Travel reviews by Mick from San Clemente

"We wanted a special experience away from all the many travelers & that's exactly what we got & more, much more. This was our 1st time to Africa & I was responsible for arranging the trip for us & another couple, so I wanted it to go well. From the moment we touch down in our small plane from Maun & drivers picked us up to return to our camp we must have seen 15-20 different species of animals just on the 30 min. drive to camp. Our excitement to the volume & close encounter of wildlife was overwhelming. If that was all there was for 3 days that would have fine with all of us however, it got so much better with encounters of Wild Dog packs hunting antelope to elephants eating tree branches next to our deck a few feet away. The camp is new & looks that way. The food was fantastic, we had an open bar with anything we wanted & the staff was very accommodating morning, noon & night. We would highly recommend this camp for all the reasons above."

"We stayed at Splash Camp for 3 days 1st & now 3 days to stay at Lagoon Camp. We had such a great experience in our 1st ever safari at Splash Camp we really had no expectations here at Lagoon Camp. This Camp is right on the water & the days (Aug. 6th) were just starting to get hot, so being close to water this felt a lot cooler for us right away. The rooms at the Camp were fantastic, lots of room to spread out & views along the river. The overall camp facilities are a bit dated & some maintance needed, i.e.all the tiles from pool missing, but we had the most volume of animals in close conditions here. Our experiences from watching large pride of lions get into position to hunt Cape Buffilo, to tracking a leopard for nearly an hour that finally roars at us & runs away to following Wild Dog pack line up trotting military style & narrowly missing antelope. Night drive disclosed young lions trying to figure out how to get a porcupine over without getting stuck. All the time we are mere feet away watching the events unfold. We had no idea it could be even better then we already experienced at our 1st safari. Even more close sights & large volumes of pride, herd, packs every type of animal except Rhino, but none of us were disappointed didn't see this 1 animal. So much to see in river rides & land safari's. Cannot say enough good things about the service and people running the camp. The encounters & especially the guides Gee & PD were amazing at tracking & positioning vehicles right in the middle of all the action. Many times it was only the 4 of us, along with our 2 guides."

"The facilities are great, food was ok & breakfast was best. Rooms very comfortable & modern facilities in the room.
There's a man made water hole you can view from the rooms that looks perfectly in a natural setting. Lots of elephants, wart hogs, antelope, cranes & even a few crocodiles show up just about every day here. Fun to view. This & hotel adjacent would be the best in the Victoria Falls area. Others might be a little closer to the falls, but the town can be very busy & is not a great place to be.
Our thing to do here was view the entire falls one day, walk the town, shop a bit, have lunch & take the white water rafting another day. The White Water Rafting was intense, both for hiking in/out of deep gorge & the rapids at our time of year presented us with many class 4 & 5 rapids. Most boats flip unless with an oarsman set up on the boat, these all fared better, but getting turned over was part of the adventure that living through it made it even more exciting. One important thing we didn't know is there's no ATM's or currency in Zimbabwe now. We were nearly out of all US $ & they only take CC at hotel & few of the better restaurants."