I was so very privileged to go on an educational to visit Botswana, in particular the Zambezi Queen. Please do yourself a favour go and view the website!! We went for a 3 night stay, with me was Marianne Strydom and Suzanne van Eeden from our Boland Travel office.
It was absolutely magnificent.
I'll tell you more!!!
Friday morning, or was it still night we flew with 1Time airline, my absolute favourite low cost carrier! From JNB we flew with Air Botswana to Kasane International Airport. Here are a few pics! And yes, the Airoplane actually do have propellers.... but the flight was not bad at all.
At Kasane we were greeted by the friendly guys from ZQ (Zambezi Queen) and transferred to Kasane Immigration . After all the necessary "stamps" , we went to our boats and were taken to the ZQ. From far away we could hear singing, it was the staff singing a welcome song.
Now I have to say, the river stretches so far, it is just beautiful, and we were not even on the little boats for 5 minutes and we spotted elephants. I almost went bananas, cause I just love elephants!!
The ZQ floats on the Chobe river. The border between Namibia and Botswana can be see by a blue flag on the one island, therefore it was also necessary to visit Namibia Imigration for our visas.
The ZQ is absolutely fabulous. The rooms are spacious, it consists of 14 cabins on deck 1 & 2, and deck three is for dining, the bar and lounge area. anywhere you are on this boat, you get this feeling of total freedom....of nature....and of God, because wherever you stand you can se kilometers ahead. The air is fresh, and the animals are amazing...
On each day you do an activity in the morning and evening. We did it all!!! You reach ZQ on Friaday afternoon. On arrival there are a few (amazing) snacks for everyone in the lounge, and Charles , the hotel manager, greets everyone and tells you more about the boat and the itinerary etc. After that you can go on your first game drive by boat. The Saturday we also went on a land game drive in the Chobe National Park. Although this was also amazing, I found the water game drives to be more exciting, you came nearer to the animals and it just has a totally different feel . Other activities is to visit a cultural village and see the daily do's of the people of that country. We didn't do this tour but rather went to go Tiger fishing, Oh my Word, what an experience. I had soooo much fun with that.
One lunch was done a bit differently. We went on land and had lunch at their boma, tents in the most colourful materials, good food, and a view over the river. You cannot be anything else that lazy as you sit/lie on the volumous cushions, food are served , wine is served....lazy lazy lazy....and then you sleep a little obviously!!! The boma lunch was great fun
The food on the boat is out of this world. Felix is the chef, he is a character out of this world! There was something to each and everyone's taste...magnificent! You are spoiled totally rotten!!!
The staff are all amazing. They really go out of their way to make everything you want and need be there. After the trip on my way home I was thinking of things that could be "better", you know, thinking out of a travel agent's perspective. Usually you find small things you think an hotel etc could change or better on....I have to be honest and say there was really nothing.
The boat is beautiful, the staff are excellent nice people, the food was fantastic. It was like a fantasy weekend, and I was so sad when it was over. I thought it couldn't be....
There are still so many things to write, but for now, I think I'll leave it at that....for now!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment