hali

Dear Fodorites,

First, thanks for your moral support and advice re: my agent who went "AWOL" for a time. As some of you seem to have ascertained, it was Destiny Africa/Rocco Morelli.

Thankfully, after lots of emails to our camps in Zambia--Kaingo/Shenton Safaris and Chongwe River Camp--we sorted everything out and had a great time. I am happy, though, I was NOT checking my email while in Cape Town, so I did not read the email from Shenton on June 17 saying that they had not yet received from transfer from Rocco for our stay on June 25--they finally did receive it on June 19. We are still waiting to receive $ back from the hotel booking he never made in Vic Falls and which we had to make with another agent the week before the trip. We will also try to get back $ that he took off the top because of the poor service we received.


So, the booking experience was really bad and drove me a little crazy, while the safari was heaven. We also spent 4 nights in Cape Town and 2 nights in Vic Falls. I will report more later, especially about the wonderful camps. For now, here is a little website my husband made with a small selection of our pictures.

http://web.mac.com/cromulent/iWeb/Site/Africa.html

Still missing the Wheeze-honk of hippos across the river from us at night.

Thanks again to you helpful Fodorites.

matnikstym

Welcome Home! Glad everything worked out for you Hali, can't wait to read the rest of your report. I stayed at Chongwe 2 years ago and really enjoyed it, hope you did too! Miss the hippo sounds too, but have the "Sounds of Luangwa" CD to bring back the memories.

matnikstym

beautiful pictures too! Thanks!

annhig

hi, hali,

so glad your trip worked our despite the "agent issues".

As we are off to SA on tuesday [17th July] starting with 4 nights in CPT, I'd be very greatful for any up to date info you could give me - nice restaurants, trips you particularly enjoyed, and anything you'd recommend avoiding.

many thanks in advance,

regards, ann

QueenofDaNile

Glad to hear you had a glorious birthday. Your photos are spectacular.

cruisinred

Lovely photos. Thanks for sharing.
Totally random question, but can I ask where you bought the great khaki colored safari shirt you're wearing in the Zambia pics? I've been looking for a stylish linen shirt like that. Thanks

samcat

Wonderful pictures. We'll be at Chongwe River Camp in September. This increases my anticipation further.
Samcat

thit_cho

http://www.destinyafrica.com/index.asp?L1=testimonials

Can you add your experience to the Client Testimonials section on the Destiny Africa website?

hali

Matnikstym-where did you get the Sounds of Luangwa CD? I think I need that!

Ann-We stayed in the Tamboerskloof section of Cape Town. One restaurant there we ate at that was quite good (and pretty trendy, I guess) was called Saigon, on Kloof St. One odd thing about that restaurant--there was a woman walking around offering people massages while they were at their tables...

Downtown on Long St. we happened upon a little tapas place called Fork where we had lunch. It was run by a very personable Brit and we had a nice relaxing time there. Not great if you're really hungry, though.

We also enjoyed Savoy Cabbage downtown, an upscale place where dinner for 2 was $85--this was with 3 drinks between us.

We were lucky that we had good weather in Cape Town--we were told it had been raining for 2 weeks before. I would definitely recommend going up to Table Mountain the first day you have good weather, and also go to Robben Island, weather permitting. It was a very moving and educational experience. We also enjoyed our day trip to Cape Point, although would probably have enjoyed the trip more if we rented a car and could have taken our time.

Oh, and we really enjoyed the District 6 Museum, which is downtown. It was a very diverse neighborhood until the Apartheid gov't forced everyone to relocate. Very personal feel to the place, worth a visit.

Glad to hear others are going to Chongwe--we had a lot of fun there. There is a really friendly vibe at Chongwe--the staff is super nice, you really feel at home.

Cruisinred--the shirt is from H & M.

More on Chongwe and Kaingo soon.

Patty

Great photos! Thank you.

Kavey

Glad the trip worked out despite your agent nightmares.

Lovely photos, looks like a really wonderful trip.

Thit_Cho, even if DA's testimonials page wasn't still "under construction" (as it has been since he started the business) I am sure it would be a hand-selected, static, self-selected series of testimonials rather than a "live" guest book where clients could add their comments directly and have them show up straight away...

Leely

Beautiful, beautiful photos. Really like them all, but love the butterfly--and that sandwich looks delicious.

You guys are a cute couple and I can tell you're having fun. Glad the safari part of this experience was excellent.

matnikstym

Hali- I got the cd at Mfuwe airport. It's actually called "A Luangwa Adventure" A sound safari in the Luangwa Valley.
email me and I'll burn you a copy.

annhig

hi, again, Hali,

thanks for the CPT info. We have planned on going up Table mountain on the first day if we can - how long did you spend up there? we're wondering what else we might have time for that day.

What else would you have liked to do at the Cape if you had a car? - we're picking one up on the first day so we hope to get maximum use out of it.

thanks so much for taking teh time to answer my questions,

regards, ann

bat

hali:
So glad that your trip was great and thanks for the pictures.