amolkarnik

Meno-a-Kwena
20th March - 24th March

I selected Meno-a-Kwena because it was one of the few operations that offered to arrange trips in CKGR, a part of Botswana that we wanted to visit towards the end of the rains. I had heard good things about this operation.

The camp itself is situated on the high cliffs along the Boteti river, about 100 km from Maun. A fence seperates the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP) from the cattle ranching areas. This fence has been routed around the camp, so the camp is technically inside MPNP. The camp is very rustic, consisting of 8 Meru style tents spaced about 100 feet apart along the cliffs affording a serene view over the dry Boteti river bed. And across the bush, the other side of the river into the MPNP. The tents are spacious with a large double bed, a verandah with comfortable seating looking out over the river bed. A separate enclosure, a few feet away from the tent contains a toilet and bucket shower. The accommodation is faultless. Since game wanders into camp, all tents are fenced using a simple wooden pole enclosure. This blends very well into the surroundings and isnt an eyesore at all.
The central camp area consists of a plunge pool and an open tent overlooking the pumped waterhole in the riverbed. Dinner is server in a large open tented area with bar and lounge facilities. Food was also good. A hide has been built into the cliff which allows guests to watch game from fairly close without them being disturbed by human presence.

In the summer, the area around Meno isnt particularly rich in game, and to go to Meno for game viewing then is a mistake. In the dry season, the pumped waterholes attracts large zebra and antelope herds. During our stay at the camp, we saw several bull elephants, a bush buck and 2 buffalo bulls come down to drink. Lions, hyena and leopard have been seen in the area as well.

We were met at Maun airport by a Meno representative and offered lunch at the restaurant opposite the airport. We were also told that we'd have to wait at the restaurant for 2 hours since another guest was going to be flying in from the delta at the end of his mobile camping trip. This 2 hour wait turned into a 2hr 45 min wait. Quitez annoying really considering that we had been on the move for nearly 24 hours prior to our arrival at Maun!!! No apologies offered. The drive to the camp is an uninspiring one.

We finally arrived into camp around 5.15 pm and greeted by Patrick, the German camp manager and shown to our tent. We were assigned tent 1, which is the furtherst away from the camp. After a shower, we went back to the main area and watched a herd of 6 bulls coming down to drink. Our safari had started.

Nxai Pans 21st March

We had been scheduled to visit the Nxai pans the following day. Following breakfast, we left the camp around 8.15 am. This is where the disaster that is Meno, started!!! What sort of game drive starts at 8.15 am? We had a 45 min drive to the turn off for the Nxai Park from Meno. The actual pans are a further 1.5 hour drive from this turn off down a boring sandy track. With all this driving, it was just before 11 that we entered the park gates. It was quite hot at this point. Our guide, Dabe, made a half hearted attempt to find some game, but apart from the odd springbok or two, some giraffe, zebra and wildebeest there wasn’t much around. This is where a guide that’s motivated and knows the area well comes into his own!! Sadly we had no such luck and after an hour of driving around randomly, we stopped for a picnic lunch.

It was suggested that we’d be visiting the Baines Baobabs, but since most of us has already been there, we decided against it thinking that we’d spend some more time looking for game. The guide had other plans and decided to head back to camp stating that we needed to leave early the next day and should be back in camp to make arrangements.

We arrived back in camp around 5 ending a largely wasteful day trip to Nxai Pans.

CKGR 22-24 March

Our trip to CKGR had been planned for 2 nights. We were supposed to be camping there and Meno had reserved a campsite for this. The trip was going to be led and managed by a freelance guide called Geoff from Maun. What they hadnt told us till this point and over the 7 month planning period is that the campsite allocated to us was the Pipers Pan website which is around 4 hours drive from the Decepetion Valley campsite, one of the best camping locations. The intention was that Dabe would get to the park gates on the day and negotiate an alternative arrangement with the camp staff. With our Nxai pans experience fresh, we insisted (3 of our group and another Hungarian couple) that we leave camp as early as possible the following day to get to CKGR which was a 4 hour drive by itself and settled on a 6 am wakeup, 6.30 breakfast and 7 am departure. Little did we know just how optimistic we were being!!!

