It is exactly what we wanted!

Hi Clare

It was a great trip, thanks for helping organise it. First Namibia: Our guide in Namibia, Johann Cloete, is superb. He really knows his stuff, not just the animals and birds, but geology, history, plant life, and so on. He is the perfect guide. I couldn't recommend him more.

All accommodation was comfortable, clean, all food good. If we had to choose a favourite, it would be Camp Kipwe, due to its novel construction and situation. Watching sunsets from the bar above the lodge was very relaxing and pleasant.

It was a packed trip, in terms of walks and drives. That's not a complaint, it is exactly what we wanted. The variety was good too, from the walks over and around the dunes in the Sossusvlei area to the games drives in Etosha. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the kayaking trip too. As well as the seals, we were fortunate enough to have some dolphins passing through while we were on the water.

We did find it hard to decide between the kayaking and boat options before we went on the trip. We've been on a number of boat trips before (to view whales, etc) and realised when you're lucky, you can see a lot on such trips. Kayaking was something new for us, and we based our decision on a few photos we saw on the Internet. Judging by the size of the seal population and how close they come to the kayaks, you may want to put a few photos of kayaking trips onto your website just to show what an experience it is. We wouldn't have wanted to have missed out on this.

Etohsa/Ongava were great, we saw a lot on all of the game drives in both parks.

So all worked well, and I would say the places we stopped, and the duration of the stops were well-judged. If we were pushed into saying what could be changed, a third night in Camp Kipwe would be good (providing there is enough in the area to justify staying another day there), and maybe finding somewhere in Swakopmund with a pool? I only say that as we had an afternoon free in Swakopmund, and the town is fine for a stroll around, if there had been a pool there, we'd have probably had a laze in that too. It's a minor point, I'm in two minds as to whether it's worth mentioning.

On to Kruger: All good there too, Nicky was great, worked really hard and was successful in finding everything we could have hoped for. A leopard walking by the side of our truck, lion sightings every day, cheetahs, wild dogs, all really good.

So thanks again, and pass on our regards to Nicky and Johann. They really made the trips work!