Travel reviews by Mrs R from Lower Hutt

"We thoroughly enjoyed Muchenje Lodge, it's staff, the rooms, food and guides. Fantastic view from the lodge.

The only downside was the distance to the park - though a few minutes from the gate- the drive down to the river front where the animals generally were was another 30 minutes. This uses an hour of the 3 hour game drive. The ranger was superb- we saw lots- and Chobe is superb. Recommend this time of year as the ranger said a lot more time spent in the forest looking for animals once wet season in force.

The Chobe River Cruise is a must do- and it will be great when this departs from the new jetty rather than driving an hour back to Kasane in the open jeep. The benefit of this jeep drive though means you travel back along the river in the jeep to the lodge which was great game viewing.

Paid for private vehicle for the kids but shared a boat- not sure if this was meant to be the case but it meant kids who wanted front seats had to compete with a 400mm camera and be on their best behaviour- took the edge off versus our private one we did independently."

"Andrew welcomed us off the light plane flight with an afternoon safari back to camp. We were very lucky to see a male and female lion and then two male lions on our way. The Kwhai area was a lovely change of scenery to the dry Chobe vegetation.
The camp is amazing. Patrick puts out delicious food and the team is very friendly. Enjoyed celebrating Botswana day.

This was the family's favourite experience after trying self drive and lodges. Recommend rangers for safari's every time with as small as numbers as possible to increase chance of more time at sightings and moving on when you want.

Andrew is a great guide- spotting all the animals we wanted to see- this was week 2 of safari for us so we were happy to see more of the same and take our time at each sighting and Andrew found it- Hippos restless, Lion cubs, Leopard, Wild Dogs.
A slight confusion about our travel home was very well handled and it turned out to be the best game drive yet.

Recommend- check one of the mattresses- one was very firm- and have snacks for the afternoon safari drive on arrival- we had left our lodge at 1045, had breakfast at 9 and didn't eat until 6pm- fine for the adults- tough on master 10 and 12."