Hello Erica, Neil & Doug
The safari was our first visit to South Africa and because of you guys it will not be the last. South African people are the warmest and most welcoming people.
Erica you are a wonderful hostess and took really good care of us when we arrived at 5th Avenue Guest House. Our dinner of rump steak followed by baked Alaska was delicious and set us up for the early start at 05:00 the next morning.
Our base at Talamati Bush camp was well equipped with private cabins and set in the most beautiful & peaceful surroundings, away from the more commercial part of Kruger. Neil & Doug, you made a great job creating a very cosy and atmospheric outside dining room (plus we got a little help from the bats, lion roars and other noises that we just don’t get in London!)
The sky and stars at night were amazing – we could see the Milky Way, Southern Cross and many, many more stars in all their glory.
We were most impressed with the rest areas in the Kruger and pleasantly surprised to find very clean eco-friendly toilet facilities, which you would be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world, let alone the middle of the bush.
We had enormous amounts of fun during the safari. We spent most of our time getting excited about tracking wildlife on the many game drives, learning about the eco-system, symbiosis, sitting in the hide watching baby baboons playing (when we should have been having a siesta) or monitoring water levels after an amazing overnight storm which afforded us the benefit of seeing the dry N’waswitsontso River bed turn into a raging 6 meter deep river of cascading rapids and providing a very therapeutic water feature!
The flash flood completely submerged all roads out of the park and as we were already in the park we did not mind being stuck one bit! When the water subsided after 3 days we could see that one of the bridges was a complete write off and could not be crossed, while on the other road we watched the rangers wading across the bridge in 1 meter of rapid flowing water and all agreeing there was no way we could get vehicles over. What a great drama!
We spotted so much wildlife and saw so many superb sunrises and sunsets it is difficult to choose the best bits. The herd of elephants with a baby was brilliant (along with a few warning trumpets & ear flaps from a protective bull), but we have to choose tracking the pair of mating lions from one road to another road several kilometres away, knowing they were in the vicinity because of the jackals hovering, the monkeys screaming warning calls and those running buffalo tracks. Actually finding them slinking casually across the road with the rest of the pride (1 male, 4 females & 9 cubs) was utterly amazing. Listening to the lions calling to each other and getting a thousand yard stare and warning growl from one lioness made us really feel & appreciate the absolute wild and raw beauty, which typifies the Kruger. Finding the pride was completely down to you Neil and your ability to track the game, read the signs and predict their behaviour.
We were expecting very basic catering on the safari. We were in for a big surprise! Doug, you are a top class chef. Where can we start, when every single meal was scrumptious (which we won’t go into so as not to spoil the surprise for others)? I will say that your homemade marinades, sauces, traditional Afrikaans food and the top quality fresh produce went down extremely well, and was washed down with a couple of beers and tasty South African wines (and a few elephant stories).
As you know, we had already been on holiday for 12 months prior to completing the safari and have been to all corners of the earth, doing many once-in-a-lifetime things, but we have to say the safari was the highlight of our trip and this is not only down to the Kruger itself but the fact that you are both brilliant company and run a top class trip, which is excellent value for money.
We also appreciate how enormously hard you work and that you leave the park with no trace of having been there, so Baie Danke!
Kindest Regards
Jane & Robert
March 2004