Extraordinary luck with sightings ...

Hi Clare, Overall, I'd say the trip/safari went great. All of the arrangements were exactly as described, the guides were top notch, and everything went very, very smoothly. No hiccups whatsoever.

Part one (Kruger/Skukuza): It was trivially easy to make the 10am connection to Nelspruit, which (as you know) is a small, but quite nice, airport. Neil arrived ~10 minutes early, which cut our leisurely lunch a bit short, but I can't complain. Neil is a great guide -- I'd certainly recommend him to anybody I knew who was going to Kruger. We had extraordinary luck with sightings -- in two days we saw four black rhinos, whereas Neil had previously only seen sixteen in his many years guiding. He does a great job of balancing animal sightings, education, interesting factoids, and the like. We quite enjoyed his meals, including the decision to do breakfast as the Skukuza Golf Club at the end of the morning game drive, instead of having him make breakfast. The golf club is great imho. Anyway, a clear A+ on this phase of the trip.

The transfer from Kruger to Gomo-Gomo was very nice and efficient. The driver was waiting for us when we arrived at the Protea (a few minutes early), the vehicle was quite nice, and the trip went completely smoothly. Another A+.

Part two (Gomo-Gomo): The facilities are certainly great - loved having the deck/pool overlooking the water hole. We lucked out one afternoon when a family of five elephants wandered down to drink, spray water, and have the baby frolic around in the mud. The food was great and they did a fantastic job of noting and responding to food restrictions (e.g., I do not eat fish and prefer not to eat bell peppers). I never had to say anything after the initial interview by Ross -- the staff simply replaced/adjusted my meals to eliminate the bits I did not like and brought the dishes to me -- I was surprised they remembered who was who and got it right. The only (slight) disappointment was that we had fairly poor luck with sightings, despite yeoman effort by Ross (ranger) and Dominic (guide). Likely just bad luck. I'm very satisfied with Gomo-Gomo and would not hesitate to recommend it to others.

Transfer back to JNB was long, but also very smooth and efficient. Overall, I'm very pleased with the safari.