Wild African Ventures tour

Kenya Deborah Urquhart at Wild Africa Ventures, Inc. (10505 Wheatland Ave., Shadow Hills, CA 91040; 800/358-8530, www.wildafricanventures.com), made all the arrangements for my family’s 11-night trip to Kenya, and everything went exactly as planned.

Our September ’07 trip cost $3,880 per person. One single supplement was $1,224.

The food at Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli National Park was especially good, but there were so many people at dinner that it was extremely noisy. It is a much larger lodge than we prefer.

Our next stop was Samburu Lodge for three nights. This is a beautiful lodge. The rooms on the river were large and very nice. We would sit on one of the three huge decks and have cocktails while watching the crocodiles come to be fed in the evening. The lodges also feed leopards, putting meat up in a tree.

We highly recommend Samburu. The manager, Dipak Paul, was most hospitable, taking us to Larsen’s Camp, where we had a wonderful lunch outdoors. Larsen’s is a beautiful tented camp that accommodates only about 20 people, which we think is perfect. We will certainly try to stay there sometime.

The staff at Keekorok Lodge in the Masai Mara were especially friendly. We were there right at the end of the wildebeest migration. The hills were full of wildebeest for as far as the eye could see — spectacular. We saw more animals there than we had ever seen before at any game lodge — lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals, hippos, rhinos, many antelope species and a multitude of birds.

The only complaints for our trip were related to the lodges — toilets that didn’t flush, hinges that squeaked and the supply of drinking water. We were given a half liter of water per person per day. Additional water was charged at $4 per liter. (Extra tea and coffee was no charge; go figure.) The lodges all were advertised as “full board.” Very few people would consider a half liter of water to be full board or even a subsistence level.

These very minor complaints aside, we were very happy with the entire trip and have nothing but praise for Wild African Ventures. I would certainly use them again. I found the company in ITN, once again proving the worth of the magazine.

DERYCK NUCKTON

Monterey, CA