Travel reviews by Crowned plovers from NL

"The experience was very good. We would have liked to have seen the Falls from the Zimbabwe side - vehicles were crossing the bridge, so this should have been possible? Adrian remembers that the view from Zim is even more impressive than that from Zam."

"We had the camp to ourselves. Brilliant guide (Dennis), brilliant hostess (Gertrude) and brilliant food (London restaurant standard!).

Excellent camp, no reservations about it. (Tho we later became used to having hot water bottles in our beds in other camps - a welcome luxury).

The camp manager Martin was conspicuous by his absence throughout our stay - we felt the staff were compensating for a lack of leadership from him."

"Demarie and Grant were excellent hands-on managers - very active.

Our guide Dux was excellent and he handled a problem with a very difficult client superbly.

Demarie and Grant were also involved in this - they also radioed ahead to ensure that we (or others) would not get involved in the same situation at the next camp - the family in question was subsequently given a vehicle to themselves to confine the problem."

"We had to wait for pickup at the airstrip and were eventually met by a mechanic with a torn T-shirt.

The staff at Sandibe were almost all excellent. But in common with some other guests we felt that the top management couple were a bit out of touch. The lady told us she was looking for a transfer (not a good thing to say to guests) and she was conspicuously absent for most of our stay. We formed the impression that she was not very happy.

After two guests complained about a lack of service her partner (Bruce) suddenly became much more visible and he was in fact very good at the front of house stuff.

Our guide at Sandibe (Bee) was a lovely guy but was not very good at handling his group. He did not communicate well and his timing was all over the place; this caused some resentment He also got us stuck in a river which we had successfully negotiated earlier in the day - he took a different line through the river for reasons best known to himself. This was after dark and the rescue team was not very fast off the mark; I suppose we were stuck for something over an hour.

The next day we had a puncture - hardly anyone's fault - and the day after the starter motor started playing up - perhaps a lack of maintenance?
Angela's dietary requirements were forgotten several times - we had to remind them.
No candles in rooms - requested some but they did not arrive.
One night we were stranded in our tent as the guide forgot to pick us up.
This was symptomatic of the lack of management we experienced in Sandibe.
It was very cold while we were at Sandibe and it seemed that the normal timetable of drives etc was inappropriate. The would drive around for 2 hours in the morning without seeing any game - we were assured that the animals were staying in the bush keeping warm (while we were driving around keeping cold!)

When this was mentioned we got a later start time organized, but even that was too early. Why do the camps adhere to the breakfast-drive-brunch-high tea-drive-dinner formula? When we got to Meno a Kwena their breakfast - walk or drive - lunch - walk or drive - dinner formula worked perfectly. They suggested that the other timetable was a hangover from the days of hunting safaris when people would breakfast, then drive two hours or so to the hunting ground, hunt then brunch, drive back to tea, etc??
Most of the other camps we went to had timetables similar to Sandibe's, but we question the value of this."

"Very interesting camp. Good staff - our guide Dabe was excellent. A very interesting man full of knowledge and very proud of being San. We had fascinating conversations about his community near Ghanzi and he edited for me the section on the San in Chris McIntyre's excellent Botswana (a really very good guide book). If Chris wishes to discuss this please ask him to call Adrian - the relevant part of the book is where Chris discusses the difficulty of naming the San appropriately (a good and very sympathetic section which I enjoyed).

When booking I had formed the impression that the camp was on the edge of the Pans so was slightly disappointed not to repeat the experience I had 10 years ago of being on the Pans themselves. But Dabe more than made up for this disappointment.
We wish we had longer at Meno."

"Very comfortable, friendly and helpful hosts.

Only complaint: outrageously expensive wine list. I actually paid more for the South African wine I chose than I pay in a restaurant in the UK for the same wine! (My choice I know, but it was my first transaction in Namibian dollars and i did not register just how expensive the wine was until I came to pay for it. So it was entirely my responsibility.)"

"Energetic and enthusiastic manager was extremely helpful in resolving an issue to do with car hire which I will write about below. It was clear that he had had several experiences of dealing with Europcar deficiencies on behalf of his clients.
Balloon trip was fantastic.

David the guide we felt was a bit intrusive in his handling of bugs and lizards - no other guide picked up living creatures."

"We enjoyed this eccentric place and its owner Sam though would probably have preferred a more authentically local place.

Good if old-fashioned food and a truly memorable breakfast spread."

"An excellent experience. We were fascinated about the history of the camp and by the two senior ladies in charge (Lena and Corry) with whom we had interesting conversations. Felt well informed by the time we left and very impressed by the Conservancy model they described to us.

Coincidentally our guide in the next camp (Boni) had for 9 years been chairman of the conservancy council for Torra conservancy and it was interesting hearing more from him about how it was negotiated within the community. I wish he would come over and work his magic on our Parish Council!

Everest the guide was not very communicative but brilliant at locating wildlife and has superb eyesight."

"Very interesting camp - I was afraid that we might have been jaded by all the good food, facilities and service by this stage of the trip but this was not the case. This was so different from everything we had experienced thus far that we were not in any way disappointed.

Dennis was extremely informative as was our guide Boni who was very competent. Clare was a very attentive hostess and generously supplied a lunch box when we left."

"Okonjima was really just an overnight stop on the way to Windhoek and home, but it was well worth doing.

The ethos is very different - we have reservations about leopards with radio collars just so they can be located for tourists. But the night hide was great - seeing porcupines for the first time was very rewarding. A slick operation which felt rather more commercial than other camps we visited."