Safari_Craig

Great news on the flights Liz!

Jacks and San are no longer with Wilderness. Wilderness opened their own camp called Kalahari Plains.

Craig Beal

Kavey

Jacks Camp (and San) were never owned by Wilderness, however, for a period of a few years, they handed over reservations to Wilderness and also seemed to participate in management staff rotations/ cover as well. But they were always owned and managed by Ralph Bousfield, son of Jack.

As Craig said, I think they are now fully back under their own control for bookings and everything else.

On of the differences with their guides is that, as well as people like Super Sunday (if I have remembered his name correctly), who trained up under Ralph and has been with them for years, they also take on high performing graduates of relevant disciplines such as anthropology, conservation and environmental studies. Our guide was one such graduate and was outstanding.

And of course, they have established excellent relationships with local San who take guests out on walks during which you can learn about their food, drink and medicinal uses of local plants, how they create animal traps and hunt and so on.

Liz_Frazier

I'll be the first to admit that I just don't know what all the different terms mean, i.e., owned by or booked by, etc. Whether WS owns a camp or just books it, I just don't want to stay there. There's too many operators I would rather deal with.

I would like to visit the Pans, so that is on my list. I also looked at the Panhandle and found Nxamaseri has anyone stayed there? All comments appreciated.

Kavey

Fair enough, you had a bad experience with WS, and I can understand not wanting to have anything to do with them for this trip. In which case it's great news for you that Jack's Camp is no longer associated with them!

How long is your trip going to be and are there any particular animals/ birds you're really hoping to see?

Liz_Frazier

The trip will be about three weeks, depending on getting the return tickets in that timeframe. We like the big birds and that is partly why we picked September. The migratory storks begin nesting then. We went in September of 1999, and saw more wildlife than we ever did on our other trips to Botswana. Other than visiting the heronries, we want to visit smaller camps in a variety of areas around the Delta and Savuti or Linyanti. We haven't decided anything now nor will we until Spring although I will probably look off and on until then. No booking before then. Thanks to the help here we will probably also visit Makgadikgadi.

atravelynn

You've booked you big bird to go see the big birds. Way to go!

Kavey

Liz, we saw flamingoes at Jack's but I think we were lucky to see them at the time of year of our visit. I imagine September may be a better time, I don't recall anymore when they said was the best time to see them in even higher numbers.

Before our first safari we never expected to be as interested in the birds as we very quickly became. I still remember spotting a huge Pel's fishing owl on our first Botswana trip. It wasn't until the envious chatter of other safari-goers that we realised how good a sighting it was - very close up, just sitting in the tree above us!

atravelynn

"You've booked you big bird to go see the big birds. Way to go!"

I wasn't going to bother editing the above to remove the you and put in your, until I realized it could be seen as an insult.

I am not referring to you as Big Bird, that overweight yellow fellow who was not too bright, Liz Frazier.

It should read: You booked <b>your</b> big bird to go see the big birds.

Oh, to be able to edit.

Liz_Frazier

Evelyn- I knew what you meant. I do also wish one could edit as I posted hastily back a ways and a number of typos were in it and I didn't catch it until later. Cute remark though. I forgot how to do smiley faces so imagine one there please. Liz

Liz_Frazier

Kavey- Oh yes, lucky you. We haven't seen one yet. Perhaps this trip, since we will be going to different camps than we did before. Until we saw the Heronry, I didn't realize how in awe we would feel. Now I can hardly wait to see others. That is something we will make sure is included in some of the camps we visit. We just slowly were more and more attracted to birds of all sorts over there. Now it is something we consider when booking.

When we saw the Pangolin in the 1999 trip, I thought it was creepy looking but when we got back to camp I thought the camp managers would die of envy. I've thought about it and tried in vain, but no it apparently is a once in a lifetime event. It was at dusk, so no pictures. TTYL. Liz

Kavey

Yah but I'm still to see a pangolin, and many many many other creatures on my wishlist!
Whatever you see, I'll keep my fingers crossed that you have a wonderful trip!

skimmer

Be aware that chances of fires are quite high when visiting Northern Botswana in September especially if you had good rains in the previous summer.

http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d...Chobe_District

Last year, I had the same experience while I was there in september 2008. Actually that was my main reason why I didn't want to go in September/October this year.

debwarr

Hi, Liz. Sorry I'm just catching up with this post, but we just returned from Botswana and Zambia (Vic Falls only) last week, so I'm just now getting settled into home (and suffering from acute Africa withdrawal!). I just wanted to put one more thought in the pot about whether to do Vic Falls first or last. We did it last, and if we were to do it again I think we should have done it first. By the time we got to Vic Falls (we stayed three nights, mainly to recover, i.e. sleep, from three weeks of game drives) we were so pooped that it was hard to take advantage of the many wonderful things to do in the Livingstone area. (Even too tired to even bungee jump, darn it! We did go to the Falls early one morning and we didn't see another person until we were walking back to the hotel, but were really just too tired to do much else but sleep and relax. We did, however, get rested for the long flight back to the U.S., and we appreciated this, but if I were to do it over, I'd stay there earlier in the trip. We had seen Vic Falls before from the Zimbabwean side, but it was still nice to visit again. And I really liked the Zambian people we met.

I can't help much with the Botswana portion of the trip since we primarily stayed at Wilderness Properties, but we stayed at Sandibe a couple of years ago and had a great experience. Sandibe is close to Moremi (in the same concession as Chitabe) and is an &Beyond (old CCAfrica) property. They also have Nxebega which, I believe, is more of a water camp. They are mid-level luxury and Sandibe had a wonderful feel when we were there. If you decide to check them out, you may want some more recent feedback. Since &Beyond just opened two luxury camps (Xudum and Xaranna) I'd want to make sure they were still keeping Sandibe and Nxebega fresh. We stayed at Xudum on this trip. Ultra luxurious, but not much wildlife (although we witnessed an incredible lion kill there and saw the Pel's Fishing Owl roosting in a tree in camp).

Wherever you go, I'm envious and I just got back!

I promise a full trip report as soon as I've caught my breath.

Take care and have a wonderful time planning your trip.

Debbie

PS...we didn't see a pangolin again either, but saw three porcupines and eight honey badgers, so we had some fun night drives!

Liz_Frazier

Thanks for the tip on Chobe. I'll keep that in mind when I book.

Debbie-
When we went to Botswana in 1999, we did Vic Falls first and really enjoyed it. We stayed in Zim but I would never do that now. I think we've decided to skip it for this trip. We liked it and all, its just that there are other things we'd rather do.
I appreciate your comments on other properties. I think Nxabega views a heronry and it is on my list to look over. I thought Sandibe was WS but hadn't planned to go there anyway. Around that area my interest is the big birds. We've been to Botswana a number of times so we want to catch some different camps and see birds, birds, birds at this time of the year. I hate to say we've seen enough Leopards, but we have and dogs are more important this trip.
I'll look forward to your trip report. Liz