Following a late wake up (6.15), we still made the common area for breakfast at 6.30. There was no breakfast activity and we were finally served breakfast around 7 am. Unfortunately, there was no urgency from any of the Meno staff/guides and it was nearly 8.15 am when we left the camp for CKGR. This incompetence and carelessness sadly was the hallmark of this operation!!

The drive to CKGR was a long boring one. We were 6 people (5 guests + Dabe) in a fully enclosed landcruiser. Dabe reminded us at every opportunity (the cheek!!) that we couldn’t take extended halts anywhere as we were running late. We made it to the CKGR entrance where Dabe tired unsuccessfully to negotiate a change of campsite. At this point, we realised that we had atleast 5 hours of driving to do to get to the campsite, and it was already midday. A morning drive in CKGR had already been lost!!!

My motivation to visit CKGR was 'Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens'. These young American researchers wanted to study animals in areas where humans hadnt had a chance to affect their behaviour. What followed was nearly 10 years of pioneering research, focussing on brown hyena in the Deception Valley Area. CKGR is a huge reserve (56000 sq km) and the second largest reserve in Africa after Selous in Tanzania. It is well known for its brown Hyena, predator populations, large herds of desert adapted grazers and browsers like Oryx, Springbok, Red Harteebest, Wildebeest etc. The entrance into the Deception Valley is every bit as dramatic as I had read, though the valley itself is much wider than what I had expected. Stunning is an understatement!!!

Unfortunately, we had a campsite to find and what followed was 4 hours of crazed high speed driving to find the campsite and set up camp. We didn’t get too many chances to stop and appreciate the park. We also had a little accident in which our vehicle collided head on with another vehicle driven by an equally crazy self-driver. Luckily no one was hurt. 5 hours later, we arrived in the camp area, only to find out that Dabe our guide had never actually been to the Pipers Pan part of the park!!! En-route, we stopped to watch a price of 2 lionesses, 2 sub-adults and a large male before wasting half an hour finding the campsite. Geoff and other camp staff had gone ahead and started setting up camp and the day ended with a bush dinner and swapping stories of Africa.

The next morning, we woke up early for a game drive and set off at 6.30 am with the intention of returning at 10.30 am for brunch. After spending some time watching the lions unsuccessfully stalk a herd of Springbok, Dabe took us down a flooded path and I vehicle got stuck in the wet sand. Imagine our horror when we discovered that the vehicle had worn down tyres that were unable to grip, a high-lift jack that wasn’t properly functioning, no sand ladders, no water, no food and no radio!!! What sort of amateurish operation sends vehicles into environments such as these without the right equipment? We were given no safety briefing while getting out of the vehicle and this lack of direction showed when, while trying to help the guide find vegetation to stick under the tyres for grip, I nearly stepped on a Puff Adder. I cant bear to imagine what might have happened if one of us had been bitten in that environment. 2 hours of wrestling later, we extracted the vehicle and Dabe headed back to camp at 9.30 am for breakfast!! The camp staff didn’t really know what to do with us and after sitting around for 45 minutes seeing absolutely nothing happening, I decided to take control of the situation and insisted that we head out on a drive. What followed was a 2 hour drive after which we returned for lunch.

A little siesta later, we headed out for an evening drive. Again, Geoff instructed Dabe where to go, which he conveniently ignored and drove at breakneck speed to a pan he knew of, an hour away through dense scrubland. Turns out that this pan, the size of about 10 football fields was where he had heard Wild Dogs being spotted. Now, even I know (and that says something) that Wild Dogs travel huge distances and the odds of finding a pack in an area the size of 10 football fields, where offroading isnt allowed, is less than that of finding a needle in a haystack. Talk about sheer incompetence. We drove back another hour to the location that Geoff had originally indicated and found a large buy shy male leopard. A little while later, we headed back to camp, dissapointed.

