African Explorer Two
8 April 2024
The Riding
The Accommodation
Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?
I am a vegetarian and the meals provided for me were excellent. Everything was fresh and home made. The afternoon cakes were delicious. One small improvement could be decaff tea or coffee but that is minor. The accommodation was all clean and the beds were really comfortable. Sometimes there wasn't enough hot water (once at Camp Davidson I had a cold shower and the hot water ran out towards the end of my shower at the Treehouse Camp). The electricity ran out every evening at Camp Davidson at about 8pm so a torch was essential. Locks on all the shower and toilet doors at Treehouse Camp would be an improvement - hard to tell if someone is in there in the day when you can't see the light. Overall fantastic though for places so far away from infrastructure. Savannah Lodge was a lovely bit of luxury in the middle of the trip.
Before Your Holiday
Did you have all of the information you needed to:
How could we improve the quality of pre-holiday information that we send?
The personalised booklet was great to have before and during the holiday. The ride to Treehouse Camp was long and slow and the day felt really long after an early start, ride from Savannah Lodge to Horizon Lodge and then a long minibus ride, new horse allocation and then the riding test and then the ride to Treehouse Camp. We were all really tired - not sure if the ride can be made shorter/more direct? Maybe just mention in the itinerary how long that ride will be so we know what to expect.
How could we improve the way we handled your booking and payment?
It was all very easy and clear. Great that different members of the group can go online and pay their amount direct - saves moving money amongst ourselves.
Do you have any other feedback for us?
Overall a fab trip. The guides were great, the horses were lovely (and well cared for), the accommodation was comfortable but still felt natural and remote and the food was delicious and plentiful. The game drive was brilliant - we saw cheetah, lions, 2 separate leopards and some hyena all in about 2 hours. I was amazed how close you could get to the wildlife both when riding and when on the game drive - no need for my binoculars!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any of my horse riding friends.
[Becky from In The Saddle replies: Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback. It's lovely to hear what a great holiday you had.]
Beth who has been on 2 In The Saddle rides. Fantastic Adventure - Holiday of a lifetime | The riding in South Africa was brilliant - soft sandy tracks and lots of canter and some small jumps. In Botswana near the Treehouse Camp, the terrain was more rocky and so there was a lot more walking for the first 2 days. The riding back from the Two Mashatus Camp was great - more open so cantering didn't have to be single file and some jumping. I feel that the expectations given at the briefing in Botswana were that there would be more open cantering but this was only true after we left Treehouse Camp - a little disappointing but only because of what we were expecting.