Reviews of Vundu Camp
(95%) From 26 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Vundu Camp is the best!
We had a 3 night safari at Vundu Camp 2 weeks ago and loved our experience. It was our favorite camp. The family feel and welcoming environment is amazing. Our guide, Alex, was first class. He went above and beyond and absolutely contributed to our positive experience at Vundu. The walking tours and the opportunity to get very close to elephants on foot was incredible.
The staff are friendly and the food was good. You won't go hungry! In total, we stayed at 4 camps across Zimbabwe and Botswana and Vundu was our favorite experience for their amazing guides and warm hospitality.
Our only suggestion is for Vundu to invest in new mosquito nets as ours had a couple holes.
Vundu Camp review
Vundu is situated on the Zambezi River and lends itself to adventure seekers. It is a permanent tented camp with large bedrooms and living room. The staff is wonderful and accomomdating.
Expert Africa arranged for Nick Murray as a private guide here; these travellers commented:
When we were leaving Camp Hwange, one of the staff commented that Nick enjoys getting close to the wildlife. She was not kidding.
Nick has a vast knowledge of the wildlife in Mana Pools and is writing his dissertation on the wild dogs. Mana Pools does not allow off road vehicles, so all tracking is done on foot. Therefore, we spent one unforgettable day hiking to a blind to observe wild dogs in their habitat and then watching them minutes after a kill. Later, we were on foot within feet of lions mating. Our hearts still race as we recall the roar of the male as he mock charged us.
Truly an unforgettable adventure!
Vundu Camp review
Staff was top knotch and the food was good.
Simian our guide was very personable and went out of his way to look for the Painted Dogs. Very personalized guiding.
Listening to Nick and his guides recount their experiences over dinner was priceless. Mono Pools is a very remote and wonderful park. Incredible animal numbers and the walking on the flood plain is amazing, no telling what you may find. Will return in 2018! It's that good.
Great camp
Shortly after departing on the first game drive we came across painted dogs munching on an impala. We were able to get close and observe them. Amazing.
Great location on the Zambezi where you can hear the river and animal sounds through the night. Breakfast around the campfire. Excellent staff. Got to see Boswell the elephant rear up. Daddy, our guide, was knowledgeable and helpful in locating wildlife. An overall great experience.
Vundu Camp review
The rooms were absolutely beautiful, and the setting was fantastic. I loved the outdoor shower and canoeing down the river.
The comments I would make were that the car we were driven in was very ropey and was on the point of breaking down, we had to stop at various points and fill the gear fluid up with break fluid.
Also although the guides were amazing I would say that the owner was less charming and there was obviously a little politics in the area.
Perfect for a Zambesi experience
The atmosphere is Vundu camp was very different to that at Davison's, perhaps because we were the only guests staying there at the time. In the first place the staff were much more racially mixed. The accommodation was as good and although the rooms did not look out onto a water pan, they were only a few metres from the banks of the Zimbabwe and big animals such as hippos and elephants did wander through the camp at night, justifying the need for the armed escort when moving around the camp at night.
In contrast to Davison's, we spent little time driving around and much more walking and following the trails of animals. We had complete confidence in Nick, who was our guide all the time and who owns the camp. Twice we went out for a half day canoeing on the Zambesi with him, glad of his knowledge and experience given the number of hippos on the river. Stopping the canoes to let a family of elephants swim across the river in front of us was unforgettable. So was coming back in the canoes at sunset to find a candle-lit dinner set up on the bank.
We could none of us give this camp a higher recommendation.
Excellent service in a relaxed atmosphere
Vundu is a beautiful, relaxed camp on the banks of the Zambezi. The rooms are luxury canvas tents overlooking the river, with indoor and outdoor bathrooms. They are very clean and comfortable and allow you to get close to nature - I heard a hippo dung-spraying onto my tent one evening!
Breakfast is nice and early, served around a fire as the Sun comes up. The food is good and the coffee delicious (and much needed!). The camp offers a variety of activities and I would highly recommend the canoe trip on the Zambezi - an adrenaline filled experience as you dodge hippos and then calm the nerves with sundowners on the bank. The walking safaris also allow you an amazing, different perspective on the wildlife and Nick, the head guide, is clearly very experienced and knowledgable, allowing you to track and get close to the animals. In particular he specialises in getting up close and personal with elephants and knows the animals in his area extremely well. He is also very friendly, likes a practical joke and has lots of good stories for around the camp fire in the evening.
The game viewing at the time of year that I went (May) is not the best as the bush is still green, but this makes the area more beautiful in my opinion and it provides more excitement as you have to work for your game viewings (or rather Nick does). The temperature is also more comfortable. An opportunity to see the wild dogs was a particular attraction for me, but this is by no means guaranteed at any time of year, as they cover great distances and move quickly, and sadly I was unlucky. Nonetheless this a was a wonderful trip that I would highly recommend, especially to those who want to really experience relaxation in the bush, rather than just view large concentrations of game.
Vundu Camp review
Great camp and amazing guide.
3 day canoe safari was excellent, though low water prevented access to many of the smaller channels, which were the most interesting part. C
anoeing may be better earlier in the season, though the concentration of wildlife close to the river was incredible.
Excellent guides at Vundu
Everything was as you would expect from a long standing lodge with experienced guides and management. The knowledge and ability of all the guides was top level.
One point, which we tried to share with the camp but not sure we succeeded was regarding the 'combining guests by arrival date rather than interest'. Other guests arrived on the same day as we did and their interests were the Wild Dogs that were around. Ours was birds and canoeing. Our guide did his absolute best, and did well, to balance this but undoubtedly both sets of guests were compromising. As those guests left we were then paired with new guests - we were quite clear about wanting to go canoeing but (i found out afterwards) the other guests had to be persuaded quite hard to do this. If they had stuck to their guns i'm not sure what would have happened.
When we mentioned this to management their view seemed to be that we should have got a personal guide. My point is that both the camp and the travel agent say that all guests have a choice of activities, without saying 'so long as other guests also want to do the same thing'.
In the end we did do the things we wanted, although maybe in a different order. It seems that there should be a better way of ensuring this can be done (I would suggest earlier planning of all activities with guests, eg soon after arrival).
Vundu Camp
The camp is in a beautiful position on the banks of the Zambezi. The main lodge was good with a bar and comfortable seating. A simple breakfast was served around the campfire, with a buffet lunch outside in the shade and three course dinner inside the lodge. The food was tasty but not exceptional. There were unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
We were the only guests in camp but the camp manager, Peter, invited other people for dinner which enlivened the evenings, particularly as these were very interesting wildlife people for us to meet and learn from.
The tent we were in was large but sparsely furnished and could be improved by more furniture and local artefacts. It was incredibly hot whilst we were there and as there was only a portable free-standing fan which stopped at night when the generator went off, trying to sleep was quite uncomfortable. A ceiling fan would have circulated the air better. The bathroom was outside the tent and open to the sky - but in fact this worked really well as it was cooler in the evenings. We liked the double sinks (with sink plugs that worked - such a rarity!) and the double shower, allowing us to both wash and shower at the same time.
What makes this camp special was it's position for wildlife viewing. It has a pack of wild dogs resident in the area that we saw each day, as well as seeing the other pack of dogs in the park on one occasion. We had other wonderful wildlife experiences including seeing the elephant "Fred Astaire" doing the 'Mana stand' on his back legs to reach for the apple-core pods. The combination of driving, then being allowed to walk in the park enabled us to drive around to spot things but then walk to get closer to them - the perfect combination. Our guide, Henry, was friendly, knowledgable, and competent.
We canoed down the Zambezi one afternoon and this was very special.
