Private Vehicle 2009 Safari
 

We are looking for camps/lodges that offer private vehicles at a reasonable price in either Botswana or South Africa. This does not include Wilderness at $485 and Mala Mala at $500 + for two people per day.
Does anyone have suggestions?

cj

You could self drive in Kruger with just the two of you. I have never done it.

There have been good reports on Elephant Plains in SSGR

A positive report was just made on Idube in SSGR.

A mobile in Botswana would be less. The mobile I did was wonderful and I want to do more some day.

We had a private vehicle at Stanley's Camp last fall. I believe the price was $300 per day. The price was much higher in the Sabi Sands (Lion Sands) and at King's Pool (WIlderness).

In Botswana Kwando charges $75 per empty seat in high season If there are only 2 of you that works out at $300 per day. This is cheap by WS standards.
As a plus you get very good guides and trackers therefore in the main good viewing, the URI is also a very comfortable vehicle compared to a Land Cruiser.

Wilderness's new rates are shocking. I guess it's really boils down to "all that the traffic will bare". It would be nice to know from recent first hand experience, what the current state of the Kwando Comps is like? Anyone with info??
Chuck

Mala Mala has a $125 per empty seat surchange. Main camp usually has 6 people in the vehicle, so if you would like to have only 2 of you, the amount will be $125 times 4 = $500 per day.

Just a data point for you.

Thanks Andy and welcome back. Some outstanding stuff on your Blog. I love the B&W, I need to try it. How did you find the Mala Mala experience? Did you find a stisfactory way of stabilizing your setup in the open vehicles?
Chuck

Thanks, Chuck. We had an excellent time. We had private camps setup in Moremi and at Khwai, and with the area being off-season we rarely saw any vehicles. It was great. And Mala Mala was a great opportunity to fill in some leopard photos for me. Great hospitality there, and we had a nice dinner with the Rattray's when they were in town.

As far as ways to stabilize my gear, that is certainly an issue in southern Africa. At least for those of us with bigger equipment. A monopod is probably the easiest, but a full tripod setup is much more stable. It just depends on which seat in the vehicle you have at that moment. Tripods in Mala Mala aren't useful at all, and won't even work with their vehicles. A 70-200mm really is the best lens for that environment. For Botswana a 400mm or 500mm is best, but I found that I love my 400mm DO primarily because of its nimble-ness. My 500mm is a better lens optically, but it takes longer to get setup and you miss shots.

Glad to be back home. Time to hunker down for the next 4 months, as we have our second child coming in mid June. I am sure that early September will arrive quickly and I will be back in Bots and Namibia, going half way around the world just to get a decent night's sleep!

Safarichuck

What are the shocking rates at WS.
I posted this tears Kwando rates just above you, I have no idea if they will change next year.

sniktawk,
My information is that Wilderness has upped its rates as high as $750 U.S. at some camps and with the remainder being raised to $485 U.S..
They might be entering the zone that "kills the goose that lays the egg". It seems that even the Zambian comps have become super ambitious as far as raising their rates are concerned. I guess in the end it will boild sown to how much the traffic will bare.
Cheers-Chuk

Not only is it shocking, but, obviously a strategy to discourage the private vehicle/private safari. Surely, nobody is stupid enough to book a private vehicle at those rates? On the other hand - who knows ...... maybe they will be able to market the private safari experience at those prices?

More likely that this is targeted at professional photographers and video people, as well as, any photo group tours they may be leading. I imagine that this is the demographic most likely to book a private vehicle. Even at $300 per day for a couple, this is an expensive proposition for a casual safari-goer.

A lot of people who aren't professional photographers do book private vehicles for themselves - mainly because it is a pain in the A** to share a vehicle for many different reasons, and it is more and more applicable to today's safaris!

But, yes agree - $300 is additional money too .....

$300 per couple is an expensive add on, but if you are a "casual safari-goer" then it does not matter. What is your point? WS is clearly excessive and this is apparently OK if it is professional photographers, what about normal people who want pieace and quiet and flexibility.

I was responding to the speculation regarding how the market could support rates this high for private vehicles. I made no value judgement one way or the other. I did not state that it was o.k. to charge this rate or any other rate for professional photographers or any one else for that matter.

I simply find it unlikely that WS, or any other lodge for that matter, would actively discourage customers from booking private vehicles. I find it much more likely that they are pursuing an opportunity for more revenue. That is my point.

Hello everyone!

