Reviews of Shinde Camp
(91%) From 45 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Shinde Camp review
Great all round - accomodation, food and activities.
Read more about the whole safariShinde Camp review
Our guide good but the speedboat drive was too fast and rushed
Read more about the whole safariShinde Camp review
An excellent lodge and we spent 3 good days doing a range of activities on land and water.
The guide we had in the boats and mokoro, Bonolo, was very good: knowledgeable and personable with it.
More fun at Shinde
Adam, our guide/driver kept us laughing the whole time we were at Shinde, but he was also very knowledgable and we also learnt a lot about the animals and the countryside.
Julius and his staff were again very helpful and we very much enjoyed our meals in the fantastic dining room built into the trees.
We again went out on the makurus - it is just so peaceful gliding along the waterways. We also went fishing and caught some bream, which were cooked and served to us to share with other guests for dinner that evening.
Shinde Camp review
Great hospitality - lovely room, lots of beautiful birds.
Wonderful mokoro trip and v good game drive.
Shinde Camp review
Unfortunately we have very little positive to say about Shinde.
Our gamedrive guide, Mr Bee, was so unskilled, that we just can´t believe he has passed any necessary training to become guide. Against our clear wish he for example drove again to show us a wounded lion that was unable to move. He repetitevely steered the wehicle directly into the herds causing the animals to escape. Most of the animals he spotted we had spotted much before him. There were hardly any breaks unless we forced him to stop in order to listen to nature sounds. On other camps this was how the guides spotted animals that were not visible yet.
The „managing“ youngsters (Magda and Falie) appear to lack the necessary experience and natural born competence and have not gained the undestanding on how to run a camp. They master small talk and entertainment but from our perspective such suits better a cabaret. This is however not what we do expect on a camp in Botswana.
One guide being a low light could be acceptable as one just can't always get the best cards but we are confident the problem was not just our guide. Merely the root here is the camp management. They appear to be totally lost and as young, dynamic and career minded persons try to hide it behind all that „hahaha hohoho, you guys, see any big stuff -management“.
Just one of the countless occasions: On one meal one of the guests shot a picture of a dove sitting inside our salad bowl and holding a piece of olive in bill. Magda asked the guest not to upload such a picture into internet as they are not allowed to feed wild animals. The animals, various birds and squirrel were there always and nobody from the staff seemed to care. On other camps all the food was always covered when unattended or not being taken to the plates. This was not the case at Shinde.
Our stay at Shinde camp was waste of time and money!
Expert Africa comments
Expert Africa and Shinde thanked these travellers for their feedback. All our traveller’s feedback is taken seriously, but especially so when improvements must be made to a camp or service. Shinde was happy to read that these travellers particularly enjoyed Footsteps – Shinde’s sister camp – as this is the kind of service that Ker & Downey Botswana aim for in all their camps and it gives them something to work towards at Shinde Camp.
In light of this feedback the General Manager and Managing Director of Ker & Downey Botswana have both been to Shinde Camp to investigate. They have discussed the various incidents with the managers to ensure that they don’t occur again. The General Manager will be staying at the camp for some days to monitor their performance. The guide, Bee, has been a member of the guiding team at Shinde for some years and has always garnered good reports from guests, even on Expert Africa's website – so it was particularly disappointing to hear of his recent conduct. The matter of Bee’s guiding methods has been taken very seriously and he has been suspended, pending an evaluation by management.
On a positive note Shinde consulted closely with the Botswana wildlife department and veterinary department regarding the wounded lion. They flew in a consultant who checked on the lion’s progress and we are happy to say that he has now been given a clean bill of health.
Shinde
Shinde was a different experience and although on the water the waterways are not as pretty as Kanana we had our best game viewing of all three camps including lion just a few feet from us.
It is quite something to hear the elephant and hippo crashing around the tent at night and we had a family of genet chasing around on the decking. Service was amazing with an incredible eye for detail including hot water bottles on game drives.
Wonderful, we just loved it.
Shinde Camp review
Again, I rated this camp very highly. Though I found the Staff, not unfriendly, maybe a bit reserved.
Game viewing, for the time of year, extremely good.
Good place to be, good people to be with.
Maybe not the best location in Okawango. Very nice landscape, not so many animals as in Lynianti, very nice staff but somehow more stiff and formal. Outstanding member was the moroco padler whose name is Kaykay or just KK, nefew
of our guide Bee.Period of the year not the best for the location, but the staff did everything possible do proportionate a very good stay.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
