I wanted to drop you a note and tell you what an absolutely fantastic trip I had to Mombo and Vumbura Plains.  I walked away with 2900 photos and am, by no means, a serious photographer. Thank you again for all your wonderful suggestions.  They really paid off for me.  You can be certain this is not my last trip there.

It is our 7th trip to Africa and we have stayed in the best places, but the staff at Mombo are the best ever, especially the manager, Ryan, he was extremely professional, hands-on, very caring, making sure that we were happy. He was always around... always and never the case anywhere that we have stayed. From the time he woke us and met us at 5:30 until we retired. his knowledge was overwhelming about the area to when he had world views it was the same. If he lived in LA he would be a very good friend to my wife and myself.

The sequence of the camps…from Royal Livingstone to Kwetsani to Little Mombo to Jack’s was perfect!  Note about Jack’s camp:  we were lucky enough to be able to do their surprise sleep out on the pans!  What an experience…I wasn’t sure about Jack’s camp and was worried it wouldn’t be right.  But we’d seen so much wildlife in Mombo, another camp would have been redundant.  Keeping the sleep out a surprise is a good thing…I’m glad we didn’t know.  Don’t tell people…the surprise is worth it.  And, of course, some can’t do it due to sandstorms, etc.  And you were right:  the kids loved the 4X4s and the meerkats.
 
The surprise birthday party was incredible:  message written w/beans on the bed when we returned from afternoon outing…champagne for us…handwritten birthday cards…animal prints from an artist
 
Guides were all knowledgeable, friendly, patient w/kids  (Ronald in Kwetsani…but he’s going off to join his brother’s mobile safari business; Mos in Little Mombo…GREAT!!!!  Excellent w/the kids; Chabba in Jack’s…wonderful wonderful.  Funny, knowledgeable.)

We loved Mombo Camp in Botswana. It was the first camp we went to and probably spoiled us for life in terms of game viewing.  On our very first day ever on safari we saw lions, the one wild dog of the area which had just had his kill appropriated by a hyena, and a white Rhino. And, of course, we saw herds of elephants, towers of giraffe, and a bloat of hippos and on and on. In addition to the bounty of animals, the accommodations at Mombo were heavenly. Hot waters in our beds at night, liquor to our heart’s content, food every time we turned around, and a wonderful staff everywhere we turned. It truly was heaven.

Mombo was great, despite their period of flux it was one of our best trips. Great viewing almost every drive, even though you have to work a little harder now than in the halcyon days of 5 or more years ago when the huge lion prides held sway. A rogue bull elephant in camp was taking apart the raised walkways on a daily basis. He even joined us for a night-cap around the camp fire - he stood just 6 feet away from us, quietly feeding... We had 12 individual rhino sightings in total, both black and white. Tsile our guide was superb, as were all the staff and management, even though some were in temporary holding positions, pending the go ahead for the refurb. ( as an aside, Tsile is actually retiring this month, but will be available upon request, something we will likely do when we go back next time ) 

Little Mombo - on the game front, this was absolutely number 1!!