Narelle Connor and her husband Robert, from Canberra, travelled to Africa in 2023 and covered some of the most iconic wilderness areas on the continent, east and south.
This was our first trip to Africa. It was on our bucket list; we’d always wanted to go.
Did it live up to our expectations? Oh yes. And more. And more! It was fantastic. We’ve done a lot of travelling and this trip was one of the best. Oh, it was wonderful!
A friend of mine had done a trip with Encompass Africa just as COVID was starting, and Jono and Danica managed to get them on the last plane out before everything shut down. She thoroughly recommended them, so that’s who we called when we started planning our trip.
I knew I wanted to go to the Okavango Delta, but apart from that I didn’t have much of an idea as to where to go or what to do. We originally wanted to go in early August, but Danica said to wait until after the school holidays, which was the best advice ever! She created an itinerary for us and it was perfect right from the beginning. As soon as we got it, we said yes, that’s where we want to go.
We started in Johannesburg and after a night there, flew to Botswana. We arrived at Gomoti Plains Camp and within half an hour or so we were out on an afternoon safari. On that very first drive we saw a leopard in a tree. The next morning, in a totally different place, we saw another leopard. And we thought wow, it can’t get any better than this. But it did. It just got better and better!
Gomoti Plains Camp was absolutely fantastic. We slept in a permanent canvas tent and it was beautiful. You’d have an elephant walking beside your tent, and giraffes going through the camp… it was just fabulous. We also did an excellent <mokoro> [traditional canoe] excursion, and spent the whole morning on the water. I row on a lake here in Australia, so to do something on the water on the Okavango Delta was great.
After Botswana we flew to Victoria Falls, which we really enjoyed. We stayed at Shongwe Lookout which was great, and just took our time and spent the day walking into town and making our way to the Falls. After that we had a night in Nairobi and then flew to the north of Kenya, to the Samburu area.
Oh my God, it was just stunning. We stayed at Saruni Samburu and it was unbelievable. We’d sit out on our deck, on the top of a hill, and just look down on the plains and see elephants walking past, and baboons and other animals. It was just the most amazing place. We felt as if we were really in Africa. We did every game drive that we could; the trackers were just amazing. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. We also did a scorpion safari and had a bush dinner with the Masai people. The whole experience was just wonderful.
Then we went down to the Masai Mara area of Kenya, where we stayed at Governor’s Camp.
We saw fabulous animals there, including a rhino, which was pretty special, and we also saw a cheetah make a kill. We even saw animals from a hot-air balloon.
All the pick-ups and drop-offs and connecting little bits all went so smoothly; the organisation was incredible, which is so important. There were no hiccups whatsoever. That’s another reason why we went to Encompass Africa, because everything was taken care of.
Their Safari Portal is also really helpful. My husband prefers a printed itinerary, but I loved the Safari Portal and used it all the time. I’m 70, but I still found it easy to download and put on my phone so I didn’t need to use data, and I was able to send it to my family so they always knew where we’d be.
We still think of Africa often, where we went, what we did, the beautiful people we met and how they really made the experience, and just how much we loved our trip. I could rave about it forever. It was wonderful.