Next morning, we set off at 5.30 am to make a flight from Maun for the next part of our trip. This drive (in Geoff's car) turned out to be the most exciting part of our trip. Unfortunately we had to rush, but managed to find a bat-eared fox, 11 lions in 3 groups, including 3 handsome sub-adult males, a pride of 5 with a beautiful black maned male and another pride of 3. We also saw a Brown Hyena in broad daylight which was a treat. Most importantly we saw the massive herds of antelope that CKGR is famed for. The combination of gentle rolling dunes, a gentle breeze, morning sunlight, knee high green grasses and massive herds of herbivores was perhaps the finest sights that I have ever expereinced. Geoff was able to enrich this with his immense knowledge of the geology, history and general knowledge of the area. A special thank you to him for being the saving grace of what was an awful experience put together my the joke that is Meno-a-Kwena.

We did make the flight at Maun at 2 pm.

Next part - Little Kwara...

PS - I thought our experience at Meno was a one off. Turns out that’s not the case. http://www.expertafrica.com/lodge/Me.../review?page=1

sniktawk

A fellow Fodorite has encouraged me to return, and I thought this would be a good place to start.
It appears that you had a dreadful time on the first part of your trip.
Who did you arrange this trip with, they must have given you some very bad advice.
The distances of travel you were required to undertake are ludicrous, Nxai Pans are a very long way from Central Kalahari let alone Pipers Pan. To visit the CKGR you need a minimum of 4 days from when you arrive and need to employ the services of a reputable mobile operator (Masson Safaris etc.).

amolkarnik

Hi Ken. Welcome back.

We booked directly with Meno. Their camp is situated on the western edge of MPNP along the Boteti river. We were told that the camp would be a 4 hour drive from CKGR which we found acceptable. The additional 4 hour trek from Deception valley to Pipers Pan was not. Had they told us of this, we would have reconsidered our plans.

To make it worse, their competence is questionable. Their attitude to safety, unacceptable. Thier organisational skills, unacceptable.

sniktawk

It is strange because this camp has just been suggested to us as a stopover (2 nights) on a mobile safari including the CKGR and Nxai. But of course we will have our own vehicles and only be using it as a base. We are also going late February/early March as this has been recomended as the best time for the Zebra migration. Did you get to see any of this?
All of this seems a shame as I have heard that this camp has assisted greatly in establishing waterholes following the erection of the game fence.

amolkarnik

Ken - This camp isnt a bad stop-off point between CKGR and Nxai pans. As long as you dont plan for any activities here, the location is lovely as is the camp itself. I hear they do bush-walks without armed rangers. I wouldnt walk anywhere in the bush without a weapon, so that to be is out of the question.

Re - Zebra in Feb/March at Meno? They're not there. The Zebra all move away and return only in the dry season (August-October). Unless you meant Zebra migration in the Nxai Pans. We didnt see any significant numbers there, but I'd put that down to lack of guide knowledge/incompetence.

Meno have done a good job with provision of water and they deserve credit for that. Whether that qualifies them to run trips elsewhere is moot.

sundowner

I stayed at Meno-a-Kwena in Oct05 and did not find anything about it to be recommendable. When I started reading your trip report I thought you would be reporting a good experience but it turns out yours was worse than ours. Here is an excerpt from my trip report <i>The 2 nights on the Boteti River at Meno A Kwena Lodge could have been skipped. I haven't plotted all of this on a map (I'm really afraid to find out how much we actually drove) but this place was not worth driving out of the way for. (Maybe we didn't - who knows.) We arrived at the camp after a long, hot drive. No one came out to greet us so we got out and walked into the main area of the camp. There were 3 staff members there and they still didn't greet us. Our guide told them we had reservations for the next 2 nights and there still wasn't much reaction. </i>. It didn't really get any better. As you said, the camp/tents/food were nice.

I'm sorry you had this experience. We have had overnights that we knew were not wildlife places or photo opps and that's okay with me. Just as long as you know in advance so you don't spend several days there.

amolkarnik

sundowner - you are spot on with your evaluation of Meno. Its a decent spot to go to relax. However for the prices they charge, I would expect some game viewing!!!

atravelynn

Thank you for the alert on Meno-a-Kwena. Disappointing. I believe should improve for you with your stated itinerary.

sniktawk

Here's another viewpoint I found

http://crossculturedtraveler.com/Arc...no_A_Kwena.htm

atravelynn

Thanks for the other viewpoint. Expectations and signing up for the right experience comes through loud and clear.

