Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs E from Oxon

"This was the perfect place to start our Safari holiday. Location and accommodation were excellent. Food was good and it was very enjoyable sharing meals with staff, guides and owners. This gave the lodge a very personal feeling.

Our guides, Rambo and Synack were delightful, knowledgeable and skilful at conveying information. Highlights for us were seeing large herds of grazing animals, elephants crossing the water, hippos and beautiful birds on the boat trip, the walking safari and 2 good sightings of leopard. We especially enjoyed visiting the nearby village and school at Mabele.

Anyone intending to visit the school and wishing to take materials will find www.packforapurpose.org useful."

"Arrival at Savute Safari Lodge had a real wow! factor. Lots of elephants and other animals within yards of us at the waterhole in front of the lodge. Lovely spacious room with veranda just above the water. Food was excellent and the staff very friendly. We particularly enjoyed the staff singing and dancing and sitting round the fire after dinner with them and other guests.

We were struck by the greenery along the channel and the vast expanse of the Savute Marsh. Our guide, Gwist was exceptional and went to great lengths to ensure our enjoyment of the area and animals at close quarters. Highlights were lionesses taking down a 15-20 year old elephant (fascinating and gruesome), subsequent feeding on the carcass by the pride then jackal and kite. 6 lionesses stalking wart hog - unsuccessfully. Several sightings of wild dog with puppies and leopard - including a leopard in a tree eating a catfish. We also enjoyed the large herds of buffalo and elephant, wide variety of bird life and seeing the rock paintings."

"The camp is in a wonderful position overlooking Linyanti Marsh and the tents were luxurious, including a bath with gold fittings outside the tent (but we did stick to the showers inside!).

The transfer from the airstrip to the camp was like a game drive with sightings of elephant, giraffe, wart hog, kudu, impala, fish eagle and harrier hawk. First day then included kudu grazing very close to the tent and baboons playing in the tree above us (and giving us an early wake-up call!). As we had come to expect from previous lodges, we were given a very friendly welcome by Oliver and the staff and the food was exceptionally good.

Our guide, Wina was in every way superb. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable, we got to know him very well during our 3 days there and were sad to say goodbye. Countless highlights: several close sightings of lion, including a large pride with cubs feeding from an elephant carcass - day and night time; coming across a female leopard that had just killed an impala and watched as it dragged the carcass across a stream to feed her young in the reeds(?); magical boat trip that ended listening to the sounds of the african evening (including the tinkling of bell frogs) with a beautiful sunset on 1 side and full moon reflected in the water on the other; drink stop under a tree usually used by elephants who came to check us out; good sightings of wild dog, roan antelope, banded, dwarf and slender mongoose, hoopoe etc etc. Unforgetable!"

"This small 6-tented camp is superbly located on the edge of the Okavango Delta just north of the Moremi Game Park in its own private concession. Accommodation is very good with the tents built on stilts and the animals able to wander through(wart hogs, baboons, impala, elephant while we were there plus giraffe close by). Although the wild life did not appear to be as plentiful as at previous camps, we did see a large pack of wild dog on several occasions, hyena and lions. Also a cheetah that appeared to be badly injured and therefore very vulnerable. Hippos were plentiful as well as zebra, tsessebe, reed buck etc. We enjoyed the varied terrain of open grassland, expanses of water and mixed vegetation, much greener than we had seen elsewhere. In addition to seeing the wild life above the highlights were the boat trip with Alex on a double decker boat and enjoying the heronry plus yet another magnificient African sunset and a mokoro trip and walking safari on a nearby island.

Our stay was marred by our temperamental guide, Hobbs. On our first day he didn't engage with us in the way that we had been used to. All the other guides on our trip had been knowledgeable, enthusiastic and had great personal skills. Hobbs appeared unfriendly and taciturn. Getting information was like getting blood out of a stone. We discussed this with the camp manager, Carlos on our return and he then switched us to Alex who was excellent. Hobbs apologised and said that he had been upset by the behaviour of the other guests on our vehicle who talked incessantly about personal matters - very rude and distracting for us as well as Hobbs. When we were then told that Hobbs would have to be guide for the last 3 activities because no other guide was available, we didn't then expect there to be a problem. The first activity back with him was the mokoro trip & walking safari when he was excellent, displaying his knowledge & passion. We had the impression that he was also training 2 other staff in guiding. However by the afternoon of our last day we were back to the Hobbs from the beginning of our stay. He gave us very little information, was reluctant to answer questions in fact he gave the impression that he resented being asked anything. He also seemed to go out of his way to delay arrival at 3 lionesses such that we were only able to get photos of 1 in the evening sun rather than the 3 if we had arrived earlier. At the stop for sundowners he spent the time with guides from Kwara who had stopped close by. Much of the time in the vehicle with us, he was chatting to the tracker in Setswana. All of this was a very disappointing end to what was otherwise a fabulous 2 weeks in Botswana.

We did wonder whether there were some management issues at Little Kwara. Greetings seemed more perfunctory and we sensed a lack of team spirit. Having said that we did enjoy good conversations with several members of the staff. We also find it hard to believe that the issue outlined above had not come up before and been dealt with. Whilst staying at a small camp such as this has its attractions, it also brings limitations: the fact that we had to accept Hobbs as no other guides appeared to be available being one.

We don't feel able to recommend Little Kwara in spite of the obvious potential that this camp has."