Travel reviews by Miss P & Mr C from Weeton

"We loved Camp Amalinda. We were given Room 10 which was very spacious and set around a huge boulder. The showers in the bathroom area were excellent and very hot. The bed was comfortable and there was plenty of extra seating both inside and outside the room.

We had booked Paul Hubbard as our private guide for our stay and had the most amazing time with him. We stayed out in the National Park both days. Day one we took an extended walk to Nswatugi Cave to see the rock art and after another long and very enjoyable walk through the Park back to the vehicle, we drove to World's View to the site of Cecil Rhodes' grave. We had the entire site to ourselves and had a very pleasant time drinking sundowners while watching the sunset and listening to Paul talk about the history relating to Matabeleland.

Day two we spent the morning 'boulder bashing' in another part of the Park. The boulder scenery is stunning and we had great fun with Paul climbing up and down the huge domed granite rocks, many of which were covered in a beautiful yellow lichen. In the afternoon we went rhino-tracking. A Parks ranger accompanies you and within a short time we had found the dominant male white rhino and then later on a white female with her calf. On both sightings we were able to get very close to the rhino on foot.

We were the only guests initially at camp and a special mention must go to Colin, our young host, and Zeph, the barman/waiter who has been with Amalinda over 20 years. We were extremely well looked after by both of them and they were a pleasure to spend time with.

We could have spent at least a couple of more days in Matopos looking at other rock art caves and walking further in the Park, and we would definitely recommend booking Paul as your guide."

"This was our 4th trip to Mana Pools and as always we booked Mark van Zuydam to be our guide. He is an extremely experienced walking guide and as usual was a pleasure to be with for our 10nt Mana mobile.

This proved to be one of our most productive safaris to Mana, with fantastic Wild Dog and elephant sightings.

Natureways was the ground operator, and their tents are the best we have stayed in on safari with mesh panels filling the sides and roof of the tent allowing for very good visibility during the night. Isaiah, the cook, produced the most amazing food from very basic facilities with fresh bread being baked every day for breakfast and lunch.

We stayed in Chitake, Ilala and Mucheni 4 campsites. Our favourite on the floodplain is Mucheni 4 and this trip we had elephants walking through camp every day and on 2 occasions we saw leopard at night. One afternoon on a walk from camp we watched Boswell (one of Mana's big bull elephants) handstand in front of us no less than 6 times!

It is Mark's superb guiding that keeps bringing us back to Mana and hopefully we will be returning again in the future."

"We stayed at the Dar Serena hotel not the Royal Palm.

We had a very large and comfortable room, more than adequate for an overnight stay.

We opted for breakfast in our room due to an early pick-up of 6.30am. Room service is not charged for breakfasts ordered before 6am."

"From the moment we were collected by Moli and Noelle we knew we were in for a great time. They are an absolute joy to be with, both entertaining and full of enthusiasm. Their main camp was like a home from home with stunning views along the river bed and with very friendly staff.

We came to Kichaka to walk and that's exactly what we did. We covered approx. 130 kms over the holiday including around 60 kms of Ruaha riverfront. During our walks with Moli, who proved to be one of the most knowledgeable guides we have ever met, we were treated to many of his fascinating talks. So whether it is the workings of a termite mound or tuskless elephants, you will be totally captivated by Moli's passion for the subject.

We had some lovely elephant encounters on foot and watched a pride of lions cross the river right in front of us. However, the smaller animals gave just as much pleasure such as when we approached a very calm Dik-Dik to within a few metres.

Halfway through our stay we went on a 3 nt expedition to Mpululu in the north of the Park. No tourists have ever stayed overnight in this area. A fly camp was set up on the Mzombe river and we then spent the next few days exploring the area.

One morning we came across a big boulder strewn section of the riverbed, there were hippos everywhere, in the many pools among the boulders, and others making their way up and down the banks of the river. Other animals seen included kudu, giraffe, lion, buffalo and klipspringer. Aside from the immense pleasure for us of walking in areas undiscovered by tourists, one of the highlights was spending 2 of our evenings on Mpululu rock watching the sun go down. It felt like you were on top of the world and could see to the ends of the earth. It was a totally magical and special place.

Each evening, the next days activities are discussed and planned with Moli. You decide whether you want to walk, take a game drive, arrange fly camping or do a 'sleep-out'. The sleep-out tents are small dome tents made entirely of mosquito netting for an all-round view and are great fun. A special mention must go to Noelle's amazing meals which are by far some of the best we have ever had on safari.

All in all, this was a stand-out safari for us - unspoilt Africa at its best in the company of two people who are so very obviously passionate about their surroundings. You cannot ask for more!"

"Chitake Springs is a very remote location within Mana Pools National Park. We were in an excellent mobile camp with our guide Mark van Zuydam. The emphasis here is purely on walking safaris. The scenery is stunning with dry riverbeds and lots of interesting baobab trees.

In the evenings, one of the highlights are the groups of elephants that walk right by the camp along the river bed to drink the spring water, we also saw hyena and lion at night here. We had several sightings of lion on foot and thoroughly enjoyed our time walking and tracking the wildlife."

"Once in the main Mana Pools flood plain areas, the order of our mobile camping plan was changed. As we were on a private safari we could be flexible so we decided to only do one canoe trip from Mucheni to Chessa instead of going on to Ilala camp. This allowed us to walk more on the second day.

We stayed 2 nights at Chessa which was a lovely camp site along the banks of the Zambezi channel."

"The private camp at Mucheni was our favourite location along the river bank. We spent all our mornings and evenings walking with Mark. One of the many highlights was sitting very close to a pride of lions and walking behind them when they moved to a different area to relax.

We had very good sightings of Eland, Kudu, and Waterbuck as well as the many groups of Elephants. Mark was able to walk us very close to a couple of the big bulls which was an absolutely amazing experience."

"Little Vundu is in a beautiful location right on the banks of the Zambezi. Once again we spent most of our time walking in the bush and along the flood plain. One morning at breakfast Mark heard alarm calls and we set off quickly on foot just in time to see a lioness walking among the thickets behind camp.

At lunchtimes in camp elephants would walk through right alongside the dining table. One bull in particular would walk up almost to within touching distance.

We were lucky to see the area's Wild Dog pack not far from camp. The puppies were chasing a warthog which was very exciting to watch. We saw the Wild Dogs on two other occasions, the last being on foot and during which we were able to watch at close hand the darting and re-collaring of one of the dogs by the Painted Dog Conservation team."

"Eight Reedbuck was in a good location for the early morning transfer to the airport. The rooms are large and very comfortable with well appointed bathrooms.

The only criticism really is that breakfast is quite poor. It is delivered to your room the night before and only consists of bland cereal, yogurt and a piece of fruit."