selous

Posts Tagged ‘ selous

J. Kibbey, London, 2011

Dear Ed,

Just a quick note to say how much we enjoyed our holiday. Everything worked perfectly and all three Selous properties were excellent and provided great diversity. Jongomero was probably our favourite due to its remoteness and Molly and Noelle but we loved Selous and Ras Kutani as well. The trip was a perfect length, a day more or less at any of the places would not have been as good!

Many thanks for requesting an upgrade at Ras Kutani, we were absolutely thrilled to be in a beautiful suite, it made the last two days even more special.

In all three camps they spoke very warmly of you and Tanzanian Odyssey’s professionalism so we certainly felt we had chosen the right company to go with.

Once again, many thanks.

With very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

J. Kibbey, London, 2011

A and K Isacson, 2011

Dear Ed

We had a fantastic adventure through Tanzania Odyssey.

Our favorite experience was at Alex Walker’s Serian. The private game viewing had us in a vehicle virtually from sun up to sun down, with breakfast and lunch served during the game drive, overlooking the Serengeti. Thanks to both our terrific driver, Tumba, and guide, Jololo, we witnessed a crossing, which was amazing, and saw ostrich, zebra, warthogs and monkeys. We viewed a dozen lions (some mating), elephants, giraffe, plus a beautiful leopard. One highlight was a black rhino and her calf alone on a grassy plain. We were able to get quite close and, as with most all our sightings, we were the only vehicle around. It allowed for some amazing photographs. Although a mobile camp, without the benefit of running water, the accommodations were luxurious. The sound of elephants right outside our tent and the roar of lions at night was thrilling.

We also enjoyed the Selous and the completely different experience of viewing animals from the water.

In both camps the food was delicious and the service friendly and efficient.

We must commend you on assembling a trip that exceeded our expectations. You listened to our requests and gave us exactly what we wanted. The entire trip was seamless, with all transfers, flights and accommodations handled efficiently.

We will be contacting you for future African trips.

Best regards,

A and K Isacson, USA, 2011

J and B Monaghan, 2011

Hi,

You asked a little while ago if we could re-submit our thoughts on the holiday arranged for us by your good selves last August. It was 1 year ago today when we started on our Tanzanian holiday:

First stop was Jongomero where we were greeted in song by all the camp staff.
‘Tent’, food, staff and game drives were all excellent.

First night there, woken to the sound of a lion roaring as he walked through the camp!! and waking up to see an elephant walking across the dry river bed 50 yards from our tent….What could be better?

Next we visited Selous Safari Camp- again everything was excellent.

Went on a walking safari and were charged by a herd of elephants (not really, there were only three!! but had increased to a herd by the time we told our story over dinner!!! )

We finished our African adventure in Zanzibar staying at Ras Nungwi. Again excellent accommodation, food and friendly attentive staff.

So thanks once again to you all

J and B Monaghan, London, 2011

C Monksfield 2011

Hi Julian,

So sorry for the late reply, I’ve been a bit manic since being back from our amazing trip, then I just found this email …

I think it will be hard to take an exception to any one guide or chef, they were all good in their own way, all the guides were good as was the food etc.

Ras Kutani – A perfect start to the holiday, just sheer relaxation! The suite was amazing with a lovely plunge pool, staff were very helpful and polite in every manner. The beach is nice to stroll on and the service was quick and efficient, having some spa treatments available also was a bonus.

Mwagusi – Certainly a rustic camp, a real feeling of being out in the middle of the Ruaha game reserve. Lots of good game viewing here, we were so lucky to see some amazing cats also including a pride of Lions taking on a Giraffe, a leopard chilling in a tree and a Cheetah from a distance. There was a nice camp feel in the evening chilling by a fire with tales of the day and the food was excellent again. Lovely accommodation given location and friendly staff.

