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We had a BLAST!

June 8th, 2016 by Curator

N. & M. Zimmerlund – Hillsboro, Oregon

We can’t thank you enough for planning such a wonderful trip for us!  We had a BLAST!

We had a great time in Dubai.  The first tour was with the owner of the company but we didn’t know that till the next day and the driver/guide told us.  It wasn’t enough time in Dubai but it gave us a great taste and the guides were wonderful.  

 In KwaZulu-natal, South Africa, we saw all the Big Five, but a leopard.  Our guide was knowledgeable, passionate, kind, caring and very, very funny!  We  saw a pride of lions.  Followed 1 bull elephant and 3 females for about an hour, watching their interaction and listening to their trumpeting.  For me this was the highlight of the trip.  Saw a cheetah kill with an impala. We went to St Lucia and saw about 100 hippos and all kinds of beautiful birds.  On the St Lucia day it rained but not during the boat cruise or on the Indian Ocean beach.  Saw rhinos, hippos, giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, nyala, impala, kudu, warthogs,
baboons, monkeys, cape buffalo and so much more!

Cape Town was lots of fun.  Our guide, Brian, was OUTSTANDING!  We loved him. Knowledgeable and so very funny!  What a quick wit!  Each day we thought it just can’t get better but IT DID!  Wine country tour was so beautiful.  Our guide shared a great deal of history and we are now reading The Covenant,
so it was fascinating for us.  We could have spent a lot more time in the wine country.  The Cape tour was so beautiful, just majestic.  It was a gorgeous sunny day so we also did Table Mountain.  We had a beautiful view of Table Mountain from our room!!!  

Fun day exploring Cape Town on the Hop On Hop Off.  Another gorgeous day so we went to Camps Bay and Clifton plus the Harbor Front.  Our guide had recommended dinner at the seafood place on the harbor and it was outstanding.  We went to Marco’s, an African restaurant with live music.  We went there on my birthday and I got to dance and play music with the band.  It was so much fun. We had kudu, impala, ostrich and more!  Fun way to celebrate 63!!!  Could have spent more time  in Cape Town too.  Guess we’ll just have to go back!!!

LOVED Victoria Falls & Sindabezi Island!  WOW!!!  Words as you know just can’t describe the experience.  Not sure we will ever again stay on an island in an open air hut with our own personal, chef, waiter, valet and guide.  They were attentive to our every want and desire.  Weather was perfect.  Brian was our guide and he too was exceptional! He really helped me get around at Victoria Falls.  We took the helicopter ride.  AMAZING!  We went canoeing.  Had lunch one day over at Tongebezi and swam in the pool.  That place is so lovely! Saw elephants, impala and lots of hippos.  So fun to listen to them.  Heard lions at night but didn’t see any there.  Could have easily stayed another couple days there!

Again we can’t thank you enough for making this a trip of a lifetime!  We loved it all!!!!!

Posted in Testimonials

Perspectives of Africa

June 8th, 2016 by Curator

Shelly Herdon – Albany, Oregon

We had a fantastic trip!  Having gone to South Africa for a Safari in 2008, I wasn’t sure if I could beat it, but this experience surpassed the last.  This trip gave me a bigger perspective of how diverse Africa is.  I am thankful that we had your help to plan the trip!

All of our guides were outstanding and each added something special to our trip.  It was very nice to grab our bags and be greeted with a guide that would take care of everything for us!  I loved the diversity of the trip and the order in which the experiences went.

Thank you for all your hard work to ensure that we had the best trip possible. I have never had a travel agency take care of a trip like this before but I would suggest using Mills Africa to anyone that is going to Africa.

Posted in Testimonials

Mills Africa in Tanzania

November 5th, 2015 by Kristina

Travel Report – Tanzania: Northern Serengeti, Katavi NP & Mahale NP/Chimp trekking

Helga Casto, Mills Africa

My October 2015 travels to Tanzania were wonderful: very rich game viewing in the Northern Serengeti (the crossing of the Wildebeest at the Mara River was, as always, quite  a spectacle), a truly remote bush camp experience in Katavi National Park in Tanzania’s Western Corridor, and finally Chimpanzee trekking at Mahale National Park on Lake Tanganyika.
tanzanie-detail
Katavi National Park is located in the much less travelled Western part of Tanzania.  It is my first visit to this area and I loved the remote experience, away from the crowds of the Serengeti & Ngorngoro Crater.  In my opinion, explorations of these lesser-travelled national parks are a must for a well-rounded Tanzania itinerary.  Katavi is an opportunity to experience the real Africa, very remote, good (if basic) camps with all necessary conveniences and a stunning diversity of landscapes. Within 70 miles you go from open Savannah to a tropical looking environment with lots of growth, particularly an abundance of palm trees.

Elephants, Katavi National Park

Elephants, Katavi National Park

Leopard, Katavi National Park

Leopard, Katavi National Park

After Katavi another flight to Lake Tanganyika – Mahale National Forest. After landing at the airstrip, a dhow waits at the edge of the lake to take guests to Mahale’s Greystoke Lodge.

The white beach and the thatched, high peaked buildings of the lodge is reminiscent of the South Pacific. The immediate backdrop of the tropical beach scene of the lake is the escarpment of the Western Great Rift with dense forests and mountain peaks up to 8,000 ft. Very dramatic and stunningly beautiful.

