Safari Camps

On our trip we stayed at three different safari camps/lodges. Chobe Game Lodge in Chobe National Park on the Chobe River, Chief's Camp on Chief's Island in the Mombo Concession of the Moremi Game Reserve, MalaMala Main Camp in the Malamala reserve adjacent to Kruger National Park. The first two are in Botswana, the third in northern South Africa. If you poke around those web sites you can see the rates, they are very high, at least to my thinking. So what do you get for that?

Each one is different, of course, but the basic idea is the same. The goal is to see wild game. And to get yourself fed in between. Each has a morning and afternoon "game drive" as part of the package. In the morning, that means getting up at 06:00 (depending) for coffee/tea and breakfast and then piling into your assigned vehicle. In general, you are assigned to a guide for the duration of your visit who drives you, takes meals with you and is your main contact with the camp.

It was pretty cold on the morning drives, so blankets and hot water bottles were provided, but you better have brought warm clothes. The guides know the areas where the different animals have been seen recently and also coordinate by radio if one sees something that would be of interest. In the evening, the drive can start out pretty warm, but as the sun goes down, it can get pretty cold again.

The daily schedule we followed at Chobe is pretty typical.

06:00 - wake up and down to breakfast (some lodges bring coffee to your room too)
06:30 - morning game drive
10-11 - back to the lodge (or later)
12:30-14:00 - lunch and general hanging around, nap if you like
15:00 - tea/snack
15:30 - afternoon game drive
sunset - break for drinks/snack
18:30 - back at lodge, shower and rest
20:00 - dinner
22:00 - sleep (or so)

As you can see, there's not much slack time, and at those prices you don't dare just sleep in and do nothing now do you? Most people stay for two or three nights. You will arrive at about lunch time and have the afternoon drive, then morning and afternoon subsequent days and then the morning drive on the last day. To me, two nights is a bit short and three nights is a bit long. Keep in mind that you are with your guide and your group for a long day and it can get a bit wearing. There simply isn't time to just chill.

I've been very specific about the names of these places, there are many similarly named camps that can be very different. Each of these places has it's own personality.

Chobe Game Lodge has a main building with dining on the terraces, the rooms are in duplexes with view of the lawn and down to the river. The area is fenced so there is no restriction about walking around at night, meals and drinks are included. There is a TV in the upstairs bar, important to us with the UEFA final scheduled while we were there.

Chief's Camp is 12 canvas tents/cabins along a small river adjacent to a central building with a large deck. The "tents" do have mostly canvas walls but are about as untentlike as you can get with full bathrooms, indoor and outdoor shower, electricity, and coffee/tea brought in the morning to help wake you up. Not fenced, so your guide walks you home after dinner, all food and drink included, no TV but internet is available. I was surprised to see a hyena one morning on the path in front of me on the way to breakfast, I was assured there was no danger, but it did wake me up.

MalaMala Main Camp is has a central building with thatch roofed duplexes containing very nice rooms overlooking the Sand River. Not fenced so walking is restricted after dark. Large deck on main building for lunch or afternoon hanging out, very pleasant. Dinner is served in the Goma, a large area enclosed with a reed fence. This time of year there was a wood fire in the center and hot water bottles and blankets for the diners. One TV, internet available, all food but not drinks included.

The natural habitat surrounding each camp determines what types of game are most likely to be seen and at what times. The guides are well trained and experienced both in locating and viewing the animals and in taking care of the guests. Next post, I'll try to talk about what we saw and where.