Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs C from Stroud (MR)

My Oct 2010 trip

On this trip, I visited Namibia between 22-Oct-2010 and 13-Nov-2010 and I travelled with 1 other person.

The main purpose of our trip was to help PAWS with the cheetah and leopard rehabilitation project at Okonjima. We feel privileged to have been part of the team and would certainly consider repeating it at some stage in the future.

As for our 3rd week, I have mixed feelings. I would certainly not advise anyone to travel to Caprivi unless they had more time than we allowed.
I greatly underestimated the time needed to get there and we spent the best part of 5 days in the car for just 2 days in Caprivi. No night game drives were on offer at any of the lodges and we were not allowed out of the vehicle in the Bush. So after the excitement of the first 2 weeks, it was rather tame and somewhat of an anticlimax.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Although my comments relating to our 3rd week are clearly rather negative, they are brought about by our own bad planning and in no way do they reflect on Expert Africa. Tracy was very helpful from the outset and we cannot fault her organizational skills.....we would not hesitate to ask her to help with our next wildlife trip.

Feedback response

We have been in contact with these travellers to explain that the advantage of staying on many private reserves in Namibia is that they offer freedom of movement, with little restriction on walks, night drives, off roading etc. However the way the National Parks - where big game roams free - are run, the government parks board generally do not allow night drives, walking nor getting out of your vehicle (although organised night drives are possible if you stay at the Camps inside Etosha NP). Therefore lodges based in and around most National Parks unfortunately cannot offer these activities within the parks. It is a shame but with much heavier traveller traffic going through National Parks than private reserves, it does go some way to help preserve the environment.

This review was written by Mr C - Mrs C also wrote a review. Please see her review at Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs C from Stroud (MRS) for an alternative view.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Own arrangements 23-Oct-2010 review: PAWS (Okonjima)	Excellent
Ghaub Guest Farm, Namibia 5-Nov-2010 review: Ghaub Guest Farm	Good
Ndhovu Safari Lodge, Namibia 6-Nov-2010 review: Ndhovu Safari Lodge review	Good
Lianshulu Lodge, Namibia 8-Nov-2010 review: Lianshulu Lodge review	Average
Nkwazi Lodge, Namibia 10-Nov-2010 review: Nkwazi Lodge review	Good
Waterberg Camp, Namibia 11-Nov-2010 review: Waterberg Camp review	Good