Lagoon Camp Safari Lodge Hotel Reviews Okavango Delta Botswana Holiday Tour Accommodation Tents Swimming Pool Tiger Fishing Bird Otter Roan Sable
HOTEL REVIEW - LAGOON CAMP KWANDO RIVER OKAVANGO BOTSWANA
Lagoon Camp is set amongst the shaded branches of ancient Marula and African Ebony trees on the bank of the magnificent Kwando River in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The camp boasts 8 luxury twin-bedded tents in the traditional African safari style, with en-suite bathrooms and wonderful open-air showers enclosed in a reed wall. The view from the suites is breathtaking looking out over the river. The lodge gas a charming thatched dining area and large swimming pool. Activities include tiger fishing in the lagoon, bird watching excursions and game drives in open top safari vehicles. Lagoon Camp is home to a great deal of wild life especially large herds of elephant and buffalo and at night predators such as the hyena, leopard, cheetah and wild dogs may be seen. The endangered Sable and Roan antelope and spotted necked otters are also often seen around camp. What did you think?
1 comment:
We stayed at the Kwando Lagoon camp for two nights…were warmly welcomed by the staff team...led to our tent, which we found to be made up of twin beds, rather than a double which we had hoped for. This was quickly resolved and we were shown to a different tent, with the pre requisite double bed as well as an amazing view over the lagoon. ..The tent is large and luxurious, nicely furnished and with a lovely dressing area with double sinks. However with no door to the lavatory some delicate negotiation had to be made with my travelling companion. The shower, which was outside,was awesome, lots of hot water and really good pressure. Electricty in the tents was limited to battery lighting, the bed side lights were converetd parrafin lamps which were very sweet, but bona fide parafin lamps are placed within other parts of the tent giving a romantic ambiance. Don't worry, the staff light the lights for you while you are out on game drive, all we had to do was blow them out before getting some much needed sleep. Kwando has got a very simple ethos, guests come for the game viewing and everything, meals included takes secondary place to this...quality of the game drives was excellent.. we saw Impala, Kudu, Tessebe, Giraffe, Ostrich, Zebra, Buffalo and Elephant and of course the obligatory Hippo by the river. Unfortunatly I have to admit that with all of the time spent in africa I still have not seen wild Lion, Cheetah or Leopard...you get a chance to stay out after dark, it's delightful, around sunset the vehicle is parked up so that you can, as we did, watch the golden sunset play over a herd of 25 giraffe and accompanying zebra while drinking gin and tonic… eating biltong or other delectable nibbles…. Game driving in full dark was a new experience for me and it is amazing, we saw plenty of springhares as well as striped jackal and wandering hippo. I should also point out two more things about the game drives, it is supposedly a very good time of year for bird watching and we saw some stunningly beautiful birdsThe guides if they see something, an animal of interesting spoor, will leave the dirt track to see what they can find, or to try to maximise your view of a particular animal…a fellow guests comments after a cruise on seeing a queue of about 30 hippo waiting to get onto land did sound stunning. The camp is all inclusive, which includes meals and drinks. It's made easy to access hot drinks and guests have free access to the "help yourself" bar. The food, although not elaborate is good and tasty and the chef made efforts to ensure that Karen, as a vegetarian, ate well.
Before I conclude there is one further comment that I would like to make about our stay at Kwando Lagoon. One of the delights for me was that all members of staff, from the resident manager down, were all Batswana. It was good to get away from the white/black hierarchies that you get in many camps and lodges. This is not meant to be either a political or critical comment, it is purely to elaborate the fact that I found Kwando Lagoon to have a very special atmosphere compared to some other camps that I have stayed in or visited over the years. .. provided a very special experience, the staff were excellent and I enjoyed sharing a dinner table with them and swapping tall stories. The small number of guests, there are only 8 tents, provided an intimate atmosphere that made it easy to talk and gossip with fellow travellers. The game viewing was of an extremly high standard and the willingness of the guides to be flexible to the needs of guests was superb, and the night drives....... Will I go back to Kwando Lagoon Camp, definitly!
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