Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs B from Somerset

"Apart from our last evening, we were the only guests at Kapani. This wasn't a problem as we enjoyed having the guide, Charles, to ourselves. Everyone was very attentive and the drives were tailored to our particular interests. Obviously this wouldn't be the case had there been other guests.
As this was our first safari holiday we didn't quite know what to expect. The game drives on the whole were very enjoyable and we saw a lot of birds near Kapani but the animals were mostly inside the national park. At times, particularly on the night drives, there were quite a few other vehicles present around the animals, which wasn't such an enjoyable experience."

"Luwi is a lovely camp and we really enjoyed being in the bush listening to the sounds of the animals at night. The camp was much more luxurious than we had imagined it would be and the delicious food also exceeded our expectations.

We went on our first walking safari from Luwi and enjoyed it very much. The focus of the walk was about the environment in which the animals lived and we learnt a huge amount about their surroundings and daily life. The walks were also a good opportunity for birdwatching, and we did get quite close to larger animals on occasion, a real treat!

The highlights of our stay at Luwi would have to be the herd of seventeen elephants walking past us as we sat relaxing in camp one afternoon and the large number of crocodiles eating a dead hippo at the lagoon."

"We walked to Nsolo from Luwi, which was a lovely way to arrive at this delightful bushcamp, passing herds of impala and puku on the way. We also had our first encounter with a buffalo! Pippa, our enthusiastic hostess, made our stay very enjoyable. The food and accommodation were excellent and being able to peek over the bathroom wall and be face to face with an elephant was a very novel experience.
The walks with Lawrence and Innocent were a wonderful opportunity to join zebra, elephant, wildebeest, warthogs and antelope in their environment. We were also lucky to see a serval and grysbok on our night drive."

"Our walk from Nsolo to Kakuli with Innocent was one of the highlights of our safari. We were very fortunate to see lots of animals and birds along the way. Standing 15m away from 3 giraffes was a magical moment as was the sighting of a leopard sitting in the dry river bed.

We were met at Kakuli by the very capable Amy, who along with her usual duties, had marauding elephants to cope with! We were informed of the safety drill regarding the elephants coming into camp and shown to yet another beautiful chalet. After a delicious lunch and a visit by Dickson, the resident elephant, we happily spent the afternoon on the viewing platform watching a group of elephants with babies drinking and enjoying the water in front of us.
We saw a huge number of animals during our time at Kakuli, particularly during the afternoon/night drives with our guide John. We were thrilled to get very close to giraffe, buffalo, hyena, leopard and even a pride of lions eating a zebra."

"Walking from Kakuli to Mchenja accompanied by John and Davis, we saw a group of young male lions on the other side of the dry river bed - we were looking at them and them at us. It was amazing to be on foot and be able to view the lions in this way thanks to the expert knowledge of our guide and scout. A bit further on we found ourselves in need of this expertise again when the wind changed as we walked past some young male elephants. Having been ushered swiftly to a safe spot, with Davis ready with his rifle, we were able to watch one of the elephants as he put on a macho show of trumpeting and throwing his head back, tusks displayed. Fortunately he decided against charging us but our hearts were thumping!

We arrived at Mchenja to be greeted by our lovely host Amber, who was very good company. By now we had grown used to the routine of delicious lunch followed by tasty cakes at afternoon tea and excellent dinner under the stars interspersed with informative walks and drives watching amazing wildlife. We were reunited with Lawrence as our guide for our two night stay, much to our delight as keen birdwatchers, as he took us to where hundreds of carmine bee-eaters were building nestholes - a marvellous sight. In addition to all the other animals we saw, he also came up trumps on our last night drive by finding a honey badger (up a tree), which we had been particularly keen to see."

"We only stayed here as we had to be near the airport for an early flight back to London. The room was comfortable and perfectly acceptable for a brief overnight stay. We had an evening meal in the dining room as the hotel didn't appear to be located in an area where there were any restaurants. We thought the food was overpriced and not very good. With hindsight we should have enquired whether there were any other places to eat nearby. We were provided with items for a very basic breakfast the night before, as we had to leave for the airport before they started serving breakfast."