Viera L
Google
Hi Raphael, finally the review is done. I just wanted you to read through it before I publish it in case you feel I put too much detail, like names etc…||Raphael from Feline Fields has organized the whole trip to Africa for our family with 3 children, twin boys aged 5 and my 10 years old daughter. It was my childhood dream to go on safari and it took about 40 years to realize it… little did I know it will exceed my expectations in each and every way…||Raphael welcomed us at our hotel in Johannesburg and showed us around. We left one bag at the airport Arrivals hall and he helped us a lot to retrieve it the same day.||The next day we departed to Maun and then directly to landing strip near our Feline Fields Vintage camp. We were welcomed by Thapelo from who was our safari guide during our 5 night stay at Moremi Game Reserve. He drove us in Toyota Land Cruiser to our camp and our Africa safari adventure started immediately. We have seen zebras, elephants and even a leopard to our complete astonishment. We arrived at the camp in the early evening and were welcomed by the whole staff of the camp singing beautifully.||We had early morning and late afternoon safari drive for 4 days, we have seen lots of animals, the big cats so close up… we followed a leopard, who caught an antilope and took it high up into a tree, and later on the same day we watched him eating it and being challenged by a hyena that tried to steal his dinner… one of the other highlights were watching hyena babies playing outside their home, being cute and inquisitive, wondering right under our vehicle.||The camp staff were all friendly and very attentive, the food served was beautifully presented and tasted delicious. The accommodation in the tents was truly magnificent, big comfortable beds with a coffee table and chairs, even a big pot plant inside… we felt like a royalty all along… the attention to detail was striking, soaps, mosquito sprays, sun lotion, everything was provided, beautiful lanterns during the night to give us a complete comfort…||Our children loved the camp fire in the evenings and roasting marshmallows whereas us adults enjoyed chatting to our camp manager Ru about the camp, animals, country…||Each day on the safari we had a little surprise, new areas to visit with animals we haven’t seen before, surprise lunch in the middle of the savanna, mokoro (boat) trip, drinks at the stunning plane full of animals at the sunset… ||The smell of African savanna in the early morning full of animal sounds, glowing sun with piercing blue sky during sunrise are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life… leaving after 4 days we felt like we are leaving close friends behind, all thanks to professional staff of Feeline Fields, who really looked after us.||From here we took a 45 minute helicopter flight to Feeline Fields lodge, still able to explore the stunning Botswana from the air.||We were welcomed by the numerous staff there and entered a more relaxing part of our holiday with leasurely spent days. The lodge is literally in the middle of nowhere, I am still in awe of Raphael and his wife Marianne, creating this stunning oasis…our villa was so beautifully furnished and comfortable… with every attention to detail you could possibly think off…. A picture says a thousand words…. ||Our children enjoyed horse riding, swimming, visiting the indigenous people and making bracelets with them, whilst I enjoyed reading beautiful books about Africa and talking to the staff. ||The night under the stars in our luxurious tent with 5 beds during full moon was a night to remember. The sky full of shining stars with no light pollution was actually a lot easier to fall asleep under then we thought…||Our eyes were yet again full of tears when after 4 days when we were saying our good byes…||On the way back we had a one stay in Maun, where we were greeted by the Trust manager explaining to us various activities that Feeline Fields are involved in, such as providing a school bus for local children to help them to get the school, building playgrounds and helping with preschool education…||We completed our trip with 4 nights in Cape Town, staying in a luxurious Mount Nelson hotel, full of history and stunning gardens. We hopped on a sight seeing bus and explored the town, visited amazing Botanical Gardens and enjoyed friendly atmosphere and tasty lunch at the V & A port. ||We have said our final good bye to Raphael in Jo’burg airport, where he kindly helped us to get to the right part of the airport for our connecting flight to Paris.||Big thank you to amazing Feline Fields for making our trip a magical ‘once in a lifetime experience’. We hope many other people will be as lucky as our family to have an opportunity to discover Botswana and its wildlife with this wonderful company.