What an amazing experience we had recently in Khwai on our game drive. Its day 17 of the Great Trans African Lodge Safari and still we have not seen a male lion. We have seen females though… But the clients want their male!!! Just as we cross the Khwai River on a game drive we … Read moreGreat Game drive at Khwai
Dear Blessed, I sincerely hope when this reaches you that both you and your extended family are all in the best of health and you have now returned safely to Southern Africa from your holiday in Europe. I would like to thank you for a job well done and as an extension of these thanks … Read moreMore fantastic feedback – well done Blessed and Owen!
Pale chanting goshawks( Melirax canorus) are one of the most commonly seen raptors in Southern Africa. They are striking birds with orange beaks and legs with grey white and black bodies. I often see them on telephone wires or other perches, scanning the ground and the air for prey. They eat mostly small mammals and … Read morePale Chanting Goshawk
If you live in S.A. there is no excuse not to get out there and go!! For those of us with friends overseas, we know that taking a safari in Africa is, for some, a-once-in-a-lifetime experience. So for us, with Africa just outside our doorstep, we need to take every opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the things we have easy access to!
So here are 2 nuggets to get you thinking about your next trip out into the wild…..
Source: Travel Ideas Magazine
Thinking about taking a safari? If you live in S.A. there is no excuse not to get out there and go!! For those of us with friends overseas, we know that taking a safari in Africa is, for some, a-once-in-a-lifetime experience – something people dream about for years before doing it. So for us, with Africa just outside our doorstep, we need to take every opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the things we have easy access to!
So here are a few nuggets to get you thinking about your next trip out into the wild…..
On our way through Etosha13 we made friends with the local boys playing soccer and we were happy to promise that we will send their regards to Michael Ballack when we are back in Germany…
At N’kwazi river lodge we had some time to relax and to just put our feet up. We visited the pre school (how many pictures can one take from the these beautiful kids) and we discussed gardening with the women of a local village.
My first Educational – I am such a lucky girl!
And so I joined our Southern Experience tour from 10.-24. November.
I arrived in the very hot Victoria Falls and enjoyed the view on the first waterhole on tour from the swimming pool at Lokuthula lodges…
During the month of April this year , I ventured out on a Trans African Safaris with Jenman Safaris.
It was a soul “finding” experience and I have kept some very special memories from the trip.
We began our journey in Vic Falls -Zimbabwe, and slowly made our way to Windhoek Namibia over the duration of 11 days with many stops that involved heart-warming cultural experiences.
Our trip started when we flew into Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe where we picked up one of Jenman Safaris custom built Land Cruisers called ‘Tshomi’.
We planned to spend two weeks in Zimbabwe, and then cross over into Botswana for two weeks and head back down to Cape Town by travelling the last two weeks through Namibia.
Read moreAndrew and Joni Explore Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia
Leopards (Pantera Pardus) are by nature elusive and shy creatures. They have evolved over time to blend in.
They are powerful cats that stalk their prey. Therefore camouflage is very important. This is of course why it is so difficult to spot these beautiful large cats. Anyone who sees them is extremely lucky. I was pleasantly surprised in April of this year while doing a Trans African lodge safari.
Read moreDiscovering more about leopards with Chantal (a Jenman Guide!)…
Recently, Hilka Voges (Jenman Safaris Assistant Reservation’s Manager) joined our Botswana Wildlife Breakaway safari in June. Along with one of our fabulous guides, Blessed, they wrote about the tour, their experiences and highlights daily for all of us blog readers to enjoy! Their Botswana Safari is split into 2 blogs… Watch this space to part 2… Thanks Hilka and Blessed!
Read moreBlessed and Hilka’s Botswana Wildlife Breakaway: Part 1
Last week whilst we were setting up the Khwai Camp we took some time off and went up the river to look at the site (to see what was slightly further up from our Khwai Camp).
But, because of the unseasonably heavy rains we had to make a detour through Moremi from the South.
