Travel reviews by Mrs C. from Warwickshire

"The whole place, including my room stank of cigarettes.

They did not have notification of payment at the point of check in but did by check out.

The roof top bar was full of prostitues with at least one member of the bar staff acting as a pimp!"

"All aspects of Beho Beho were fantastic."

"I was more than a little disappointed by Ikuka. The camp is lovely as were the manager and camp staff and the food excellent.

The vehicle that I was in broke down 3 times, once in the morning when it didnt really impact on the drive. It was apparently repaired over lunch only to break down again twice in the afternoon. This did have a considerable impact on the afternoons drive and it also affected other guests as their vehicle was sent to push start my stricken vehicle. This was poor, the camp apologised for this.

The other problem I had was with my guide, Mashaka. I made it very clear that I did not want to be at a sighting with many other vehicles and that I was quite happy to see the small things as a consequence of this. This is not what a happened, he was also constantly on his phone, radio, text messages etc I am sure this was to other guides in the park finding where to go, there was a leopard sighting that we drove quite a distance to see and there were 10 vehicles already there jostling for position. This is not my idea of a good safari. I am sure he was knowlegable but he repeated the same facts to me everytime about any animal. I did not learn anything!

My biggest gripe with him was on my penultimate drive. We spotted a leopard on the ground, rather than putting the vehicle in a good place for me to see the leopard, he called and radioed other guides to tell them, this went for some 4 to 5 minutes with me asking several times to stop and to move the vehicle. He eventually did this and put me in a good position to see and photography the leopard.

Then almost immediately the other vehicles started arriving and he moved so I no longer had a sighting. I did express my great displeasure at this. I am an experienced safari goer and have never had a guide behave in this way, they have always ensured that I have the best possible view first, and after a short while ask if it is OK to call the sight in to others. I did not feel I was this guides priorty, the other guides where. I was so insenced by this that on return to camp I spoke to the manager, who apologised and agreed this was not how he should have behaved.

The above has left me with a very negative view of Ikuka."