CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by JD~PHOTOGRAPHY
A beautiful park but a bit difficult to find wildlife such as lions and elephants.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My first visit to South Africa, my first Safari.
Just to put things in perspective my holiday was actually called "Butterflies of South Africa" it was a four centre holiday starting at Wakkerstroom then uMkhuze, Saint Lucia and finally eShowe, only 2 nights were actually spent in the game reserve.
The main entrance to the reserve was flooded due to recent heavy rain, so we made a detour to another gate. Even at this one there was plenty of water about. For the remainder of my visit we never had any problems with floods, and the tracks and roads around the reserve were dry and in good repair.
I was provided with a tent. It had all modern conveniences, shower, flush toilet, electricity. Beds had mosquito nets. Unfortunately I was never at ease in the tent and didn't have a minutes sleep on my first night. I missed having a solid door! There are chalets on the site so if I went back I would definitely stay in one of them.
Butterflies and birds were our main objective, but we still had plenty of time to drive around the reserve to see much larger wildlife. It is hard to explain just how thrilling it is to see antelope, rhino, giraffe, zebra in their natural surroundings. We were actually in two minibuses, window seats were at a premium. Generally, my fellow travellers were considerate to others needs, and there was much moving around within the vehicle so everyone had a chance to get a good view and take some photos.
I have to mention our guides: John Davies and Bert Palthe of Lawson's Birding Safaris. They were very friendly, resourceful, and had a totally awesome knowledge of the fauna and flora of the region. In short they were totally amazing, and this added greatly to an already amazing experience (please remember this was my first safari)!
Some highlights of my visit were:
An early morning walk in the reserve searching for butterflies. The chief warden with his rifle made this particularly memorable, it also proved very rewarding in terms of butterflies seen.
An early morning drive to a viewing tower in the reserve. John and Burt supplied tea and "rusks" while we gazed over a panorama of the reserve. Mainly zebra sighted, but still rewarding.
An evening barbeque, where John and Bert cooked the food. A bright light shone on a white sheet attracted many insects. Another member of the group was wearing a white shirt and a gigantic dragonfly landed on it and stayed their for quite a while.
Finally I would just like to mention the drive into the reserve. It was particularly striking due to the enormous number of vast spider's webs on view. Large Golden Orb spiders were clearly visible on many of the webs.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
More elephants than you can shake a stick at!
This is a very popular park and it shows with the amount of people you will see there. There isn't a place where you will think you are in the middle of nowhere, the roads are mainly paved and you are never very far from another car.
There is a notice board near the main shop that lists the animal sightings for the day so it allows you to plan out your trip, Addo is enormous so make sure you take a whole day to view of all (if not more).
We drove for a while only seeing a couple of animals, then a single male elephant stode into view. We followed him until he turned a corner and we saw a whole herd of the magnificent beasts. This memory will stay with me forever. We found several other herds throughout the day each as amazing as the other.
This is an amazing park and there are plenty of other animals to see (lions, zebras, antelope to name but a few). If you like elephants then you will love this park.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A once in a lifetime experience
Our trip to Kenya and vistit to Tsavo West National Park was our first (and so far only) safari. It was one of our most enjoyable and memorable vacations so far. Although we did not spot any cats, we basically saw every other animal: giraffes, elephants, zebras, hippos, owls, etc.
We slept in a (fully equipped) tent , which made the experience complete. In the night you could literally hear the animals passing by. Amazing.
After a couple of days we stayed in a resort at the beach. That was nice as well, but we all hoped the safari would have last a little longer. The days just seemed to flew by!
Please have a look a my pictures to get an impression of Kenya and Tsavo West National Park: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beukhof/sets/72157639847428163
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic safari destination.
We went to Tarangirie National Park and Ngorongoro Crater with Diana Tanzania Safaris and it was incredible. Diana and her guides took great care of us. It's a lot of driving, but it's worth it for the wildlife and scenery. Be careful not to drink the water or swim in pools, but otherwise love love loved it.
Good
Went to Uganda with Matoke, 10 day tour. Wim provided many details during the planning of the trip regarding travel times (very difficult without local knowledge), camp and food accommodations, and activities. I was able to tailor the whole trip to my desires, and everything went beautifully. My guide was Musa, a long time guide, with lots of local insight to the culture, landscape, flora and fauna of Uganda. He clearly takes pride in being Ugandan, and travelling alone with him for 10 days was informative and always pleasurable. Our schedule included many long days, and Musa endured them all with a smile. I would not hesitate to recommend Matoke to anyone considering African travel, and would ask for Musa specifically if I return to the area.
good destination and beautiful scenic
it was a perfect vacation for our honeymooners the review was great
Pilanesberg
I visited the Pilanesberg in September 2014, for a long weekend. We stayed in the Madikwe facility. The accommodation is satisfactory. We hired a 4 sleeper unit. I slept in the "upstairs" bedroom. The layout of the units does not allow beds to be pushed against the wall, which I did not like and the beds were not particularly comfortable. We ate at the camps restaurant. The food was adequate, but they could not produce all the items on the menu and were slow to deliver food. Breakfast at Bakubang was good. The units cooking facilities were good, with a barbeque and other cooking facililities.
From a wildlife perspective, we were fortunate to see a number of animals including rhino. The dam had a number of animals and provided for some good photo oppurtunities. We saw several animals over a period of a few hours, and had plenty of photo opportunities. The range of animals is pretty diverse. The park has reasonable flora. Good views over the lands from some of the higher elevations of the park.
The reserve became pretty full during the mid-morning and their were a significant number of vehicles in the park. The roads are mostly good.
The park is conveniently located being an hour and a halfs drive from Pretoria and Johannesburg. The park is close to Sun City and Rustenburg.
My view is that for a short visit of two days the park is certainly worth visiting, if you are in that part of the work.
A trip I will never forget
Tsavo East is as epic.
Wild animals living free in copious amounts of land.
We even managed to find a lion pride eating a kill and a lion stalking a gazelle through the bush.
The whole experience was a great adventure and one I would recommend to anyone seeking a taste of what it's like to see animals in the wild instead of a false zoo experience where the animals are caged
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Amboseli National Park by Max&Mary
Elephant Haven and Kilimajaro the best !
This is a wonderful park for elephants and for wetland birdlife. The sunset views of Kilimanjaro and the elephants in the foreground are quintessential Africa