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The lake has an abundance of fish. Guides on the boat provided simple fish line (no reel, just a hook at the end – as you see in South East Asia) and everybody that had a go at fishing pulled out a beautiful, yellow-colored iridescent fish, at least 1 ft. in length. Some of the fish was served for appetizers as sashimi (delicious)and most of it was used as food for the mascot of Greystoke Lodge, an orphaned, habituated pelican named Big Bird.

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Chimpanzee trekking is arranged similar to the process in Rwanda for the Mountain Gorillas. Only 12 people can go up per day; the group is then split into 3-4 each, based on physical conditions. There were 3 guides from the lodge and 3 wardens from the park authority to watch that all rules are strictly enforced, i.e wearing face masks whenever around the chimps, no eating/drinking, no pointing, no direct eye contact and, of course, no touching. The park wardens were instrumental in getting us into the thick growth, by using their machetes to create small openings for trekkers to gain access.

https://www.millsafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015-10-11-01.40.50-chimp-close-good.mp4

The trek is fairly arduous, steep, hot and long but it is worth every effort. The experience is very lively with a cacophony of shrieks, chimps running up trees, young ones swinging from tree to tree and some chasing around on the ground.

After a while the initial ruckus calmed down and our guides lead us to openings where we could sit down and observe the group at length. From that point on they were very relaxed, the males lying down on the ground and taking short naps, grooming themselves, looking around and slowly acknowledging our presence. And when it came time for them to move on they very calmly passed right through us. The small families are fun to watch, especially of the babies that are doted on.

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The trek down passes a Japanese research center from Kyoto that has been in the Mahale National Park for 50 years, studying the M-Group. This group consists of about 60 members, many of which we saw.

Jane Goodall’s chimps and her research center are located in Gombe National Park, two mountains away, also on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where a group of approximately 30 is left.

Overall a fantastic return to one of my favorite countries in East Africa – with lovely experiences, both new and old.  To observe these close relatives of ours was the highlight of this trip.

Posted in Chimpanzee Trekking, Remote Experience, Tanzania, Testimonials

Safari to Southern Africa: Zambia & Zimbabwe

November 3rd, 2015 by Curator

Trip Report – Margaret & John, Palm Desert

Well, we recently returned from that fourth trip with Mills Africa.  It was our best trip and will not be our last trip.  It was another African experience that is like no other, only this time it was even better.

Save your miles!  We use them only for travel to Africa.  Since it is such a long haul from the West Coast, it is best to travel comfortably, if you can.  On arrival and for each leg of our journey in Africa we were met and taken to wherever we needed to be for yet another flight – and we always know what to expect in the way of visas.  It is amazing how smooth far away travel can be.

We spent two weeks in Zambia in the South Luangwa National Park, and stayed in three small camps. At the last camp our guide was the same one that we had at our first camp, on our first trip eight years ago. Amazing and fun to be together again. We always meet and talk with interesting people .. the people in camp and/or other visitors.

But it is the game viewing why we go.  On the second day we spent the morning watching eight hyenas and seven wild dogs at a kill.  The dogs had taken down a female kudu and the hyenas took over the kill.  But it was not over.  The dogs did not leave but continued to nip and to hassle the hyenas.  This dance between wild dog and hyena went on all morning.  Not only did we follow the dogs on other days, we followed lions, leopards, elephants, zebra and other animals, both large and small, through the day and at night.

After Zambia we headed to Johannesburg and then on to Zimbabwe for a week.  This portion of the trip was a repeat with old friends at a lodge in the Malilangwe Nature Reserve, on the border of Gonerazhou National Park, Zimbabwe.

More fabulous game viewing here with wild dogs (in the rain), cheetah, lions and , of course — hyenas.  One morning we followed three hyenas in pursuit of two cheetah.  Our last morning game drive we watched fourteen hyena attacking a lioness.  I was scared, scared enough to scream – a real no, no when you’re on a game drive.

I did not even mention the bright red sunsets or the many beautiful birds.  If Africa is on your bucket list… Go!  Now!  But do it right.  And, yes we were once again sad to leave… another good book comes to an end.  Trip number five coming up!

Margaret & John, Palm Desert

PS – you can read more about our travels on safaritalk.net – here:

Zambia: http://safaritalk.net/topic/15286-south-luangwa/

Zimbabwe: http://safaritalk.net/topic/15332-zimbabwe-chapter-two/

Posted in Testimonials, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Flawlessly Coordinated: Cape Town, the Okavango Delta and Victoria Falls

June 13th, 2014 by Kristina

I don’t know how you do it! We are: amazed, awestruck, and can hardly believe our good fortune for the experiences we had on our trip.

To start with…every detail of our transportation was flawlessly coordinated. Down to the river crossing by boat at Kasane and including the bush pilot of 22 years of age who made perfect landings and take-offs each time!

The people we met were delightful at every stop and the guides were so helpful in explaining things to us about the culture, the animals on the game drives and what to expect relative to our daily schedule and how to maximize our experience.

From our bed and breakfast in Cape Town, the game reserve in South Africa, at Victoria Falls and in the Okavango Delta and all points in between – our accommodations were delightful. We did so enjoy the bird house at Tongabezi Lodge but our cabin by the river was also terrific with the sounds of the hippos lulling us to sleep.

And at Kanana Camp – I had no idea frogs could sound like wind chimes!

Kay L.
Seattle, WA

Posted in Botswana, South Africa, Testimonials, Zambia

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