pixelpower

"wait till Russia and China discover these areas' - Skimmer

With a little luck, the Chinese will have the same attititude towards Africa as the Japanese do. (not gonna open that can of worms though, lol)

"we'll be doing a mobile safari with Masson Safaris and I am sure it will be great..."

Well, I'm not so sure about that yet. Seems like I will be sharing my ride with some crazy photographer with a soft spot for charging elephants and venomus snakes... ;-)

Momliz

I just found this link on Safaritalk for travel in South Africa: http://www.south-north.co.za/index.html. Don't know anything about the area, but it looks interesting.

Momliz

these folks - http://www.classicsafaricamps.com/ - are independent, but Selinda and Zib are part of their group. So, even though they are independent, they are part of the extravagant highs.
However maybe there are some good deals, and interesting camps elsewhere in their group.

and, this http://www.lihsa.com/ looks interesting as well.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the area to comment on these links...

nyama

Classic Safari Camps is a marketing company.

LIHSA is a TA who chose the buzz word "independant" for his name. If looking at the portfolio one even could call WS independant.

Momliz

nyama, you bring up a good point. After I posted, I was wondering just what independent means - I know nothing about the areas and the people and companies, so I was just posting links that I found. So, I guess one has to ask a lot of questions if you don't know the companies and the players and want to stay somewhere smaller that will still be what one is looking for.

LAleslie

Kavey, thanks for the info on Jack's Camp. Not sure where I got the idea they still had bucket showers. Guess I'll just have to tough it out with running water! Whatever, I can't wait to get there.
Leslie

rickmck

Just bookmarking, thanks. PS, is there a better way to bookmark without taking the thread ttt?

PerpetualStudent

rickmck - In Firefox, right click in the message frame and select "bookmark this frame." Or copy the link location from the left side, or you could email it to yourself to get the URL.

Kavey

Leslie
You'll LOVE it there. It's a special, special experience. Just magical.

jules39

I have read through the guts of this thread and confess to being a bit lost to th eanswer to a question that I have that I thought I may find here! That is is it indeed possible to go to Botswana for a resonable amount of money? In the US$300 pppn would be resonable! Do not need luxury. Do need good wildlife viewing as well as good Botswana viewing. Would very much prefer our own vehicle ( I know this will be the killer!!!) I think this is what Pred Biol is aiming to do and I think he has a way of doing it. Am I right? J

PredatorBiologist

Jules: yes you are tracking well, and those type of prices are obtainable between December 1 and March 31. With the Kalahari Summer special you should be able to get your camp nights at somewhere in the $275 to $300 pp. With the 5 Rivers special you can get camps for a little more than that, in the range of $310 to $340 probably depending on how much agents mark up the rates. Flying between camps adds cost so it depends how many days and how many times you move around for that total. The 5 Rivers special includes the Kwando Camps so the wildlife quality is exceptional. The camps that I will visit on the Kalahari Summer special have also been reporting very good sightings but that is what I want to be able to evaluate for myself since I have not been to those camps and almost no one else around here has either. These pricing deals are a savings of 50% or more from high season rates.

As for private vehicles that adds a lot to the cost. I believe for the Kalahari Summer camps it runs $175 per day and Kwando Camps during the 5 Rivers are $200 per day.

Momliz

PB I have pored over the 5 Rivers website and can find no mention of the "Green Season Special". Does it go by another name?

Lillipets

jules39

You can go to Botswana for about $300/pppn if you do a mobile tent safari. You won't have a private vehicle but you will have a blast! From my very limited experience the type of person attracted to a mobile tent safari seems more interested in the wildlife and the landscape and less interested in fancy rooms, linens, spa services etc. So I guess it depends on your priorities.

PredatorBiologist

Momliz: the 5 Rivers special by definition is a green season, or sometimes called 'secret season' special because it only applies from December 1 to March 31. Thus the name of the promotion is simply 5 Rivers Special. Any agent that works with Kwando or Deception Valley Lodge should know about this and be able to provide a quote using the special.

I lead a small group trip in March 2006 with the 5 Rivers special so I have firsthand experience with that deal. Feel free to email me if you have questions about it.