Reviews of Kalahari Bush Breaks
(80%) From 10 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Kalahari Bush Breaks review
The lodge was easy to find and access and the owners and staff very welcoming. We were the only patrons.
The lodge and rooms are superb. The food was very good and there were soome good animal and bird sightings around. (Warthog, kudu and impala at the water hole) Impala outside the room window in the morning. It was sad we only had one night there.
Great overnight stop
Well run family establishment with two ,labrador dogs. We had a comfortable semi-detached chalet with bath. One of our best dinners with a whole kudu fillet and similar oryx cooked medium rare on braai before slicing.
Activities limited to viewing various antelope and zebra from 4WD or walking on well mapped and waymarked paths (which suited us). An excellent overnight stop on the B6 road. Not enough activities for two nights but perhaps worth arriving early or staying late the next morning.
Mixed feelings about Kalahari Bush Breaks
The room was beautifully furnished, but tea facilities would have been nice. The service was mostly polite, sometimes friendly, but sometimes rude. It seemed like the owner's experience with some previous guests influenced her reactions to current ones. Perhaps that's the consequence of people never staying for more than one night, so she never gets to know her guests properly.
We would have appreciated knowing beforehand that it is a game farm. This was the only game drive we went on where the animals ran off quickly when they spotted the jeep!
It was a very different 'food experience' to any of the previous lodges. It was also the only one that didn't serve bread or an hors d'oeuvre. They would have preferred it if we hadn't wanted a second helping from the buffet. And they got rather annoyed when it turned out that we wanted breakfast at a different time to what she thought we had said the day before. So our punishment was yoghurts over the use-by date in our packed lunch for on the way to the airport!
Although it was in pleasant surroundings, we may have enjoyed an overnight stay in Windhoek just as much. After all, the distance from Ghanzi to Windhoek wasn't all that long.
Very pleasant intermediate stop-off
Overall an agreeable lodge.We appreciated the private patio at the rear of the chalet, which also allowed a very personal viewing of animals visiting the waterhole. The food was first class although, as a vegetarian, I was disappointed that there was no alternative to the chicken dinner on the second night.
On the game drive,we were rather discontented that, in the rear of the vehicle, we were unable to hear the driver's comments. We were fortunate that the other passengers, a Dutch couple, relayed the dialogue to us.
We both felt that the owner, Barney,(?) really did not want to be involved with the guests.
Wasrm welcoming lodge in Kalahari
Kalahari bush Breaks was terrific, again we were made to feel really welcome, the design and setting of the place was lovely and the game viewing was much better than we expected.
We had a great time driving ourselves around the 4-wheel drive route and had good sitings. The food and wine were excellent.
A good end to our holiday
Very comfortable room and excellent food and service. Not a great deal to do but a nice way to end our holiday
Read more about the whole safari
An oasis in the desert
Fantastic accom with excellent food and v pleasant hosts. Once again we were the only guests that night but meat was braai'd and served with excellent accompanyments.
Morning dawned wonderful blue sky but windy and - 3 degrees - freezing. Unfortunately we had to eat breakfast outdoors as repairs were taking place to their home roof so could not offer indoor facilities but not their fault.
Thought this lodge was brilliant and wished we could have stayed 2 nights then continued on to airport. Safari vehicle had puncture so we were unable to do game drive - pity.
Taxidermy Manor is a better name!
This is a hunting lodge. My grandaughter was horrified by the stuffed baby giraffe and it's mom standing next to the breakfast table. Every room was filled with examples of stuffed animals representing the best of every species, deleted from the gene pool. If you are interested in taxidemy this is the place for you!
Our room was nice, clean and ICY COLD. One thin blanket on each bed. When we realized how cold the room would get we got dressed at 11 pm and went to the reception to get more blankets. In every other place we stayed we had had plenty of warm quilts, blankets or covers.
There were 17 for dinner, divided into 4 parties of which we were one. It was freezing cold (41 degrees) yet they served everyone outside at 730 pm. All of us 17 wore our warm everythings, hats and mittens and were still very cold. The hostess/owner seemed extremely stressed and had difficulty managing getting the food out in a timely way. She was not especially pleasant; when others complained about being cold she replied, "Cold? Oh, I am roasting. How can you be cold?"
For us this was a no-star place.
Expert Africa comments
If travellers are driving from Ghanzi, in Botswana, to Windhoek, in Namibia, the the distance usually dictates that they have an overnight stop somewhere in the middle. Somewhere around the Namibian town of Gobabis. 'Kalahari Bush Breaks' has a very convenient place on this road - and so is often chosen for an overnight stop for its convenience.
This traveller is right that there is hunting done on this guest farm. In common with many guest farms in Namibia, Kalahari Bushbreaks have cheetah, leopard and plenty of antelope on their property, but no lion. Hence a limited amount of hunting is done to manage the game numbers – typically a maximum of about 10 hunters per year, who never stay in the lodge at the same time as our ‘photographic’, non-hunting, guests. It’s usually the farm’s older animals are either left for nature to take its course, or made available for hunting.
In fact, sustainable hunting like this is part of the economics of most of Namibia’s guest farms. In the last 15-20 years, many of Namibia’s traditional guest farms have abandoned farming cattle and turned instead to game farming. They have learned that the revenue from ‘photographic’ tourism, when combined with limited sustainable hunting, is a much more economic choice.
This move has resulted in Namibia’s natural game species being reintroduced to large swathes of the country – and hence much larger populations of most game species. Witness the fact that, like similar game farms, Kalahari Bushbreaks also capture game live, and sell it live to other game reserves – often ones which are just starting to reintroduce the native animals.
It’s great news for the population of Namibia’s wild animals, and has resulted in a reduction in the area being used for commercial cattle farms. This is development which Expert Africa generally applauds: it’s good the for land, it’s good for the livelihood of many Namibian people and it’s great for our visitors; so we’re very pleased to be supporting this move from cattle to game even in a very small way.
A convenient stopover
Being the only guests made the place a little soleless although the owners were pleasant and attentive.
We were not offered activites but were happy to relax after long day driving and early walk at Erongo.
We enjoyed the food but just felt a little uncomfortable alone at the big table!
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.
