Mateya Safari Lodge

This was my 6th trip to South Africa and Botswana and, as always, Matthys van Aswegen made it a happy, safe, and exciting experience! My roommate, Glenna, and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to South Africa’s Boulders Beach to visit the African Penguin Reserve and all the beautiful scenery in that area. Another Discover Africa staff member, Kayla Robson, joined Glenna and me for dinner one evening and it was such a delight getting acquainted with another Discover Africa person whose talents enrich the travel experience.

When we arrived in Botswana we were so pleased to have the two guides I have always requested and, even though I’ve been at Camps Moremi and Savute before, they provided us with safaris that added to my previous experiences, learning new things about animal behavior and, the bonus, twice seeing a cheetah – a cat I hadn’t yet seen in Botswana!

And I’m already planning my next trip to these two fabulous countries!

We travelled last August on a trip planned with Dev at Discover Africa. It was a family trip that i wanted us to remember forever and we definetly will! We could not have had an easier or more wonderful time and we would never have been able to plan and manage it ourselves.

We visited Botsana, Victoria Falls and Sabi Sands in South Africa then Mozambique. Every experience was better than we had hoped. Everyone who was part of our experience was so helpful and friendly and went the full measure to make sure we enjoyed our special holiday.

We were so lucky with every safari and saw so many animals, we had wonderful river trips seeing a great deal of wildlife, beautiful birds and even crocs eating a kill rather than just sunbathing. Everyday bought another surprise. Thank you to Dev and the team – your help was so appreciated.

Amazing honeymoon – we had the best experience with Susan and Discover Africa in planning our honeymoon. Everything went smoothly and all the lodges / guides were incredible. She also put some special touches like a surprise dinner in the bush and a private spot for breakfast which really made the trip feel even more special. She was a great sounding board throughout the planning process as well. We could not recommend Discover Africa enough!

Everything was more than what I expected. From the safari drives to the lodging and food was five star. At the camps, one was pampered. Everyone was personable and made me feel at home. The entire trip was wonderful!

We just completed our second African safari planned by Megan Warrington, this one to Botswana, and we couldn’t have been more pleased with our trip! Megan did a fantastic job of starting us out in the Kalahari (Tau Pan Camp) which was unique in its landscape and some of the animals that you see, including the Oryx. You don’t see as many animals as in other locations, which would be expected in the desert, but the experience was wonderful and we are glad we started there.

Our next stop was in the Okavango Delta (Splash Camp) which exceeded our lofty expectations. Before we made it to our camp from the landing strip we saw a leopard and hundreds of various animals including giraffes, zebras, elephants, etc. While in the delta we saw another leopard, a large pride of lions that were resting in trees, which is very unusual, hundreds (estimated at 600) buffalo and we actually experienced a lion hunt where a group of four siblings successfully secured a young buffalo. Our last stop was on the Kwando River (Lagoon Camp) and this was actually the jewel of the trip. There weren’t as many prey animals as in the delta, but predators were abundant and the hippos were unbelievable. We saw 3 leopards, two young brothers together and another very shy female, many lions from a couple of prides included several mature males, 2 cheetahs (brothers that travelled and hunted together), and a small pack of African Wild Dogs including 4 adults and 6 puppies.

Our guides and trackers were exceptional at all locations, but Mr. T stood out at Kwando’s Lagoon camp. All of our stays were at Kwando camps and I will write them a separate review, but they were fantastic! Back to Megan, we thought that the lengths of stays and the order of our stays was perfect and very well planned. She is so easy to work with and truly tries to meet your personal goals and experiences for the trip. We thought this may be our last trip to Africa, but we are now fully onboard to come back, likely in a few years with our grown children. There is no question that we will revisit Botswana, we can’t say enough about the people, the landscape and the wildlife, they are all lovely.

When there are so many choices out there for safari tours, we were a little overwhelmed. But when we reached out to Adele from Discover Africa, she is prompt in her response and understood our request and very quickly she put together a tour that is one of the best holiday of our lives!

At Hoya Hoya we were greeted with the most amazing hospitality, and even though it’s full board, the chef prepared different dishes the 3 days we were there. Andrew, our driver and guide is fantastic, and we saw the big five during our stay and of course the ‘live tv’ just opposite our dining place allow us the best experience of our lives. The elephants, giraffes and even hyenas visited the watering hole that Hoyo Hoyo built was just brilliant.

Our next adventure at Chisomo Karongwe private game reserve did not disappoint. On top of the big five, Polly (guide) and Eddie (tracker) made my dream came true by spotting 3 cheetahs during the morning drive.

We would like to thank Adele for planning this once in a lifetime trip for us and thank you Africa for the memories for life.