Air Namibia has launched three new regional routes to Harare (Zimbabwe), Ondjiva (Angola) and Gaborone (Botswana). The routes will add significant capacity to the airline’s regional operations.
Flights will operate between: Windhoek and Harare four times a week, Windhoek and Ondjiva three times a week and Windhoek and Gaborone three times a week.
Unfortunately it seems that there are no plans to re-establish the direct flights between Windhoek and London that Air Namibia cut a few years ago, meaning that at present the best route for holiday makers from the UK remains via Frankfurt.
The most interesting oof the new routes for most tourists will be the Gabarone flights, and the planned flight time are:
Filed under: South Africa — Paul Campbell @ 3:00 pm
The Singita School of Cooking (SSC) in the Kruger National Park has enrolled its fifth intake of students to commence their training as aspirant chefs. These young men and women from surrounding rural communities on the outskirts of the Park, have shown a real passion for cooking, having been selected for their special aptitude for this career.
The nine new chef students have started their 18-month training on site at the Singita Staff Village. On completion, the training course will allow them to graduate with the knowledge, skills and confidence that this life-changing opportunity provides – well qualified to apply for a Commis Chef position in a professional kitchen at a Singita lodge, or any other safari lodge or hotel.
Located within the Singita Staff Village that serves both Singita Lebombo and Singita Sweni lodges on the far eastern reaches of the Kruger National Park, the SSC was founded by one of Singita’s own chefs, who dreamed of training and developing local youth to work as chefs in the Singita kitchens. With the backing of the Singita Management team, the school first opened in 2007, and, fiveshort years later, is one of Singita’s most rewarding community success stories, having trained 30 young chefs to date, 14 of whom are gainfully employed. Among these, six now work as Commis Chefs at Singita’s lodges in Southern Africa, and two former students have already been promoted to the position of Demi Chef de Partie. Many other graduates have been placed at lodges in and around the Kruger National Park, while some have chosen to continue with their careers elsewhere.
Caroline Burke, General Manager Singita Kruger National Park says: ‘In remote, rural areas equipping even one person with a good job and sound prospects, has a burgeoning effect on members of their immediate family, as well as the broader community. Besides providing a much-needed income, these young people also provide inspiration, energy and leadership to their peers in under-developed areas. At Singita we are very proud to be able to make this contribution to the development of people in the regions where we operate.’
Starting 1st of May 2012, Precision Air is set to make a come back to the popular tourist city of Arusha in Northern Tanzania. The Airline had withdrawn flights from Arusha Airport folling the need for a runway extention which has finally been completed by the Tanzanian Airports Authority TAA. Clients going on safari can now land in Arusha then proceed to the game parks.
The United States Government has indicated its commitment to grant Kenya the green light to start direct flights to America, provided the upgrades at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) are done according to international standards. It is possible that these flights could start in the next couple of months.
US Ambassador to Kenya, Scott Gration,said that direct services between Kenya and the US can commence as soon as JKIA is certified as a ‘Category 1a’ air field by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and Federal Aviation Administration. The US requires all airports handling flights operating in and out of America to be Category 1a.
If achieved, the service will make Kenya’s key attractions, including the Masai Mara and Amboselei National Park, much more accessable for visitors from the USA.
Our number monkey has again checked to make sure that we have not included any places that only have a handful of votes as this would skew the results, and the 5* safari lodges that our guests have rated most highly are:
Again, we are sorry to say there are no statues or physical awards (although this does mean no speeches…), however our heartfelt thanks and congratulations go to the places named above as they have all given outstanding service and safari experiences to our guests over the recent months and years.
To all the other excellent 5* lodges that have also looked after our clients so wonderfully, do not lose heart: out of hundreds of ratings for 5* lodges, we only had a couple of scores under 4/5, and the overall average for 5* lodges was a whopping 4.7/5!
It is the Awards Season in the music and film industries at the moment, so we thought that this would be a good time to have a look at the ratings that our guests have given to the various places they have stayed at over the past year or so and see who comes top of guest rating polls.
There are no statues or prizes on offer (although maybe next time…), however we are delighted to be able to recognise the excellent experiences and outstanding service that these properties have given to our clients.
Our number monkey has checked to make sure that we have not included any places that only have a handful of votes as this would skew the results, and we start by looking at the top-rated 3* and 4* safari lodge lodges:
Congratulations to all the listed properties, and to every safari lodge that is not listed, please do not feel completely overlooked: the lowest average rating we have seen for a 3* or 4* safari lodge over this period is 4/5, so really everyone’s a winner even if we can’t list each property seperately here!
Anyone who saw the fascinating BBC documentary on Sunday where Ben Fogle went swimming with crocodiles in Botswana would have probably had one of two reactions… either “he must be mad!” or “Great! where can I do that??”
Just for the record, I am very much in the “he must be mad!” camp….if you live in the UK, you can see for yourself on the fantastic BBC iplayer.
Of course, we would definately not recommend swmimming with crocs in the same way the Ben did without the same expert support and advice that he had, however there is somewhere that it is possible to cage -dive with these ancient (and frankly terrifying!) animals.
The Cango Wildlife Ranch in Oudshoorn is one of a number of family-friendly wildlife attractions on the Garden Route, and a few years ago they started offering what is believed to be the world’s first Nile crocodile cage-diving experience. Visitors aged 12 years and older can get into a cage which is then lowered into a heated pool containing giant Nile crocodiles, and the animals often get so close that you can count their teeth!
There is lots more to do in the area, and if this appeals to you and you are spending a couple of weeks in South Africa you might also like to combine this with whale watching and shark cage diving down at Hermanus on South Africa’s South Coast.
Occasionally we find that it can be difficult to get accommodation in some parts of South Africa during the South African School holidays….after all, it is not only visitors from overseas who want to visit Kruger, Durban or the Garden Route!
Given this, we thought it might be useful for people from other countries to know when the South African School holidays will fall in 2012. We realise that sometimes it will be unavoidable to travel at these times, however it might be worth keeping in mind just in case you do have some flexability on your dates. For example, whilst 23 June to 15 July is holiday time across SA and it is very likely that every SANParks camp in Kruger is already fully booked, things will be a lot quieter from 16th July to 28th September when the kids are back at school.
Travel Butlers were delighted to have our 6 Night Mobile Safari Adventure in Kenya featured in yesterday’s Sunday Times Travel Section (UK) as one of the best 100 holidays in the world for 2012. This great trip was the top placed african safari holiday, and was one of only seven wildlife holidays to be featured in the “Into The Wild” section of the article.
The trip they selected includes 3 nights at the Gamewatchers Molible Camp in the Amboslei reserve, followed by a further 3 nights at their Mobile Camp in the Masai Mara. As the article highlighted, the tented accommodation is in no way flashy, however the location of the camps in the heart of two of Kenya’s most iconic parks means that the game viewing is exceptional…especially if you time your trip to coincide with the Wildebeest migration’s arrival in the Masai Mara.
The cost including accommodation, meals, transfers, and game drives is US$1525 (approx £978) per person.
Mabula Private Game Reserve in the Waterberg has introduced two male cheetah, transported from Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape. This is the first time cheetah have been introduced to the reserve.
Upon arrival in the reserve, the two animals spent a few weeks in a boma where they were carefully monitored by Reserve Manager,Ryno Erasmus, as well as Dr Yolanda Pretorius from the reserve research division, and her team. “Time in the boma is very important as it allows animals to become familiar with their surroundings and curbs their instinct to run away, in an attempt to return to where they came from,” says Erasmus.
The two-and-a-half-year-old cats are completely independent from their mother and have been hunting on their own for at least six months.
