Stephen Godbold and family

by Leigh-Ann Combrink

Dear Leigh-Ann,

We are safely home from our trip and I thought I should give you some feedback. It was brilliant!! Seriously, it was probably the best holiday of our lives and we have been to some special places before including Australia/NZ, Mexico, Barbados, and many others. But this really did have everything.

The start at Vic Falls was a great idea because the first real view of Africa we saw was the one at the back of the hotel of the bridge over the Zambesi and the whole vista before us. The falls themselves were just an awesome sight. We did a walking tour and got really close. Hotel was fantastic. Then the pick up for Matetsi was faultless and our 3 nights there were excellent. The people there were extremely dedicated, friendly and so happy to have us as guests. We saw the animals very close up and the ranger and tracker were both really nice guys. I can’t recommend it highly enough – fantastic place with fantastic people. Lots of crocodiles, hippos, elephants, buffalo etc and a puff adder alongside our chalet! We could hear the hippos calling at night and one or two came through the camp at night. The sunsets were spectacular. The weather caught us all a bit by surprise – it was much colder than we were expecting on the game drives when the sun went down and again before it was up – we all had 4 or 5 layers on in the end.

Our flight to Exeter was also faultless and great fun. We were met by our ranger who basically looked after us for our stay. The Lodge at Matetsi was fabulous but Exeter was a different class. Top quality everywhere. A wonderful location and again lovely people everywhere. The safaris were, if anything, even more exciting as we got to see all the cats (except cheetah) as well as the rest of the Big 5. In fact on one day we saw all of the Big 5 up close. We saw a leopard fight, a lion kill, giraffes fighting, breeding herds of elephant, water buffalo, rhino as well as two separate lion prides, each with cubs. Also the smaller but rarer animals like aardvark, cerval and wild cat. It was just a wonderful experience. I don’t think any of us were ready for the massive emotional high you get from seeing these creatures in their habitat. We were almost overcome by the sheer beauty and vastness of the place and the closeness of the animals. It’s hard to explain why watching a herd of 20 elephant cross the road in front of you should be so moving, but it was. At night, we had lions and hyena coming through the camp and could lie in our bed and listen to the male lion calling. Fantastic!

The sunny end on Bazaruto was a bit of an anti-climax after all the excitement, but again a great location with fabulous facilities. Great weather, fabulous snorkelling etc and the kids were able to let their hair down and relax a bit on the beach and the water. A little too “hotel” like after the very personal service of both Matetsi and Exeter but that was what we were expecting. Also a little expensive for what it was, and a bit too keen to extract every US$ out of us! But if I could score each segment out of 10, I would give a 10 to the Vic Falls bit, a 10 to Matetsi, a 10 to Exeter and an 8 to Indigo Bay. So 38 out of 40 isn’t bad is it?

All of the transfers etc worked perfectly and you did a wonderful job in organising everything and in your original suggestions. A truly memorable experience – thank you!

I sincerely hope we will return to Africa in the near future and in any event we will be telling everyone we know about our fabulous holiday so you may have some recommendations coming your way. I hope so – you worked hard to get us to the right places and it was worth every penny.

Thanks again

Stephen Godbold and family

2007/01/10 | permalink |

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Stephen Godbold and family

by Leigh-Ann Combrink

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