We are just back from our family holiday of 3 stunning weeks of touring South Africa, which included one week self drive in Kruger. A detailed trip report will follow soon, but I felt I should briefly add something here on the Kruger self drive experience as it seemed relevant to this thread. Self driving was easy and a lot of fun. The park accommodations were very comfortable and well appointed and since we had booked early we had choice rooms with stunning views. We always felt very safe and secure, and navigating was extremely easy. Kruger is wild, very wild, and big, and self driving allowed us to spend a lot of time in the bush, to stop and wait in places as long as we wanted to. We saw 4 of the big five which included lots of lions and also the rarer black rhino. Only the leopard eluded us, but then we also did not really try too hard because we do see plenty leopards in my own country Sri Lanka. I actually do think I saw one in tall grass but do not count such a fleeting glimpse as a positive sighting. Spotting big black maned lion out alone in the bush was awesome! We saw lots of other animals, birds etc., On one day we noticed a very skittish heard of zebra at a waterhole and suspecting lions in the vicinity we staked it out for a long time and were rewarded with some amazing moments. I’d hate to think what my frustration level would be if I were stuck in a shared vehicle and had to move on from a sighting where I wished to spend more time. For me, the ability to stay put at a place and just watch the behavior of a particular animal or bird is so important. There are several beautifully made and very rustic “hides” built at strategic spots like river banks, water holes etc where one can sit quietly and watch life pass by. Most of the time we had the hides all to our selves – scary sometimes! Even at sightings especially on the gravel tracks we rarely had more that a couple of vehicles and many a time we watched lions just by our selves. One of the best things in Kruger was the overall lifestyle and the ability to interact with many locals who are serious wildlife lovers. I made some real good friends on this trip and learnt so much from them. To summarize it, Kruger was wild and free, self driving was so easy, and the Kruger life style awesome. At the end of seven days and after just exiting the park for a luxury lodge on the Blyde River Canyon I asked my kids whether they were tired and fed up of the rough jungle life and they chorused back - "we can do another week in Kruger"! We hardly ever ate in the restaurants as we so enjoyed doing our own BBQ's (sometimes in the company of watchful hyenas!). Cost of Kruger for a family of 4 worked to about US$ 3000 for 7 nights, including accommodations in very nice rooms, a very nice SUV car, plus all food and sundry expenses and we did eat and drink very lavishly. All that said I also think one needs at least 7 days to feel and enjoy Kruger. If one has just 2 or 3 days and you want to quickly see all the big five you are probably better off in a private reserve.

Have a huge backlog of work pending, so please bear with me till I get a full trip report including the Blyde River Canyon and Panorama Route, and the Cape Town stories!

Mohammed - You're right, self driving in Kruger is having a private vehicle. Your description of what it's like mirrors mine. We've also seen very little road traffic and the back gravel roads were basically deserted. (But heard that during school holidays the Park is much busier). And also never seen a leopard there. I'm looking forward to doing it again anytime. We like to start a South Africa safari at Kruger. Gives us time to recover from the flights from the USA and a possible time cushion before going on to the more expensive private safari camps. Like, last Sep 2007 we spent 5 nights in Kruger then to Kings Camp then to MalaMala. Wonderful safari, could do that every year.

Sounds like you've seen more of Kruger than I have. Actually, I've seen very little of it, mostly just the central area around Letaba, Olifants, Mopani. We love the bridge view over the Olifant river. Where were the hides you were in?

regards - tom

Hi Mohammed,

Welcome back!!! Glad you had a fabulous time ......

Cheers
Hari

For 2009 Kwando has increased the empty seat rate from $75 to $80, still cheap by anyones standards. Clearly they like people to have private vehicles.

Here´s my 2 cents to private vehicle rates:
If private vehicles were a bargain and everybody could afford to go on a pv in Bots, that would cause to the fact that at places where you have let´s say 12 tents there would be 12 cars in an area where now are 4-6 cars. The areas would lose a lot of their atmosphere and it could come to Kenyan conditions with 12 cars on a sighting.
Does anybody want that?

So there is good reason for high pricing on private vehicles even though it is not nice for customers who´d like to have that.

Nethertheless we´ve been lucky to have a p.v. at Lebala and Kwara last year because of booking problems with Kwando they offered that to us. I enjoyed it for photographic reasons, but my wife would have liked to have some company specially when it comes to sundowners. Social interaction on safaris is also a part of the game.

Sorry for my bad english

Thomas

I have no references to provide but I seem to recall being told (by a camp manager or guide somewhere in Southern Africa, don't even recall country let alone camp) that, in some concessions the number of vehicles permitted is actually limited.

Obviously, they have sufficient for maximum capacity and then one or more extra that are available for hire privately.

It may be that, in recent years, they have found themselves selling that private vehicle capacity at 100% and have therefore decided to put prices up.

If you're in business it's normal practice, whether we customers like it or not, to increase prices to what you think the market will bear.

I also have a very vague memory of being at one camp where one of the vehicles was broken and they were therefore unable to honour a booking for a private vehicle. Although they did, of course, ensure that the price of that was refunded, I remember the customer, quite understandably, being very upset as they would simply not have booked that camp had they known in advance that no private vehicle was available.

Of course, one has to accept that breakdowns happen even when good maintenance is carried out.

But, what this is leading to is my question / thought:-

Is it possible to find out vehicle limits for various camps and, for those wanting to book private vehicles, use that information to ensure that the camp one chooses is not likely to have to withdraw the service should a single vehicle be out of commission?

Hi Thomas,

First of all, absolutely no problems with your English. You have a good point of vehicle numbers - but, i think good guides ensure that the sighting is limited to 3 vehicles.

RE the social element thing - we love interacting with guide and tracker. First of all, let's hope the evening drive is thrilling - that will automatically cancel out the sundowner break ....... i have stopped on quite a few occassions at the Twin Pools Sundowner spot for example., to share the break with any vehicle in the area. Yes, i agree - a good stop!

Cheers
Hari

I was out of the country when this thread was running it's course but properties marketed by Footsteps in Africa had a private vehicle charge of $175 per day total in 2008.

2009 rates should released in the next week or so at the Indaba trade show but it looks like they were considerably cheaper in 2008 and hopefully might be in 2009 as well.

You could do selfdrive South-africa/Botswana
We did it more than once and it's great. You even do not need a 4x4.
If you would like to read about our traveling south-africa you could take a look at my website
www.africaaddicted.com
If you want a 4x4 you could look at www.Come-along.nl
The rates are very good!

Mara
Holland

Thanks Predator. I did contact Island Safaris (Footsteps in Africa sister company) and the 2009 price I got was $252. This still looks great compared to Wilderness, Kwando and Sanctuary.
cj

CJ: thanks for that update, unfortunately rising costs but luckily still well below most.