LABA Jongomero

We worked with Discover Africa to arrange our first ever Safari. Chrizaan from Discover Africa did a tremendous job in first understanding our requirements and wishes and then translating them into the perfect trip for us!

Everything was organized to the point and we did not have to fret about anything. We just had to bring our passport, money and good mood to enjoy an incredible vacation.

We felt like travelling with family!

Everybody was extremely friendly and the game reserves and lodges were first class. We saw all the animals we could have wished for and even more. We took so many photos, it will take weeks for us to decide which are the best ones. This is a great “problem” to have after such an exciting vacation. We are already talking about our next trip to Africa – and we would choose Discover Africa to organize the next trip for us again!

Working with Susan made our experience just perfect. She has everything organized and it all went so well. Her recommendations were perfect. We loved the safaris she chose, the lodges, guides, staff and the experience were wonderful.

Coming in absolutely blind on how to plan an Africa trip, I stumbled across Discover Africa Safaris on the internet and reached out for an inquiry. Susan responded and started off with a video conference to ask about what we were thinking. Susan was extremely knowledgeable and answered all my questions as well as providing great insights that I wasn’t thinking of. My trip had additional complexities since I was going to a family wedding before, but Susan was able to navigate logistics with ease. She provided 3 options for our trip. Once we picked, she handled all the bookings/reservations in Africa. After things were booked, she proactively reached out for trip reminders, checked us in on our domestic flights within Africa, and reached out to ask how things were going while we were on our trip. Everything went perfect. We had an absolutely wonderful experience with the booking process and most importantly discovering Africa. 100% recommend!

Justin helped me book my camp experience with short notice, he made the whole process very easy, took care of everything, was easy to contact and my trip was perfect.

We had been thinking about a Southern Africa safari trip for a few years and had some valuable input from Zimbabwean friends who had been on tour many times. So we had a general idea of when and where but needed guidance on the finer details and options, as well as someone to put it all together once we’d agreed on an itinerary (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana). This was possibly going to be our one and only trip of this type so we wanted to get it right!

I saw an ad for a tour similar to what I had in mind so contacted Discover Africa (DA). Devryn was able to clearly outline his preferences that would meet the brief. He suggested the order of travel, how long at each place, what type of accommodation (generally getting better as we progressed), how to get from A to B, etc., via several email conversations.

We had a Zoom meeting with him before finalising the plan, where we were able to ask further questions, which he was able to answer confidently and competently, given he had been to these places himself.

We felt confident enough with his recommendations to lock it in 12 months ahead of the trip.
Naturally, you anticipate some things will go wrong on tour, e.g., a missed connection, a guide not turning up, or accommodation not being as described, and we were mentally prepared for that.

Garry's Safari Experience

However, every connection was made on time and the accommodation exceeded our high expectations!

The Safari experience itself (which Devryn obviously couldn’t guarantee) was superb. The guides from the lodges we used were experienced, informative, respectful of the animals, and considerate of what we had and hadn’t seen previously and so every day (twice a day!) was another trip into the unknown. Everyone hopes to see the Big 5, which we did early on. After that it was a matter of literally sitting back in the jeep and seeing what would turn up. The birdlife was better than I expected (the lilac-breasted roller was a favourite), and seeing small animals like mongooses (4 different species), a chameleon and a steenbok were unexpected highlights.

The food was varied at the various lodges, with usually a buffet of 3 main courses of western-style cuisine (although I ate wildebeest, crocodile, kudu and springbok when it was offered). We finished off with 3 nights in Cape Town to let the Safari experience sink in, which was a very good move.

So in summary, we did some initial research, worked out a plan with Devryn, and he nailed the brief. We’ll never know if it could have been even better, but I seriously doubt it.

We have returned again after Matthys arranged another trip for us for 2025, and we spent almost 4 weeks in May 2025, where we spent our time at Londolozi, Diulini Moya and Earth Lodge, and cannot thank Matthys enough. The camps we stayed at were once again exceptional, and our final camp was Earth Lodge, which was out of this world. We saw the Big Five, and we were lucky enough to see 2 leopard kills up in a tree as well as see the leopards coming down from the tree. We are avid photographers and have so many photos again which we can treasure forever.

Matthys has already arranged another trip for us, leaving late April and returning May 2026. Matthys I do not know where to begin or how to thank you for being so professional and helpful – anything I needed to change was done, and this is one of the main reasons we keep coming back to South Africa from Australia on a yearly basis and will only deal with Matthys and Discover Africa – I cannot recommend them enough. Thank you for taking such good care of us – we are excited for our next trip.

Thank you again – Kind regards, David and Lana Ogilvie

Lana's Safari Experience