Travel reviews by LN from Suffolk

"Standard airport hotel, friendly staff, acceptable roof restaurant. Perfect for arrival night after a tiring travel day."

"We booked this trip to Laikipia with the aim of searching for the Black Leopard. We had previously experienced disappointment in India - a whole week in Nagarahole with only one very distant and unclear sighting and then an unfortunate non-sighting in Tadoba. So we were prepared for frustration, particularly when told on arrival that no black leopard had been seen for 3 days. So when we managed SEVEN sightings of Giza the enigmatic Black Leopard, 3 of which we were first to find, you can imagine our elation. All these sightings were wonderful. Giza was active, relaxed - or at least untroubled by our presence - and happy to give us many excellent photographic opportunities.

The whole trip was a great success in fact, with many other interesting wildlife encounters and several ‘firsts’. We have for example never before seen Grevy’s Zebra as they are endangered and limited in territory. We have never seen so many Hyena together and in daylight. We also had an interesting first (evening) drive when a leopard had made a large Impala kill in the morning and been unable to move it away from opportunistic predators. The hyena family arrived, followed by a Pride of lions and the leopard went hungry. Loud crunching could be seen and heard on the far bank in dim light. We also had a lengthy and close encounter with a herd of elephants, many amusing reticulated giraffe and more Dik Dik antelope than we ever thought possible. There were many different species of bird from Eagles to starlings and we were delighted with all the colour. We had good sightings of everything from Rock Hyrax & African Hares to Kudu & Leopard - we were of course delighted to see several normal leopards too. Even the guinea fowl were fun, along with the Warthogs and Agama Lizards.

Dan Peel was probably the best safari guide we have had anywhere. He is both passionate and knowledgable on all aspects of this place and many beyond. We even bought his excellent book on Giza. We don’t usually do that!

We were pleased with the safari regime. The off road driving permission and limited vehicle numbers as well as continuation after dark was all critical to the quality of our sightings. Sundowners, brunch in the park, lookout platforms, waterfalls … these all added to a sense of involvement. This has not been our experience of Indian Wildlife Parks or even some of the more regimented parks in Africa. We also had exclusive use of the vehicle on all bar 2 safaris.

So all in all, we had a wonderful time in Laikipia with 7 great sightings of Giza the Black Leopard and all sorts of other interesting encounters as well.

Our only complaint relates to the Priority vehicle. This is expensive and not worth doing, one might say a disingenuous offer, given that it makes no difference at all to your ‘priority'. There was never an occasion where we were at an advantage over other vehicles. How does the Priority Vehicle differ from any other? If it is the vehicle carrying the orange searchlight, we never had it. If it is the vehicle given priority position by the other vehicles, this also did not happen. When we had so called 'Shared Priority’ our guide had to ask another guide if it "would be possible to come a bit closer as we had no line of sight". In fact we were indebted to other guests on that occasion for withdrawing their vehicle to give us a view.

Having said that, all vehicles got to see the Black Leopard and there were never more than 4 vehicles at any sighting, usually 3. Whilst the Priority Vehicle issue did not detract from our experience in the end, we believe your guests should not be asked to pay for a non-existent service.

The Wilderness accommodation was absolutely apposite - we felt we were living in the middle of the action. In fact Giza was often spotted close to the camp. This property is the place to be, at least for now. Who knows if we would be so lucky next time."