Hi Nick,
Returned safe and sound, all return flights went to plan thankfully. Now back at work with a huge amount of catching up to do so a brief summary for now, hopefully I will get time to give a more in depth review later.
We had a great time, Lake Manze & Mdonya Old River camps were great and all the staff fantastic. Wildlife viewing was excellent and we saw everything except wild dogs which was a bit of a disappointment but we know nothing is guaranteed on safari.
Coastal Aviation flights went like clockwork, pity larger airlines are not so good.
Mbweni Ruins was a great choice for Zanzibar, I’d make the point for future guests not to be put off by the entrance road to the hotel, I must admit that as we went down this very very pot holed dirt track I wondered where we were being taken. But the hotel and gardens are great, just our sort of place, staff again were great and the manager was very helpful. Beach was kept clean and tidy, being off season there were a couple of days when I think we were the only guests so we had a very personal service. Free shuttle to Stone Town 15 mins away was great for us as the main reason for choosing the hotel was to be close to Stone Town.
Kay & I would like to thank you for all your help and assistance during the flight delays, we know we wouldn’t have got that level of service from a larger tour operator. We do need to think about compensation claim for the lost day and a bit, do you have any experience of this? Did you have to pay extra to Coastal for the rearranged flights?
I am out of the country again tomorrow on business, back on Friday so I will start to catch up properly next week at which point I will hopefully get you a better review. Basically once we got over the initial delay (which by the way only took about 10 mins after landing in Selous, being collected by Lake Manze guides and seeing a huge male Kudu) we had a fantastic time and everything lived up to or exceeded our expectations.
Regards
Martin