Judging by the sign on the track we were on, there had been no other vehicles through there that morning.
We have decided, in light of the success of Riaan Manser (cycled around Africa & kayaked around Madagascar) as well as our commitment to responsible tourism, to change our ever popular Botswana Wildlife Breakaway 14-day safari to a cycle tour. This means that we will no longer be using our popular Landcruiser; instead we will be providing all clients with a comfortable and durable mountain bike.
If you think of wildlife, you think of lions hunting antelopes, crocodiles lurking in the water waiting to attack their prey and rhinos charging at each other in a fight over a female. But there is also another maybe more human side to wildlife.
Animals are known to share the same emotions as we do. But what would an elephant do to say “I love you” and show its affection to another elephant?
Tiara Walters chats to a documentarian who took a dip on the wild side to get to understand the Nile crocodile
ENVIRONMENTAL documentarian Roger Horrocks has a beef with airbags. „The modern world has sanitised our lives,“ he yawps as we manoeuvre our way through De Waal Drive’s Saturday-afternoon traffic towards his Kenilworth home to watch the documentary on crocodiles he has co-produced.
IT’S very late. The Milky Way cuts a brilliant swathe through a dark sky ablaze with stars. Hippos are on the move chortling, swishing, splashing round the camp. A Pel’s fishing owl – one of the world’s most sought-after birds – screeches from a low branch, its call like that of a soul in torment. A lion roars softly in the distance, as closer, a hyena whoops. Painted reed frogs supply a backing chorus of piping chirps.
Only when my plane was about to touch down in Frankfurt did I finally realise that my time in South Africa was over… Since then it has been two weeks… I’ve almost settled down in Germany again (even if I still walk on the “wrong”, left side of the pavement). The first few days were quite exciting – it was great to see my family and my friends and I continued doing what I did on my last days in Cape Town…
Read moreTobias from Germany – explored Cape Town and Jenman African Safaris… the LAST blog!
Investing in a fancy camera and a an 11-week DSLR photo course seemed to be paying off because I was allowed to be one of the very first people to see our Khwai Bedouin Camp personally and of course take & deliver some images for our office and all of our interested partners & clients.
The week before I was due to leave I witnessed our new Ops assistant Joanne and our Operations Manager Wayne preparing the set-up of our new camp. Only after having seen the camp complete (after helping to set it up) I realized how much work it must have been to think of really everything…
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Fred and I am a leopard living in the Savuti area of Botswana.
Even if I say so myself, I am a rather good-looking leopard. I am dainty, simply irresistible and on top of my game. Even so, it’s a challenge to find a suitable lady with all the spots in the right places and who is worthy of carrying my children. As it so happened, I have recently found the lady of my dreams, her name is Ginger.
Safaris clients become real explorers with nature & animals on safaris… finding what they think are new animals & bugs and coming up with stories of why these animals/bugs are behaving in some strange way – sometimes all they are doing is simply sleeping but there is always a story behind that sleep from our … Read moreMillipedes in the Botswana bush…
Written by: Corinna Muller-Lorenz (Conny)v. 19.1. – 9.02.2010
When I close my eyes, I know immediately what it looks like, smells like and how it tastes – my very own Africa. Due to the enormous versatility of this tour, it was the perfect trip to Africa to experience the first time and find out what landscapes, climates, people and animals like one at best.
Fascinating were all the facets of the country along our route, I have not been concluded once the eyes during car trips, for fear of missing a wonderful change of scenery, human biodiversity and Animal varieties.
Read more22 days Northern Experience Safari – Cape Town to Victoria Falls
Dear reader. I hope that you are acquainted with the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Perhaps even with “The Flying Trunk”. His tale is about a young man who comes into possession of an old trunk, which turns out to have the capability of flying. So he enters the trunk and flies out into the world. Here he almost obtains the princess and half the kingdom, but alas, the trunk burns, and he is bound to suffer the conditions of an ordinary life. Poor bastard…
We were sitting around the boma at Koro camp one afternoon, the day before Charlie and the Trackers were leaving, when Kate (the camp ‘maid’, I guess) ran in, saying there was a snake outside. We ran out to see a Mozambique Spitting Cobra lying in the grass, with most of a frog sticking out of its mouth.
