Wishing you and your families a safe and blessed holiday season!!
A Recap of 2023 and Looking Forward to 2024
Firstly, seasons greetings to all our friends around the world! It seems strange that 2023 is already coming to an end however looking back I realise that we were able to fit a lot of exciting African travel into what seems like a very short time.
Personally, I was able to visit some incredible properties in the Western Cape of South Africa, Zambia and Malawi. In Zambia I specifically enjoyed the Luangwa Bush Camping adventure. This incredible experience entails starting off at one of Robin Pope Safari’s Tena Tena or Nsefu Camps and conducting daily walks along the majestic Luangwa River coming across all forms of animals, birdlife and learning about the vegetation of the area before arriving at a mobile tented camp setup in different remote locations along the river. With warm bucket showers and expertly prepared food all your needs and more are met in camp. Waking up in your canvas mobile tent listening to the roaring of lions and grunting of hippos in the river is something that stays with you forever! We were also very lucky to spend a great deal of time with a family of wild dogs at Nsefu Camp as they played around and then set off on their hunting trips on a daily occurrence.
Visiting Lake Malawi was also special. Being my second visit here I had an idea of what to expect. Mumbo Island, just off Cape Maclear in the south of the lake is a special place though, one which my family and I will always remember. The island and accommodation makes one feel as though you are in your own Robinson Crusoe story. We spent the days snorkelling with the thousands of colourful fish of the lake (Lake Malawi has the highest number of different types of freshwater fish in the world – known as cichlids), hiking to find private beaches for the day, kayaking around the island while watching the numerous fish eagles hunting and calling and braaiing on the beach are some of the activities we enjoyed while at Mumbo Island.
Our clients/friends have had some incredible trips this year as well. Botswana, as always, is a popular destination and rightly so. Clients have spent time with leopards, cheetahs, lions and other fantastic African wildlife which they have accompanied with mokoro rides through the Deltas waters. The Great Migration is another popular activity which can be seen most months of the year in Tanzania. A destination that seems popular with visitors right now seems to be Namibia. Visiting parts of Namibia feels as though you could be visiting Mars with its incredible landscapes and sparsity. A special destination in Namibia is Desert Rhino Camp with its emphasis on the walking and tracking of the endangered Desert Black Rhino. Other destinations included Rwanda and Uganda for the gorillas as well as the Zanzibarian beaches in Tanzania.
If a walking safari, specifically with big game, tickles your fancy then there is no better option than visiting Hwange National Park and staying with Julian Brookstein at Camp Chitubu. Julian’s vast knowledge of the behaviour and tracking of wildlife, the area he operates in, and his infectious spirit of adventure makes a safari with him highly encouraged. Once you try one of these safaris it is difficult to go back to a traditional vehicle-based experience. The information to take in is never ending however the more you learn the more you understand of how the “Circle of Life” comes together.
Spotlight on Great Plains Conservation
We are extremely excited to be working closely with Great Plains Conservation which consists of a number of specifically situated camps in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Part owned by renowned National Geographic wildlife film makers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, expert guiding and photography have a big emphasis at their safari camps. With a combination of luxury, some of which are Relaix and Chateau, and expedition camps Great Plains has an adventure for every safari goer.
Special locations of Great Plains camps include the Selinda Spillway and famous lions destination of Duba Plains in Botswana, Mpala Jena near Victoria Falls and Tembo Plains Camp of the Lower Zambezi in Zimbabwe. Their fantastically positioned camps in Kenya include Ol Donyo Lodge, famous for its horse riding and views of Mount Kilimanjaro, and four of the best camps within private concessions of the Greater Masai Mara region.
The company, as the name suggests, places high emphasis on their conservation model. This model takes stressed and threatened environments, surrounds them with compassionate protection and intelligent, sustainable management, and funds them with sensitive, low volume, low impact tourism. Communities are an intrinsic part of this model and benefit directly from it. The final piece of the puzzle is you – the client and guests – who pay to visit the camps created, and through doing so, become valued partners and agents of positive change.
With 2023 coming to an end bookings for 2024, and even 2025, are in full swing and many of the popular African destinations, such as Cape Town, the Greater Kruger, Botswana and Tanzania, are already getting booked up for the high seasons of June to October. For those looking to travel in 2024 I would not leave it too late as the earlier we can book, the more guaranteed we are in using camps and areas that are the best for what they offer and for the experience that we are looking to provide.
With that said and done I wish you all a blessed holiday with friends and family! Wherever you maybe travelling do so safely!
