Guest User
March 2, 2025
I am sorry to buck the trend of all the other reviews and I have thought long and hard about writing this. My husband and I are experienced travellers in Africa having family here, and one of our daughters, who accompanied us, is a trained safari guide with FGASA level 3. The lodge is lovely - however at most other lodges there is a lunch option. The dinner tables are communal and on a family holiday we did not want to dine every night with other guests and our guide on a large table. Even when we requested private dining our guide hovered near us. There was no front of house or obvious lodge manager with whom we could voice our concerns or who came at any time to ask us at any time how our stay was. Our main problem was with the guiding staff. The chief guide was completely disengaged. Our allocated guide was not what one expects from a lodge of this price. Our guide 1. Continually fed the animals as we drove round - especially the baboons and monkeys which is not appropriate 2. Drove so fast one of our party could no longer go on the drives as they felt travel sick 3. Spent a significant amount of the time on the radio talking about sightings ( imagined) and not concentrating on his guests 4. His knowledge was very poor ( our daughter has trained as a guide to FGASA level 3) that he misidentified many birds and tracks - eg mistaking hyena tracks for leopard tracks.. I am afraid there are also many other points. Whilst we enjoyed our stay and cannot take away from the house staff who were fabulous there would appear to be some management lacking. If the hd been our only lodge stay it would not have been acceptable.