katt58

Has anyone ever stayed at the Kafunta River Lodge or gone on a canoe safari on the Zambezi with Safari Par Excellence?

Richard_Smith

Katt58

For the canoeing part of your questions....

Saf Par have now teamed up with River Horse Safaris to run their canoeing operations (not that this makes any real difference to the answer to your question)

I had two clients canoe with them on one of their shorter canoe trips a couple of months ago and they enjoyed it greatly.

Great guiding, great food, reasonable wildlife, good fun.

Yours, Richard

tripster

I did the canoing safari on the Zambezi at Mwambashi lodge which Safpar organized. The trip was incredible, you see the wildlife from a very different perspective than in Luangwa, where you are on the banks of the river. Others were doing two and three day expeditions, which would've been even better.
One thing--we also stayed at a safpar place called Kayila, which was cheaper and not nearly as nice as Mwambashi. It is also outside the LZ national park, meaning there was less wildlife. Very rude manager, too!
Hey, Rocco, you are very knowledgable and obviously love Zambia as much as anyone.
But you are always plugging the same lodges that you seem to have some commercial relationship with.
Shouldn't you disclose that, and isn't this site supposed to be for travellers, not travel agents shilling their preferred partners?
Just asking,. ...

Roccco

Clarification:

What I meant by mentioning Tanzania/Zanzibar is that I have not yet even taken my final trip as a regular consumer/traveler. What that should indicate is that I really did not have this master plan to start my own tour operation, but after my last trip I knew that I wanted to establish a long-lasting relationship with Southern Africa and upon my return in September I started the ball rolling.

So, should I come home raving about any places in Tanzania or Zanzibar, it will be as a regular traveler as I do not have any current ambitions to invade East Africa! Southern Africa is large enough an area to specialize in.

Had I known that I would be in the position I am now, I would have postponed Tanzania, went instead to Zambia and Botswana on a familiarization trip and with the money I saved I could have gone out and bought myself an Antarctic cruise or something along those lines!

atravelynn

tripster,

Can you elaborate on your canoeing or what you know about the 2-3 day trips?

tripster

Hey, Rocco, like I said, I'm just asking. . .
I'm not saying one place is better or worse than the other.
From what I hear, you get benefits from recommending particular operators on the site, and I think that is a no-no.
The canoeing trips are really wondrous, because you get so close to the animals and you are really on their level.
Float 10 feet from a croc lazing on a rock. Glide gently past a pod of hippos. Cruise up to a lion yawning on the sandy shore.
We rowed across to ZImbabwe w/o a visa and handed out cigarettes to the tourist-starved guys in Mana Pools!
We went in 2-person canoes - my wife and i in one and our son and a guide in the other. You go downstream so it is not really strenuous -- just steering in and out.
The landscape is amazing, especially the reedy channels that run off the main stream.
If you are going for 1 day, you just float downstream and they come and pick you up with a speedboat. FOr the 2 or 3 day safaris, you hop from one camp to the other. I believe they do it from Royal Zambezi to Mwambashi, and I'm sure the other camps have their own trips. It's great -- especially good combination with the spectacular SLNP, as Rocco and others have documented.

Roccco

tripster,

I booked my recently completed trip through Taga Safaris and I received no special price breaks for my Zambian safari. I did not even deal directly with the lodges and put the entire thing on my credit card. The only portion I did not book through Taga was my stay at the Twelve Apostles Hotel in Cape Town and for that I bought a package through Luxury Link.