We watched for a few moments – while I made sure everyone knew about its ability to spit venom, but knowing that with the frog blocking its mouth we were safe… for the moment.
As a way of introducing myself, I have traveled to 90 countries, most of them multiple times. My wife has visited about fifty countries. We consider ourselves seasoned travelers and we’ve experienced the total spectrum of quality in transportation, accommodations, activities and cuisine. As a result, we feel we can make an informed assessment of performance when it comes to travel.
We thought that this week we would share some funny anecdotes from some recent safaris. Below are two funny stories from Andree (Jenman Safaris tour guide), on his first guided tour around Botswana with a group of German clients. We hope these stories will make you laugh and brighten your day. Enjoy!
Smoke without fire?
An exciting and fascinating 14-day tour through Botswana, Namibia and Zambia comes to an end in Livingstone. The bush-conquerors from Germany are meeting for a final breakfast on the patio of the Waterfront Lodge. Together, they are enjoying their last meal of their safari overlooking the mighty Zambezi River.
By: Jim & Phyllis Conran, Orinda, California, USA
Have a look at this Jenman Safaris review – this review comes from a couple who recently traveled on our Northern Experience safari (Cape Town to Victoria Falls safari). In this blog we have included all the comments as well Garth Jenman’s (managing director of Jenman Safaris) responses:
On the recommendation of a neighbor, we booked a 3 week safari with Jenman. We also booked an extra week to visit Johannesburg and Cape Town. This was in July which is the dry season in the region. This means fewer bugs and mosquitoes and the animals congregate around the water holes making them easier to see.
Following on from the previous blog:
Before I arrived at Planet Baobab I was wondering: “Why the name?” And after just a short while I realized that there really were so many huge Baobab trees in the area and that it really is the “Baobab Capital of the World”! With the average age of the trees amongst us being 4000 years, the walk into the Baobab capitol and the use of the medicinal plants, explained to us by our local guide, proved to be very educational. But not before enjoying the coolest and most welcoming pool in the Kalahari! A sunset drink to end of the walk was a “must” and as you can see, the sunset was awesome!
Read more6 Day Botswana Classic Safari with Bettina (Part 2)!
I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to travel on our Botswana Classic Scheduled Safari from the 12th to the 17th of March 2009 – and just as thrilled to be able to “drag” my partner, Antonie along. Herewith my blog on the trip:
We flew from Cape Town via Johannesburg on an early flight on the 10th and then connected with BA to Livingstone. I am afraid Livingstone airport is not much to write about so I won’t mention much. I was happy to be a South African because the queue for the foreigners was awfully long with only one Customs official to attend to them. $50 got you a Visa – pretty steep! We were warmly greeted by Jan who looks after the Jenman Safaris Livingstone office – and he kindly drove us around to all the hotels in the area so that I could “inspect” them.
Read more6 Day Botswana Classic Safari with Bettina! (Part 1)
After a busy day’s counting general Game, we got a fleeting view of another leopard after Stuart spotted fresh tracks at a koppie: he got out to follow the tracks whilst I drove the Landcruiser with students around the other side to see what we could see…as I drove, the leopard crossed the track and disappeared into the bush….shame was, I was the only person not to see it as I was concentrating on driving!
Read moreSaw a Male Lion – a first in the Tuli Block Reserve!
Hi Amina,
We had a wonderful holiday. The safari was a fantastic adventure and the fact that most of the group were camping made it even more of a shared experience with everyone working together to set up camp and gathering round the camp fire in the evening. The game drives we went on were an amazing experience and I will never forget the excitement I felt getting so close to the animals on the Chobe river cruise and the Moremi game drive in particular.
Read moreJenman African Safaris Feedback on a Botswana Safari!!!
