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Keith with family and friends

Posted on July 23, 2024, featured in

Travelled in May 2024 | 

“We had an absolutely fantastic trip! We can’t thank you enough for helping arrange everything so wonderfully. All of the logistics, transfers, guides, flights, etc., all worked out beautifully, not a single misstep along the way. The animal sightings were incredible, and every place we stayed was terrific.

We were at Somalisa Expeditions first. More was our guide there and was the best guide I’ve ever had. Then to Nyamatsui Mahogany, which was a beautiful place with an amazing staff, and then to Atzaro in the Okavango. Atzaro had only been open for six weeks and is so over-the-top spectacular with its furnishings that it was almost shocking. The staff at all three places were fantastic, very friendly and liked to have fun with us, good sense of humor and so even though the service was excellent, it did not feel “formal”. The food was amazing at all three camps, way beyond what any of us expected. They even had a pizza oven (with almost twenty toppings) at Nyamatsui! Our friend Mikako was celebrating her 80th birthday during the trip, and the staff at all three camps did something special for her, even though I had only told the folks at the first camp about her birthday because that was where we had her “official” celebration.

Trip highlights, aside from the millions of elephants at Hwange and the usual assortment of Hwange animals, we saw two sets of lion cubs, one two months old and one six months old. More amazingly, we sat 15 yards from a lioness nursing the three little cubs. Totally oblivious to us, after she was done nursing and licking them, she picked one up in her mouth and carried him off to her hiding place under a bush. I’ll send a few photos. Also watched a hyena ripping apart a baby elephant that had died the day before, which was gruesome but part of the experience. The highlight at Mana Pools was our guide (Tavangwa, i.e., “TV”) taking our son fishing on the Zambezi. He and Annette caught several tigerfish along with a bunch of tilapia, so that was a huge high point for Sam (who is an avid fisherman). Of course, we did the canoe ride on the Zambezi with tons of hippos everywhere. Mikako and I did a walk where we reached a painted dog den, where there were three puppies and three adults lounging about. That was pretty amazing.

At Atzaro, we had a female guide (Bea) who was terrific, and she had an incredible story of how she became a guide. Highlights there were following a cheetah for 30 minutes after he had been laying down right next to us for a long while, and also being up close with a painted dog. Tons of giraffes and a great nature walk. We also asked to go visit the local village where African Bush Camps are sponsoring some projects through their foundation. We did a Makoro ride afterward, with several villagers doing the poling.

At Vic Falls, we stayed at Shongwe Oasis, which we all loved. Beautiful quiet garden setting, terrific staff, good food. We all enjoyed the sunset Zambezi River cruise. We actually saw a ton of wildlife, which I had not expected.

In Cape Town, we stayed at Trevoyan Guesthouse. It was fantastic—and a great owner/host named Charles Champion who gave us a ton of great recommendations, both on restaurants and sights–such as the Orangezicht Market, which is only open on weekends. On Sunday when we had our full-day Cape Point tour, we asked the guide to go to that market first, and it was fabulous. If you have clients who are going to be in Cape Town on a weekend, I would recommend that market. The hiking guide for Table Mountain (Evette) was terrific.

The most unexpected thing on the trip was that when we were at the first African Bush Camps place (Somalisa), our guide was talking about ABC’s history and its foundation, and he mentioned the name of ABC’s founder, Beks. I asked him if the person’s name was Beksezella-he said yes. Incredibly, Beks was my guide at Makolo Camp in Hwange when I visited Africa 27 years ago, in 1997. He was in his 20s and I remembered him because he liked doing charcoal and pencil drawings and he showed them to me at the camp 27 years ago, and we actually wrote to each other once or twice after my trip. I happened to be reading my journal from 1997 before we came this time, and so his name was fresh in my mind. They told me that there is a book of his charcoal and pencil drawings at the main Somalisa camp, and that he was guiding at Hwange back in 1997, so it had to be the same person. I got his email address and planned to write him after I returned to the USA. I told the story at the second ABC camp (Nyamatusi) and they were all amazed at the coincidence. They said he travels all over now, promoting ABC and the foundation, and that he was currently in South Africa. When I arrived at the third ABC Camp (Atzaro), the manager there asked me if I had been to Africa before, and I told him about having Beks as my guide 27 years ago. His jaw dropped and he said, “you won’t believe this but Beks is arriving here by helicopter in one hour.” He was visiting Atzaro for the same three days I was there. So I got to spend some time with Beks over the next few days, which was so much fun. What he has accomplished is amazing, and it was such a bizarre coincidence that he happened to be visiting Atzaro while I was there.

He said that Dani was a friend of his, so I knew you would especially appreciate the story!  

Thanks again for helping to make the trip so sensational, all four of us had an incredible adventure that we will never forget.”