Thank you to ATI Holidays, for another professional and very well organised holiday in Namibia.
As soon as we arrived in Windhoek, all went seamlessly with the meet and greet service and transfer to Villa Violet. Your ATI colleague who came to Villa Violet went through everything very carefully, and took care to ensure we understood everything fully. We also appreciated his hints and tips and advice on certain aspects of our trip.
We were most impressed with the ATI App (new since our last trip in 2022), we found it very efficient and it was useful to be able to have this easy access to all the information we needed each day.
So, some of the highlights:
OkonjimaOur booking was for one night at Plains Camp then moving to Bush Camp for the next two nights, as shown in our Vouchers. Upon arrival at the gate, we were told to go straight to Bush Camp as that first night had been upgraded. However, at the Lodge reception upon handing over our vouchers, there was some confusion as their booking appeared to be "back to front" with one night at Bush Camp then moving to Plains for the final two nights. However, we were checked in and taken to our Bush Camp room (which was fabulous) and advised they would look into things. Later, a staff member arrived and said if we didn't mind packing up again the next day, we were being upgraded to the Bush Suite for our next two nights.When we saw the Bush Suite, we had to pinch ourselves ……. our own four vehicle parking area, gates, swimming pool, water hole, fire pit, two large bedroom/bathroom area (choice of Sunrise or Sunset), full kitchen with fully stocked drinks fridge to help ourselves from. this facility there would have been a There was a private staff entrance, and upon returning there were always two team members sweeping the drive and leaves away, cleaning the pool, checking drink stocks etc etc …… what an experience and what a memory!The activities were great as usual, with the highlight being finding three Leopards attracted in together to an Oryx kill that a Brown Hyena was feeding on. As our guide said, with Leopards always being solitary, this was very special and unusual. The Brown Hyena displayed his annoyance with the Leopards, vocally with hackles raised. Eventually it backed away and two of the Leopards crept in on opposite sides of the kill - an amazing sight.
OkaukuejoA contrast after the Okonjima accommodation of course, but we did enjoy it and had some great sightings of a black rhino and a male lion at the waterhole.
EtoshaA great time there as before with lots of wildlife. We particularly enjoyed driving out around Fisher's Pan and had incredible sightings of huge herds of Elephant at Tsumcor waterhole.The Mushara Outpost was as wonderful and efficiently run as ever with lovely food. Our bed was festooned with flowers with the message "welcome back" and a bottle of bubbles - just lovely. Thank you for letting them know that we were on a return visit.
River DanceFabulous to have three nights here at this well run Lodge with the chance to chill out and make use of their refurbished swimming pool. We repeated the activities we had done before, but this time on our game drives of course, we saw Elephants aplenty.
JackalberryNigel was delighted that we were able to drive ourselves in again. We appreciated their improved signage as you get near the Lodge, short poles driven into the ground with JB painted on - however, some of them were at crazy angles, so the Elephants will no doubt soon have them knocked down. Such a special Lodge, the only complaint being that they like to feed you rather too much 😂 The Linvanti River had shrunk considerably since we were last there in July of course, so the boat trip was not as extensive, but the Elephant sightings feeding on the Papyrus and crossing to and fro from Namibia/Botswana were incredible. The game drives were very good also, saw Lion and an impressive herd of approx 2,500 water buffalo, we didn't count them and took the guide's word on the number!
SerondelaThe handing over of the vehicle and the border crossings went very well. Serondela was a wonderful place to finish our trip at, well run and very comfortable. The river cruises were terrific, lots of amazing birds and more Elephants silhouetted against beautiful sunsets. We can highly recommend the trip to the local village, the villager Joseph who showed us around proudly showed us the new visitors toilet block which will be operational next year apparently.
So, thank you once again and we may see Namibia again some time when we cannot resist being called back.
