Travel reviews by Mrs H from London

"We had a great time. The Botswana leg and the Falls were both pretty much perfect. As per above comments Little Kulala could perhaps sharpen its act up a bit (by contrast, Sandibe sent us off with a farewell package and left us feeling they really cared). We would say that had we not booked our own dunes trip in Swakop, that would have felt like a wasted stop - driving 6 hours to get there and 5 hours the day we left, we would not have wanted a long drive on the Swakop day to see eg seals but Swakop itself really doesn't have much to last over an hour. So we would strongly recommend being clear with people that they ought to book an activity for the day. We went with Amazing 5 Tours and they were excellent (EA weren't able to book with Turnstone as we only decided late and we felt we were almost warned off going with anyone else). In Vic Falls, worth knowing that the back gate to the Falls is permanently shut so it would be a long walk. We could have done it all alone but found a friend of a friend who was able to take us down to and across the border. For non "Africa hands" I think there is a risk that EA underestimates how wearing it could be crossing and recrossing the border without someone on hand to help. I also have a bit of an issue with the wildlife survey - I think that, like the reviews, they take into account everything since 2007. So for Sandibe there are 4 poor reviews, all 2012 or earlier. More importantly there are reasonably high % sightings eg for Rhino when Sandibe now has none and Nxabega has a solitary male. If someone has their heart set on a rhino this is actively misleading. Not an EA point but maybe one for next edition of the Namibia guide. We wanted somewhere to stop on the way back to Windhoek and the book implied Gross Barmen was a decent idea. It is abysmal. Absolutely no positives and a 30 minute drive each way to find this out."