Travel reviews by Mr K & Mrs N from UK

"This trip was due to take place in April 2020 - we were due to travel just days after the first lockdown began - and Expert Africa, particularly Sabina Hekandjo, have supported us to ensure we were able to transfer the bookings to 2021 and then 2022 when the UK turned out to have returned to lockdown in 2021.

This was a huge amount of work - not just once but twice - with the complexity of the itinerary and changes that were needed and we really appreciated Sabina’s hard work, patience and sound advice throughout as well as Expert Africa’s commitment to their customers (and providers in Africa) ensuring our booking was honoured irrespective of time spent.

Due to Sabina’s expert knowledge and experience, our itinerary covered so many amazing aspects of Namibia yet was still relaxing and allowed time to take in each element and add activities if we wanted. The lodges were all amazing, food fantastic, people warm, friendly and welcoming, scenery beautiful and wildlife outstanding in spite of this being a ‘greener than normal’ green season.

We very much enjoyed our long awaited trip and would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone with a love for the natural world and a sense of adventure.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The personalised service you provide is amazing, so we have no suggestions for improvement, you are already doing a great job, thank you."

"We are experienced safari goers. We expected a remote adventure and that is what we got in Hwange National Park.

An added bonus was that our guide, Andrew Dalziel, was with us from start to finish and for all of our days in the park, there was just him and us - which made it a very personal trip.
His knowledge and humour was fantastic, we enjoyed our daily bush walks probably covering around 25km in the six days, and we learnt new things everyday. We got very close to elephants on a number of occasions through Andrew’s skills and he was ably assisted by Felix, one of the very long serving camp staff.

Although the animals are skittish in this park, this did not detract from our overall enjoyment. We also spotted over 135 different birds in just six days, with the most varied number of raptors we have seen in an area for a long time. There has been a lot of work undertaken on renovating water pumps in the park, with lots of new solar pumps. This means that all animals have ready access to water in most areas, which does lead to it being harder to spot the animals but certainly didn’t make our experience any less enjoyable.

The camp staff were fantastic - both in the bush camp and during the fly camping. You did not feel that anything was too much trouble at any point, whether it be breakfast in the morning, hot water for a shower or coffee after dinner. Guides and camp staff worked well together and it almost felt like being part of a family for six days.

We did not expect a guide to ourselves for the trip - as we were the only guests for the first two nights, and the only guests going fly camping, this may well have been the reason why. We felt extremely lucky to have Andrew with us - albeit that we were surprised not to have the guides mentioned on Expert Africa’s pages - very much our gain, just not what we had expected.

In many respects, this has been one of our most enjoyable safaris - we may not have seen as many mammals as in other places but the variety of birds, ability to get so close to nature and quality of guiding, alongside the friendliness of the camp staff, all made for an excellent trip. We would strongly recommend this. We feel sure any site chosen for the new camp will be as good because the people will make it so."

"This was our fourth visit to Namibia and the third time we have driven ourselves, using Expert Africa to organise our trip. Booking experience as usual was efficient and timely with costings and confirmations of accommodation quickly achieved.

Comprehensive pack provides all the information you need for your trip.

Bidvest hire car provided an added bonus this year - we would definitely recommend a Ford Ranger to cope with the gravel roads.

Accommodation exactly as we expected, Etendeka Mountain Camp however was an exceptional experience and Mushara Bush Camp and Olive Exclusive did not disappoint.

Etosha in the dry season provided excellent wildlife viewing with hundreds of elephant, seven black rhino, lion encountered every day including sightings of males fighting and a kill by a waterhole. We were also lucky enough to follow a leopard for thirty minutes one morning.

We sighted just under a hundred different birds, including fifteen different raptors.

Would not hesitate to recommend this as a safe, self drive destination and price-wise, very cost effective compared to other African countries (which are priced in dollars)."

"We had a fantastic time and felt very well looked after from booking through to follow up on our return.

This is our second Namibian trip booked with Sabina and we were not disappointed. The advice provided on both occasions was not only helpful but also very accurate.

We will certainly book with Expert Africa again.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Could include prices with brochure to give a rough idea, it is more difficult now they are separate to have any idea whether the trips may be affordable without any information."

Feedback response

This traveller has put together a beautiful book titled 'Ghosts of the Huab River Valley' about the Desert Adapted Elephants in Namibia.
To preview or purchase a copy please click on the link here.

"We had a great trip - we have visited Africa more than 20 times so had a good idea of what to expect. Having planned our route, Sabina helped us to refine, check what was actually possible from a driving distance perspective and find the best options available in each location.

There were some late changes, both on our part and Expert Africa's, which were handled very well. Things ran smoothly from collection of hire car to it's return almost two weeks later. Namibia is a great country to visit for a self-drive, we would highly recommend it as we would Expert Africa!"