I am considering travelling to southern Africa (on the Four Country Classic tour to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana) next year. Right now I am thinking March/April, but I was wondering whether or not this is a good time of year to go, or whether I should delay my trip to a better time.
More specifically, I was concerned about the climate (wet vs. dry, hot vs. cold) and any affects that this had on road conditions/travel times and potential for wildlife viewing...crowds (when do the locals have their vacation time and do they frequent the areas visited by the tour)...amount of daylight (on long travel days, do we end up arriving after dark).
Any help or comments would be appreciated. Thanks!
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Hi Alyssa, there's a link on the Imtrav site that details climate temperature, but a friend recommended [url=http://www.bugbog.com]www.bugbog.com[/url] to me here's a link for Namibia:
[url=http://www.bugbog.com/exotic_places/namibia_travel_guide/namibia_travel_guide.html]http://www.bugbog.com/exotic_places/namibia_travel_guide/namibia_travel_guide.html[/url]
CLIMATE:
Well, as I went in August/September, there was no rain, but it was dusty as hell and still hot especially in Okavango Delta but mainly it's a dry heat. The dust creates havoc on camera lenses when I was at the Dunes in Namibia.
ROAD CONDITIONS:
Well Zim, Bots and Nam are 3rd world countries, so there's a lot of Tarmac, but mainly dirt roads, 4x4 transport is probably best, I stayed at a campsite, and saw a Renault get stuck in the sand, we had to push them out...
WILDLIFE VIEWING:
Loads to see, lots of animal parks to go to, you'll get quite close to the animals as well, if you get a guided tour they'll confirm what's best, I went on the Southern Skies trip, though I didn't get to see Cheetah or Leopard except in a sanctuary, saw all the other big 5.
TRAVELING:![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Lots of daylight, lots of travel my last trip was over 5,000km got the t-shirt to prove it
not much travel is done after dark, we pitched camp before then.
Hope this helps, I've got some pictures of this trip up on another website if you'd like to view them? [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosvanvegas]http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosvanvegas[/url]
You can guage the trip from some of the photos's.
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Thanks for posting your photos. I am thinking about one of these trips for next year and was hoping to see some pictures to find out what it's like.
Loved the two-tone elephant in the water.
Lyn
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Hello Alyssa,
Thanks for your post you might find some pictures on the forum in the picture gallery.
I hope that this helps
All the best
Kate
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Thanks for the comments. I like that Bugbog link...never seen it before, but it had some of the stuff I was looking for.
Anyway, I am back with another question. In some of my readings it says that Fish River Canyon in Namibia is closed to the public from December to April. Is this true? Does that mean the whole place is closed, or just part of it?
I saw no mention of this in the trip dossier, so I presume that the tour is not affected and still goes there? How is that possible?
Thanks,
Alyssa
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Alyssa,
I have recently returned from this trip and was very dissapointed that the tour failed to stop in Etosha, as advertised, and that the change to ittinerary was only mentioned to us on arrival. Obviously at this point we had travelled half way around the world and we had no choice but to accept it. We drove in to Etosha by day but the big draw there is the Black Rhino which are very difficult to see in day light due to their nuervous nature whereas sightings are pretty much guarenteed by night at the watering holes attached to the lodges. I had read of a similar experience before I booked but I was told by the company this was a one off and very unlikely to happen again. The reason they gave for not stopping in the park this time was that they could not guarentee accomodation due to renevation works (which are still ongoing), however there was accomodation available on the day we arrived (I checked with park staff) and I can therefore only assume this was a cost driven decision.
If you are not concerned about viewing Rhino then this is a very good tour, however, as I am sure you can imagine this left a sour taste in the mouth and there are plenty of other companies running simular ittineraries who are possibly more reliable.
Hope this helps and stops you falling into the same trap as us.
Re: Southern Africa - Four Country Classic
Hello Beesquie
Thank you for your post.
I am sorry to hear you were disappointed with the accommodation at Etosha. In recognition of the fact that we don't stay inside Etosha we take care not to specify this in our trip dossier. We would not want to mislead anyone about this and I'm sorry if you did not realise you would not actually be staying inside Etosha.
In reply to your point about accommodation being available inside the park, Namibian Wildlife Resorts (the company who runs the accommodation inside the park) have changed their policy and will not accept block bookings from larger tour companies, but will wait for individual bookings instead. Therefore, although there may well have been accommodation available inside the park, it would not have been available to us as an operator.
Many thanks, though, for contacting us about this, and I hope you had a wonderful time on your tour. This is one of our most popular Africa tours and I have heard some excellent feedback about it.
If you've got any further questions or comments please don't hesitate to email us directly on online@imtrav.net.
Thanks again and best wishes,