CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Central Kalahari Game Reserve by Georg Treptow
Saw lions and leopards and some big birds.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Completely alone
The Nxai Pan National Park was definitely one of the highlights on our three week trip through Botswana.
We stayed at Baines camp site 2, which gave us some much needed shade against the hot afternoon sun. There were some campers at site 3 at night but the distance between the sites is so great that you could only make out thier campfire in the pitch black dark.
Complete silence. I have never felt so far away from Civilization in my life as I did n this National Park. We did not see a single human soul or human presence (other than the mentioned fire) the entire time in the park.
When the sun goes down you really feel like part of the milky way as there is a billion stars all around.
I can strongly recommend this place. Book your campsites early as there are only three of them.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Addo Elephant National Park by M_Fdez
Addo National Park is close to the idea than European are looking for in an African National Park: vast, diverse, beautiful. Enjoying with a semi-wild group of elephants in front of you is a great experience
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice, but not superb, experience for an European
As a biologist, I enjoyed African Nature in many diverse places in South Africa; also in Mountain Zebra National Park, of course. Landscapes are beautiful, not very different to African savanna, I think. There were very few tourists when I visited the Park, so it was a good moment to relax and enjoying driving through it.
Apart from this, I have to say that mammals diversity was not too high, so we had to drive a long way to see "big" animals (gazelles and zebras, most of them). I can imagine that the most of urban citizens, unused to Nature, prefer to find wilder animals like rhinos, lions, cheetahs,... and that could be the reason why we saw so few tourists there.
My final impression was that Mountain Zebra is a good park, sure, but it shouldn'be a priority for visitors
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about South Africa by ntny1955
South Africa has some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet. The people were incredibly warm and welcoming.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Botswana by Georg Treptow
Drive slowly or you might hit an elephant turning around a corner, careful when getting out of the car as lions and leopards are many in numbers inside all the parks.
The only thing we did not see were rhinos and cheetas, everything else was present.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about South Africa by M_Fdez
Excellent destination for all of them who want to discover and enjoy wild Nature.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Unique Tours & Safaris by Georg Treptow
Heike put an amazing trip together for us. She has travelled all the spots she recommended herself and was able to provide information to each location that would have been hard to find elsewhere.
Everything was planned perfectly, from the timing of the various lodges and campsites to the directions to the various sights.
We already booked travel with her again for 2012.
Amazing Mikumi
Early Sunday morning 13 November the safari car was ready for our trip to Mikumi. We left the Arc hotel at 5am and arrived at the park borders when daylight broke, the best time of the day t o watch animals. The watching of animals in Mikumi is no doubt facilitated by the fact that the main road from Dar es Salaam towards the (wild?!) west passes right through the park. We watched elephants and other animals crossing this busy road without paying special notice to the huge lorries that use the road at all hours of the day.
After driving an additional 40 or 50 kms we arrived at the main gate. We spent some time getting registered and paying the access fees. The entrance staff first insisted that we use credit card to pay the fees. But in the end we were allowed to even pay in Tanzanian shillings, although we were clearly expected to pay in US$. One may wonder how the Tanzanian citizens manage to get into the park if they do not have a credit card or have bought dollars from their local bank.
One of the reasons we went to Mikumi was to also visit the Genesis Snake Park. We had first understood that it was part of the National Park. But it is in fact a private venture, like a small zoo with snakes and other reptiles like crocodiles and turtles. We enquired with the National Park guide about the snake park. He said it was a shame to have it in the Mikumi neighbourhood. In fact, he suggested that we could buy the snakes and other reptiles and move them all to Morogoro if we could find a good place for them there, for example at SUA or in a private zoo that he also thought would be of interest both for local people in Morogoro and for visitors. He said that he could no doubt get the National Park Service to write a recommendation in this regard.
We then drove off into the Mikumi National Park spending a couple of hours on the ‘game drive’. In addition to the big mammals that we already had seen before going through the gate (elephants, girafs and various antelopes and zebras) we also watched many birds, lizards, and maybe we even saw the tail of a leopard.
The possibility to see more than the tail made the driver bring the car off the road and onto some rather clayish and wet terrain. Even using the full four wheel drive gear it took him quite some time to get us back onto the road. Some of us started suggesting that we get off and help by pushing the car. But he finally made it.
On the way back to the entrance we stayed for a while at the so-called hippo lake. However, this rather small lake or pond was really nothing compared to the Wami river hippos that we watched on trip to the Wami-Mbiki Mkongo camp on 11 November, where we could walk along the river bank both watching and listening to the herd of some 30 or 40 hippos enjoying themselves in the middle of the river while clearly aware of us all along. Sometimes one of them opened its huge mouth towards us, apparently as a warning to us not to come too close or maybe stay too long.
After the game drive we then went to the Genesis snake park lodge where a guide showed us various mainly dangerous venomous snakes like cobras and green mambas. We were not very impressed by the presentation, nor by the conditions the snakes were living under (along with some turtles and crocodiles). The guide tried to impress us by making one of cobras (se photo) attack him by tapping on the thick glass window separating the snake from us.
We had a quick lunch at the snake park restaurant and then went back to Morogoro and the Arc hotel.