Finally really landed after the Africa trip. And what a trip!
Must say everything exceeded all our expectations, except the expected ‘This is Africa’-moments, which we hardly experienced.
Arriving in Maun was without problems, and we were immediately greeted by a representative by the safari agency/Bushways, and the driver that took us to Riverfront.
Riverfront was a nice place to stay the first night, and a soft introduction to what would come. The room was spacious and nice, newly renovated, and a fantastic view from the balcony. Also the host was helpful and friendly. He recommended a restauramt. Marks(?), which was very nice. We also walked down to the river, a bit nervous about the hippos that was rumored to stay there.
The (cold, but we were prepared) morning after we were picked by KK from Bushways. He had already picked up two other people that would be on the same safari, mother/daughter from South Africa. Both nice people. Then we drove to pick up the remaining guest, a dutch family; mother/father and teenage daughter. That would be the people we were to spend the next week with.
Already when driving north we saw some Impalas. Had to take lots of pics of those; little did we know that they are more common than pigeons in Oslo! Also we saw elephants and giraffes short after, which was as a surprise this early on the trip.
We settled quickly into the camp-life. Slept well, good food, good people, good everything. Two things we wished we had brought along; camp slippers/flip-flops and some extra light to hang from tent ceiling.
Bush Ways’ crew, and KK the guide in particular, gave us an excellent experience in the bush. We think the only animals we didn’t see was the rhino and the pangolin. We were very lucky with all the things we saw, and saw up close! Almost unbelievable! Having the mokoro river ride was a nice break from all the driving. And the last river-cruise on the Chobe was a nice ending
(We could write a ton about all things we experienced, but we guess you have seen all this yourself 🙂 Just want to let you know we really really loved this safari, and this way to do safari)
The trip to VicFalls was smooth. Was picked up in Kasane by a driver that took us to the border. The crossing was slow, but uneventful. We payed for the Kasa-visa, in case we would cross the bridge to Zambia. From the border we had a friendly guide that took us to the Pioneer. (Should also mention that the driver that took us to the border, introduced us to the driver on the other side before leaving, and before we got in the passport/visa queue)
So we immediately booked the elephant encounter for the same day we arrived, a guided tour of the falls, and the dinner cruise. We originally didn’t expect to have time for the encounter the day we arrived, but we were lucky to get there on time for the last tour of the day. We barely had time to check in to the hotel before we were picked up again, but definitely worth it. Elephants are huge when you stand close to them!
The Pioneer was a very nice hotel, good food, nice garden and friendly staff. And more safari/bush-noise than we experienced during the entire safari! (they had bullfrogs in the garden! But was no a problem though)
The next day we did the heli-tour over the falls, a guided tour at the falls, and lunch at the Lookout. Wild Horizon drove us everywhere we needed to go (I never understood how that worked, ’cause we never paid anyone for it)
Travelling from VicFalls to Joburg was also uneventful.
Very good idea to use the hotel at the airport; having to drive to another hotel would just have complicated things for very little benefit. Nice room, very good wifi and good food at the restaurant. Btw we never had any use for the health-forms we had filled out. But had to show passport and Covid-certificate a lot.
In Vilanculos we were met by staff/owner from the asDunas after the expected slow passport/visa check. And after a 30 minute drive in safari-car, we arrived at the resort. We were immediately served a good lunch, and informed about the facilities while our room/tent was prepared.
We did a boat-trip including snorkling/whale-watching and dugong-spotting, with lunch one day, and a romantic lunch by ourselves, on a sand-dune-island, transported by local dhow. There was other activities we could do, but was super nice just to stay locally and do basically nothing that was planned. asDunas was perfect for relaxations. Each tent/bungalow was somewhat isolated from the others, so was quiet and private when we wanted that.
The food and drink was very good, had access to services all day, and staff was really friendly and helpful. Oh, and a daily massage was included. Really nice!
We highly recommend asDunas!
The flight home was easy too.
So again, thank you very much for the trip, and all help and guidance in the years(!) before the trip. Everything went really smooth thanks to you. And really kind with the written notes from you at all the places we stayed 🙂
Many people ask how we got this trip together, and recommend you to all that ask. Hope you will stay in this business for many more years, so we can contact you for our next Africa trip (Rune wants to see the old city Great Zimbabwe, and our safari-friends very strongly recommended Namibia)