I also meant to ask - for those who have been to Botswana: Am I simply making too big a deal out of the concessions? I just don't want to be stuck camping in an area where there are other lodges and lots of people around. As you can see, someone needs to set me straight on this!

Sharon,

I think, for mobile safaris....you would normally be away from the immediate vicinity of lodges. In some cases, you may have some overlap gamedrive area, but, away from people....

Hari

Hi Sharon,

The main advantages of the private concessions are night drives and being able to drive off-road, neither of which are allowed in the national parks. There are also very few vehicles enabling you to experience the wilderness in privacy.

NB I'm not saying that you wouldn't have a great experience in the national parks -- after all, Mombo is in the middle of a national park. But even there the no night-drive rule can be a bit frustrating at times (though the guides do push the limits when there's a good sighting).

Cheers,
Julian

Sharon, when I was with GameTrails, we camped in very remote areas. There weren't any other people anywhere near us. We did see other people during some of the game drives. But many game drives we never saw anyone else. We did see a large number of vehicles/people at the huge lion pride (appx 30 lions) in Savuti. I wouldn't let that be a concern at all if you choose GameTrails or Masson or someone like them.

Hi Cooncat -

Being in private reserves by no means guarantees better game viewing.

It depends mostly on the specific areas the safari will visit. Some of the private concessions, especially those that have recently converted from hunting and those that border on hunting areas, can offer less than stellar game.

Rather research and ask about the specific areas you'll visit and what each can offer at the time of year you travel rather than solely on the operator and the types of areas to which they have access.

As Matt mentions, the quality of your guide will play a huge part in the overall value of the safari.

James

The Wilderness Safari mobile safari I did was in 97 and called the Jacana. In Chobe we were in 9x12 tents and no one else was around even in this busy park. At some points on drives we saw other people and on the river cruise there were other boats. In the delta we were at Xepa camp where only our group stayed. We saw one boat of Xigera guests at a distance and no one else. In Linyanti and Moremi we stayed at Wilderness camps so it was not really a mobile experience there.

The most rustic accommodations (Chobe and Xepa) had comfortable cots and excellent food. There was a communal bucket shower with hot water. Those tents were not as inviting to lounge around in during the day as the very beautiful permanent Wilderness tents. The most rustic had drop toilets just outside the tent. Not sure if that is still the case.

When I look at the Wilderness mobile offerings today, I would not be concerned with crowding at all. Not more so than at the permanent camps. The concern I would have would be that you spend time in prime game viewing areas.
The water camps and desert camps do not have big numbers of predators and the mobiles seem to spend lots of time in those areas. The Great Botswana Journey looked like it would have the most game rich areas.

The time I spent in Chobe (especially) and Linyanti areas on the mobile offered more abundance of game (numbers) than I had at the permanent camps of Chitabe, San, Zibalianja in Selinda, Duba Plains or Vumbura. Each of those camps and the mobile offered unique and special sightings of predators that were not duplicated elsewhere.

One Fodorite was going to check out a tailored made mobile through Gametrails.
With enough people that could be an option.

I would call an agent that sells the Wilderness mobile safaris and ask to talk to some people who went on the different itineraries during the time frame you want to go. You could ask them your specific questions and what they saw.

Good luck!

Good luck

Lynn,

Your '97 mobile sounds very similar to my '96. We had Mombo bush camp, which I have described here before, and saw other vehicles only one or twice; we went on to Xigera, and saw other people only in camp and never on our drives, walks, mokoro trips and powered voyages; similarly, we had Savuti bush camp to ourselves (it didn't have the now famous woodpile hide because the camp was brand new); and our Chobe camp was in a private area and nicely isolated from the crowds-- we ran into a lodge traffic jam only once (though that was once too many )

Julian is right about the Mombo guides pushing the limit on the night-drive ban. A trio of cheetahs I took to be the steroid boys brought down a female kudu right on nightfall, only to have it stolen immediately by lions. We watched the whole thing by headlight.

John

John,

The steroid boys, were actually 3 before they were the mighty 2???

Both the Steroid boys and the famous Savute/Selinda/Kwando boys have given all of us fantastic sightings!!!! There isnt any point in calling them Savute boys, when they spend a hell of a lot of time all over the place.......

Hari

Hello,

If you have enough people to do a tailormade trip, you may want to look at Uncharted Africa (owners of Jack's and San Camp) as they do only tailor-made mobiles. Their mobiles are top-notch for comfort, and they are known to have some of the best guides in Botswana, including Ralph Bousfield. I will be doing a one-week mobile with them next April.

One possible hitch with UA is their 28 bed-night minimum (one person, one night = one bed-night), e.g. a group of four could do a seven-night trip to meet the requirement.

Cheers,
Julian

I've checked my journal for that day, Hari, and it was a trio of male cheetahs. But I don't know if they were known as the steroid boys back then; I was just assuming.

We saw them the same day that we visited the den of the Mombo pack of wild dogs and saw all 16 of them. The pups remained underground, so we didn't find out how many there were.

John

All very delicious food for thought. I'll do some more research and keep you all posted.

Thanks again and keep it coming!
Sharon

Uncharted Africa must be very good. I did visit Jack's camp in 2004 and each one of their guides were fantastic!!! We had a nice british bloke- Pete.

Hari

Thanks, John

Hari

Afrigalah,

I think we did the same trip. My guide was Heidi Dednam.

Did the guides let the air out of the spare tire so in case the vehicle was apprehended by the authorities they could claim there had been a puncture and a tire change was the cause of the delay?

Julian,
Uncharted Africa is a good tip! Do you know if they ever let a "stray" join one of the charters to help boost the bed numbers? I'd likely be that stray.

Lynn,

Possibly. I had a different guide, though, and no tyre tricks. That was one of the rare occasions when we saw vehicles from main Mombo camp. The kill was lit up by two or three sets of headlights.

John

Hi Hari,

UA's mobiles are know to be brilliant because of the calibre of their guides -- I'll find out when I travel with them in May 2007.

Hi Lynn,

Since the trips are custom-designed and have no scheduled departure dates, the main obstacle is finding out about them. UA wouldn't have any objection to you joining, but would probably need to check with the other people on the trip as most of the groups are families, groups of friends, etc.

If you found three other people who wanted to do a mobile together, this could work as well.

Cheers,
Julian

Hari,

You're my scout! What's your itinerary in May 2007 with UA?

Hi Lynn,

I havent even given UA a thought, unless something popped up. For May 2007, i am considering Lebala and Zibalianja. UA as an add-on perhaps? I do think very highly of their guiding, which i was very impressed with at Jack's....

Pl email me, when you hv more info. Thanks

Hari

Hi Julian,

Yes, i do agree with you on the guiding skills at UA. Just based on my one experience at Jack's, i would think all of their guides are of equal standards....

Hari