Travel reviews by Mr B & Ms O from IOW

"We arrived at Machaba Camp rather jaded after 30 hours travelling, but after a lovely warm welcome, our spirits were revived as we went out immediately on our first game drive, saw leopard and wild dogs, followed by a surprise "bush dinner", beautifully lit by candles with delicious food.

Machaba has a lovely relaxed and friendly feel and great camaraderie at dinner. The food is generally extremely good and varied with choices available.

The game drives were great, thanks to our very knowledgeable guide BD. There were generally 6 of us in the jeep, sometimes 4, with some lovely sightings of Leopard, Lion, Wild Dog, Elephant and Hippo.

Machaba Camp doesn't have the immediate visual appeal that some other camps have as everything is in tents, but it is far from basic and has the feel of being "on safari" more than others. The tents have very comfortable beds, a double washstand area, a good inside shower, and there was always plenty of hot water. There are recharging points in the tent. At night the wildlife is all around you, hippos grunting and coming on land to feed at night right by the tent, baboons crashing around and lions roaring, which feels very exciting but might keep you awake at night. Bring earplugs if this bothers you.

The camp is very well run with a good management team and we had a brilliant stay there."

"Little Vumbura is a beautiful camp right in the heart of the delta and surrounded by water, so it has a very special ambiance being on an island. The rooms are delightful and very comfortable. It was extremely cold at night and in the mornings when we were there (June) so the little touches like hot water bottles were appreciated. On one particularly cold morning they even gave us hot water bottles for our laps on the game drive!

The water levels were quite high when we visited which meant that the bridges and tracks were under water, often by up to 3 foot. I had no idea that jeeps could still operate in water that deep, so it was quite an experience moving around on the game drives. Because of the water levels it did take some time to get around with very bumpy rides at times. We had a great guide in Lettie who was lovely company and very knowledgeable. We had some of our most memorable wildlife experiences at this camp because we spent time with the animals rather than racing on to the next "sighting". We stayed for a long time with a beautiful elephant herd where one of the youngsters came right up to the jeep and checked us out with her trunk and another morning tracking a lioness the guides were concerned about who was seen with blood on her legs who had become separated from her cubs, so you felt involved with the lives of the animals. We learnt a lot from Lettie about how the guides track the animals which was very interesting.

The food at Little Vumbura was excellent, very tasty with several choices.

We had a very enjoyable mokoro trip, very peaceful floating amongst the water lilies, sighting tiny frogs.

We had a very memorable time here and would love to return to this beautiful well run intimate camp. Don't underestimate how cold it can get if you visit in winter. I wish I had brought gloves, a woolly hat and warmer jacket."

"The location of this camp on the river front is excellent so we frequently saw elephant, hippos and waterbuck right in front of the camp.The rooms are beautiful, the most spacious of the 3 camps we stayed at and very comfortable. Freezing nights and mornings when we stayed there (June), so the "bush babies" (hot water bottles) at night were appreciated and the small shop sold gloves and woolly hats which we needed.

The area is quite rich in game and we had good sightings of Leopard, Lion, Wild Dogs, Elephant and Hyena. There is a tracker as well as a guide on the vehicles and we had an excellent guide(Poster) who was a fount of knowledge and a very good tracker (Kaizer). The guide explained that the emphasis at this camp was on tracking predators first, with sightings of other wildlife en route.All the jeeps work together when doing this so it can seem at times as though you're passing other wildlife by to race to a leopard or lion. All the jeeps worked together one evening to follow the wild dogs on their hunt, which was exciting, though we had some reservations about whether the jeeps were coming in too close and affecting the dogs' activities. We preferred our "quieter" game drives, spending time with hyena puppies, the wild dogs when they were resting at the den with their pups, and on one occasion stayed for ages watching a leopard slowly stalking impala.

We enjoyed the boat trip on the river, coming in to very close proximity with the hippos. We also really enjoyed the bush lunch with the staff singing and dancing.

This is a lovely camp, only let down we felt by the food and lack of choice which was not as good as the other camps we stayed at and there didn't seem to be a great deal of camaraderie at dinner time.

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"After 9 days on safari we didn't expect to have one of our most memorable wildlife experiences of the holiday at this lodge. The location set high over the national park and overlooking the watering hole is stunning, with the watering hole being visited by a variety of wildlife. One of the activities they offer is a 2 hour session with guide Charles Brightman at the hide right by the watering hole, which we did one evening.It was an amazing experience with 2 crocodiles chasing each other right in front of the hide followed by a herd of elephants who came right up to the hide to use the mineral lick, at times just a foot away from the viewing gap. There was even a curious trunk that came through the gap checking us out.We spent about an hour watching the babies suckling and listening to the various snorts and trumpeting as they drew up the minerals - a breathtaking experience.

There is also a great opportunity to see rhino here by vising the private Stanley Livingstone reserve

The food at the lodge is excellent in the a la carte restaurant and if you are there at lunchtime do go to the Vulture Feed - you learn about why they are becoming endangered and are being fed plus it is an amazing spectacle to watch.

The rooms are comfortable if a little tired, but the experience is more than just a hotel to view the falls, so worth it."