a short drive and you’re in another place, another time. The lodge is rustic in character – lots of dark wood, thatch and charming period brass bathroom fittings – and very comfortable. We were warmly welcomed by Anne and her team and we were pleased that locals from the nearby village are employed at the lodge and used as guides. They were enthusiastic, warm and great fun.

The lodge makes its own bread and yogurt and serves a variety of delicious freshly-caught fish and salad dishes. We were always offered an alternative to fish for dinner but, honestly, fish is what they do best. A Swahili style dinner was also very good.

The lodge works closely with the Mafia Diving Centre, which is just a short walk away, to provide daily snorkelling and land based excursions around the group of islands. Diving is available too. A representative from the diving centre met with us each daily to agree the next day’s activity. The ones that were inclusive in our package tended to last just a few hours, leaving plenty of time for relaxing at the lodge and on the beach. High tides and (low) visitor numbers while we were there added to the charm of Pole Pole but did restrict some of the activities offered. As snorkelling from the beach was not possible, we were taken out in the lodge’s dhow to reefs in the bay. The reefs, now recovering since dynamite fishing has stopped, were picture-book beautiful and full of life.

Abiding memories of our time at Pole Pole are sipping cocktails while watching the fruit bats set out at sunset on their night’s foraging, enjoying a blissful massage listening to the waves, the breeze in the palms and the distant sound of the call-to-prayer from the village mosque, and the chocolate cake the kitchen staff surprised us with on our anniversary."