Travel reviews by Mr. & MS. B from Colorado

"Little Machaba was a great start to our 9 day trip. The staff was very friendly, and we had the camp to ourselves for the first 2 days. Since they were not busy they gave us a family tent with an outdoor shower. We had one persistent elephant at our tent one day for a couple hours. Overall, the wildlife sightings were very good and it was the only area where we saw leopards (and extremely close).

Although we saw lots of animals and birds there was an issue with animal crowding at times. When our guide or another guide from a different camp spotted an animal, they all seemed to be in contact and several vehicles loaded with people would arrive and surround the animal (leopard for example). This was the only camp where this was an issue."

"Savute Under Canvas was our favorite camp. They move every 6 days to a different camp site and considering the remote location the food and amenities were excellent. The staff at this camp were very friendly and very helpful. They treated us exceptionally well and the entire staff sang everyone who arrived a "welcome" song and later a "goodbye" song upon departure! It was an amazing experience!

Tony, our guide was very knowledgeable did an excellent job! We had him to ourselves for the first 2 days and he did everything he could to accommodate our requests. We saw almost every animal except the rhinos which are endangered due to poaching and have been relocated for safety reasons.

I would highly recommend Savute Under Canvas for a more primitive but very comfortable camping experience."

"The Okavanga Delta is flooded each year to create a vast area of water from 6" to 6' deep. Access to Pelo Camp is by boat in the winter and Land Cruiser in summer. The camp was excellent and the majority of the staff were friendly and very accommodating. The two of us were joined by four others from S. Africa and it was nice to visit with them about their culture. The camp had a pool and nice bar/lounge area overlooking the delta. Sunsets at every camp we visited were spectacular including Pelo. At Pelo we could hear the hippos grunting every night!

On the last day our guide Johnny let us decide whether to look for wildlife on land or water. We all chose water as we wanted to see the hippos up close. Boy did we ever get our wish! In the deeper waters the hippos congregate as a pod or family except the aggressive male hippos who are outcast by the group. The males can be dangerous as we found out. They were very aggressive and extremely fast for their size. It was an exciting and memorable evening to say the least!

We also had a mother elephant charge our vehicle one afternoon after her young male offspring kept trumpeting at us for no apparent reason. She suddenly appeared from bush trumpeting wildly and came after us to protect her baby! Johnny gunned the vehicle and we were out of harm's way in a matter of seconds. Luckily a woman in our group had her camera on so we got a special video of the episode.
The were fewer species of large mammals but we did see lots of elephants, hippos, crocodiles, giraffes and hyenas. There was also an amazing bird population with many species we had never seen nor heard of before.

I would highly recommend Pelo Camp to others."