Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs A - Nottinghamshire

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My Oct 2009 trip

On this trip, I visited Namibia between 6-Oct-2009 and 27-Oct-2009 and I travelled with 1 other person.

We had a wonderful trip despite a few blips, none of which were down to Expert Africa and we have recommended your services very highly to fellow travellers of all nationalities. In most of the camps visited it was lovely that they had taken note of your having informed all camps of the celebratory nature of our trip.

Bearing in mind the importance of transport to travellers in Namibia notice should be taken of our comments re Budget as one of the greatest worries on a trip of this nature is the comfort and reliability of your vehicle.

Namibia remains one of favourite destinations and we shall visit again. This is a wonderful country, totally different to all the others we have visited both in scale and emphasis and the people are wonderfully friendly and genuinely hospitable. We were met with true kindness and enthusiasm including when we travelled a scenic D route ( D2319 on our way to Uis), very much off the beaten track and were met by a steep bank and water filled river. On getting out of the vehicle to determine the water depth and whether we should proceed we were suddenly surrounded by a group of young boys herding cattle upstream who encouraged us to proceed, promising that they would push us out if needs be. It cost us all our biscuits, a little bit of money and lots of laughs. This was typical of our welcome everywhere we travelled.

This was our second trip, but was even more enjoyable as we had decided to take more time to enjoy this wonderful country. The scenery, the scale and the people make this an unparalled destination.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Thank you as always. You make planning the holidays a pleasure and think of absolutely everything even before we do. We know we can follow your recommendations with complete confidence and recommend you to others withour reservation.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Erongo Wilderness Lodge, Namibia 7-Oct-2009 review: Relaxing at Erongo Wilderness	Excellent
Namutoni Camp, Namibia 10-Oct-2009 review: Snakes at Namutoni Waterhole	Excellent
Okaukuejo Camp, Namibia 12-Oct-2009 review: Fabulous Waterhole	Good
Grootberg Lodge, Namibia 13-Oct-2009 review: Black rhino heaven	Excellent
Doro Nawas, Namibia 15-Oct-2009 review: Excellent return visit	Excellent
Mowani Mountain Camp, Namibia 16-Oct-2009 review: Disappointment at Mowani Mountain Camp	Poor
Beach Lodge, Namibia 18-Oct-2009 review: What a find!	Excellent
Kulala Wilderness Camp, Namibia 19-Oct-2009 review: Good fun at Kulala	Excellent
Tok Tokkie Trails, Namibia 21-Oct-2009 review: Good fun in the desert	Excellent
Eagle's Nest, Namibia 23-Oct-2009 review: Rock! Rock! Rock!!	Excellent
Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch, Namibia 25-Oct-2009 review: Straw Bale Comfort	Excellent

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Challenging holiday!

On this trip, I visited Zambia between 25-Sep-2008 and 20-Oct-2008 and I travelled with 1 other person.

We had a wonderful trip but due to circumstances it proved to be more of a challenge than we'd envisaged. A month before departure found us trying to rebook a week's accommodation as we had been due to stay at Kwa Maritane at Sun City which had burnt down. Rebooking proved difficult due to school holidays and Kwa Maritane looked an amazing destination. and therefore a hard act to follow.

My parents had joined us for a few days at Hazyview but reacted badly to anti-malarials resulting in my Mum's collapse on the plane from Kruger to Cape town where they stayed for two week and she made a good recovery. We stayed two nights at the Albasini Dam and three nights in tree houses on a game lodge in the Timbavati. Unfortunately here my husband was bitten by a dog and we had a long night time drive to find a doctor with anti-rabies vaccine! Fortunately as a medic myself I was able to charm a pharmacist in Johannesburg into letting me have the subsequent doses to give him. He provided freezer packs and with the help of a cool bag and the staff at our subsequent destinations (Derek Shenton was very obliging keeping the vaccine in his personal fridge) we mananged to sort out his doses.

Stress levels were already running fairly high when we heard the sad news about Cecilia and her carers and we were concerned that we may have been flying into a dangerous situation, though Chris McIntyre was as reassuring as he could be under the circumstances. We were beginning to feel slightly fated but worse was to come! On our third night at Kaingo we unfortunately had a very nasty charge from three elephants when we we heading into a curve of a dry river bed with no where to go.

Luckily for us the other vehicle from camp was there with the spotter and his gun. A shot above the elephants heads stopped them in their tracks 10 metres from our vehicle and left us all shocked. By the time we were doing the activities we had though may be packed with adrenaline at Livingstone we were just pleased to have made it that far to do them at all!! The fact that the luggage didn't arrive was really to be expected!

I can however report that we now have receipt of all bags and I would do exactly the same trip again hopefully without the mishaps next time1!

Suggestions for improvement:

Keep up the good work!! Well done.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
South Africa 26-Sep-2008 review: South Africa	Excellent
Kaingo Camp, Zambia 9-Oct-2008 review: Kaingo Camp Review	Excellent
Mwamba Bushcamp, Zambia 12-Oct-2008 review: Mwamba Bush Camp review	Excellent
Zambezi Sun, Zambia 16-Oct-2008 review: Zambezi Sun review	Excellent

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Holiday of a lifetime

On this trip, I visited Namibia between 22-Sep-2007 and 6-Oct-2007 and I travelled with 1 other person.

Our expectations of this trip were understandably high but the reality was far higher. We had spent time deciding which places we considered were special to us and Sabina [Ed: at Expert Africa] had incorporated them into our itinerary. She gave us several alternative accommodations for each location and we chose places as different from one another as possible. This meant that every stopover had it's own character and there was never any danger of us becoming complacent with our surroundings!

Looking back it is still amazing to contemplate where we've been. what we saw and what we did. We are still on a real high and it really was a trip of a lifetime. We will be back. Many thanks for all the help and advice.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Canyon Lodge, Namibia 24-Sep-2007 review: Shaky start that ended well	Good
Eagle's Nest, Namibia 26-Sep-2007 review: Klein Aus Vista	Excellent
Kulala Wilderness Camp, Namibia 27-Sep-2007 review: Not Desert Homestead,Kulala Wilderness Camp!!	Excellent
The Stiltz, Namibia 29-Sep-2007 review: Chilly Swakopmund, warm welcome at Stiltz!	Good
Doro Nawas, Namibia 30-Sep-2007 review: Elephants at Doro Nawas	Excellent
Okaukuejo Camp, Namibia 2-Oct-2007 review: Okaukuejo excitement	Excellent
Halali Camp, Namibia 3-Oct-2007 review: Halali Restcamp review	Excellent
Erongo Wilderness Lodge, Namibia 5-Oct-2007 review: When can we go back to Erongo?	Excellent