Travel reviews by Mr S from New York

"The camp was beautiful and I really liked that the cabins were so separate. The view of the the water was especially nice. One of the best parts of our stay at this camp was the walking tour led by Brian, and the sunset boat ride on the large boat was a close second. We had all the cocktails and hors d'oeurves we wanted and saw a spectacular sighting of elephants doeing a water crossing. It would have been nice to have had the chance to do more walking tours. It seemed that only one was available. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we saw many, many animals, which was great. I also really liked the fact that we had our own landrover for just the 4 of us, and that we had our own table for dinner. (I don't like being thrown together with strangers at meal times; and it was not so easy to get our own table at the other camps).. Cocktails offer a time when one can (if one wishes) mingle with other guests.

One very important suggestion I would make is that the morning tours should srart later. It was very challenging to be awakened at 5:30 am, and because the guides needed to awaken us and accocmpany us to breakfast, there was not much flexibility. I would suggest that the morning tours start out at 8 am instead of 6:30. This would allow the guests to get a decent night's sleep, it would be warmner and there would be no need to be woken up and accmpanied to breakfast since it would be daylight by then. Also, I am pretty sure we did not see any animalsat before 8 am or even 9 am that we did not see after 9 am. In fact, on our last day in the camp, we arranged with our guide to depart a little later in the morning because we planned to go directly to the airport for out next camp after a couple of hours of sightseeing, and that was great. Everything was more relaxed and enjoyable.

I realize that, by departing the camp at 8 am instead of .6:30 am, we would have less time on the morning rides, since we needed to be back for lunch at 11 - 11:30. But, 3 1/2 hours is more than enough time for a ride, especially since there were afternoon rides as well. After 3/ 1/2 hours, I felt ready to return, take a bathroom break and relax. But by starting out at 6:30 am, the rides were sometime 4 - 5 hours. That is a long time to be riding around in a bumpy landrover in the Kalihari sand."

"We saw a greater variety of animals at this camp than the others and it was wonderful. But we had to make a special request to have our own table at dinner time, which was a bit of a challenge.

See my suggention in my comments on Duma Tau that the morning rides should start at 8 am rather than 6:30."

"I really liked the informatility and small size of this camp. Also, to my delight, the morning tours start an hour later than the others, so we could be more rested and we were able to walk to breakfast on our own volition because it was daylight. (See my comments on Duma Tau about the problem with waking guests at 5:30.) I also liked the boar ride (in the small canoe boats) a lot, It was the best part of our stay. And, of course, gliding on the water is such a pleasant change from bumping around in the Kalihari sand.

Regarding the early rising issue, you may consider telling your guests that if they are traveling in a group of 4 or more people, they have the option of having their own Landrover and then could alter the departure times. I am not sure guests would realize this unless they were told. Guides seemed willing to depart later if everyone was willing to (but it was not apparent that we had the option to request this)."