Beho Beho – We absolutely loved this place, a family home come base camp in a Jurassic feeling Selous game reserve. This was a real step in luxury and service, all the staff were very friendly and professional with a real team feeling. There is a good feeling of remoteness with no manicured roads and specific tracks to follow. The walking safari’s were a great experience. The game a little less common than in the Ruaha but mainly down to the dense landscape not because it wasn’t there. Some real treats to a different style of safari with a trip to the lakes to see a variety of different wildlife. It has to be said the stay was enhanced by the great people we met whilst staying in Beho Beho in a very social gathering, not to be said that it can’t be private though it can be as social as you like.

Mnemba – I guess this has to be the perfect ending, the pictures pretty much sum it up as a lost Maldivian Island and that’s exactly as it is. A luxurious stay with everything you’d expect from a 5 star experience. Friendly staff intent on making the feel of a private Island as private as you want it to be. Superb diving and private dining.

The Serena Inn Stone town is what it is really, probably the best hotel around there but not got much of a chance after all the other locations being so great … despite us not arriving til about 4pm our room still wasn’t ready. Only complaint to be honest.

Thanks for all your advice and efforts in arranging the trip as well as possible.

Kind Regards.

Chris

B and T Rhyason, 2011

Edward,

We really wanted to thank you for your excellent knowledge and help in planning our trip. We were talking to a few different travel companies initially and you were definitely the most up front and informative person we dealt with. You responded very quickly and we definitely chose your company specifically because of how helpful you were. We wanted to recognize you for the great job.

Our first camp was Selous Safari Camp. We felt like royalty there. They looked after us very well and were very helpful and knowledgable. They sounded genuinely excited when you were going out on safari or just coming back with all your stories from the day. Our highlight at this camp was the boat tours which included a fishing excursion. It involved us catching 4 catfish while watching 26 giraffes lining up to cross a little creek, not to mention tons of hippos and crocodiles all during an amazing sunset. I think this may have been the highlight of our safari.

Also the walking safari was amazing in Selous. We really got to connect with nature and the walk ended at our fly camp. Fly camping was enjoyable, the accommodations were better than expected and it definitely wouldn’t be considered roughing it. We had a toilette and a shower inside our tent. The game viewing was exceptional at Selous and the only things we didn’t see where leopards and hyena. Jenny and Emiel were amazing hosts and had so many of their own stories to share. We would highly recommend this camp.

Our next stop was at Jongomero. The camp was beautiful and it was really neat watching the elephants and baboon cross the dry riverbed right in front of us while we were eating meals. Not to mention the few herds of elephants we could watch from our tent. A really neat experience there was getting to have dinner on the dry river bed under the stars at night. Our highlight at this camp was the walking tour with Molly. His knowledge of not only the wildlife but also the local politics as wells as the history of the game reserves and national parks was tremendous and made our stay very enjoyable. Molly and Noel always joined us for lunch everyday and made us feel really at home.

There was a definite difference in game viewing here. It was far more remote and you rarely saw another vehicle but with the bushy landscape it was harder to find game. There were a lot of elephants in this park so we got to have a few intimate experiences with them. If you do see wildlife in this park, you can stay and watch them for as long as you want because chances are nobody else will come along to join you. After talking to others that stayed in the same park but at the other end where there were multiple camps, our individual jeep viewing experience seemed really unique compared to their own experience.

The only recommendation we have is that if you had the chance to do both parks we would do Jongomero first as the game viewing is more sparse but intimate while Selous definitely seemed to be more exciting and varied with the combination of walking, driving and boat safaris.

Anybody who has an interest in crocodiles should definitely go to Selous and do the boat safari because the shear number of them was astounding and you could get up close enough to pretty much pet them, not that you would want to icon smile   B and T Rhyason, 2011

Zanzibar was very beautiful. Ras Nungwi was really nice. While it was beautiful and we enjoyed it, it was similar to our vacation spots in the Caribbean and we were shocked by cost of things associated with the hotel. It was comparable to prices we were paying in Europe or North America. We really enjoyed our stay and didn’t miss out on anything due to price, we were just not expecting it.

Thanks again for arranging such an amazing adventure!

B and T Rhyason, Canada, 2011