That's the agent's job to match those things up. When that doesn't happen, you make the best of it, appreciate the beauty around you, learn a lesson, and move on. It seems that's how you handled it, Amolkarnik.

amolkarnik

Ken - Re the link you posted. I dont have anything to fault the camp itself. Its every bit as interesting as detailed.

My problem with Meno was their handling of our excursions to Nxai Pans and CKGR. Disorganised, amateurish, unprofessionsal, lacking safety consciousness....

cybor

Thanks for the details and your honesty.
I was half looking into Meno when pondering my desert excursion.

I just couldn't get a handle on the place. Their web site was too vague and the location just didn't seem worth to me logistically. It also didn't seem to be a good fit for the time of year that I was planning Jul/Aug.
Many TA's don't seem to be up on the obscure camps as well.
The place can almost sound intriguing in a few travel books. It's a huge problem that these writers don't ever see these places and rely on promotional info. It truly makes sites like this invaluable.

sniktawk

Amolkarnik

I agree you were badly looked after.


Cybor

I agree again July August would npt in all probability be a good time!

Our proposed visit (next Feb/March) is during a mobile where will start in CKFR and move to Nxai using Meno as a resting area. As we will have our pown vehicle and guide I think it should be OK.

pippa13

the problem is that most - if they visit what they sell at all - TRAVEL AGENTs come in a group to a destination for an &quot;educational&quot; invited by the country's tourism office. they visit the whole of the country or let's ay 15 camps/lodges in 4 days and take off home in order to sell the places.
after their &quot;educational&quot; they don't know about the safari routine, the food, the service, the game drives and the game etc. they just had a brief look at the camps/lodges and start selling. not to mention the obligation to find the right client for the perfect venue and vv.

and the worse is booking via the net without consultation a travel consultant. mostly done in order to safe money!
the outcome must be sometimes a waste of time and money!

first of all:
the camps cannot sell their camp beds cheaper that the consultants/agents. otherwise the agents/consultants would give up marketing these camps.

secondly and most important in order to design a really good safari a really good consultant has visited the venue for al least 2 nights in order to get an idea of the whole experience means gamedrives (&quot;window seat&quot;, duration, area, game, sun downer, concession means night drives etc. etc.), service, food, attitude towards guests, communinty involvement, waste managemet, water management, power management).

and amaking a choice based on experiences by other fellow travellers might be an option but is very biased because every individual's preferences differ enormously.

i would suggest that instead of looking for the cheapest source/travel agents go to a reliable consultant specialised in the destination you are thing of travelling to and profit from his/her first hand experiences.
the outcome might be a bit more expensive - but not more expensive than booked directly! - but he/she might well design a safari of a lifetime which in the end comes the most favourable because time and money invested was worth any penny!

in the earlier days we did the booking ourselves because we enjoyed doind it. but in the meantime we have a travel consultant who has got a wealth of knowledge regarding &quot;our&quot; destinations and we have not once paid more than booked directly.

mugaber

Pippa 13

I am glad you have got an agent with a wealth of knowledge, many do not have this luxury.We choose for ourselves then contact a TA friend in Sa to arrange the bookings, she usually asks around to find out if we have chosen well.
You should never pay more by using an agent, very few camps encourage direct bookings for obvious reasons.
There are many websites, including this one, where there is lots of information on camps, some contain the truth others do not.
At the end of the day it is down to luck, just like the viewing, nothing can be guaranteed!

Dana_M

What a shame your trip started off so badly. Thanks for posting, as this will help others. The entire Meno operation sounds pretty incompetent and not at all concerned with satisfying its customers.

tockoloshe

We would have liked to use an agent/consultant to help with some of our trip, intended to be a mix of camping and lodges, but not one of them was interested unless they could do the whole itinerary, min usually 10-12 days, said it wasn't worth their while. And that would have been too expensive for us. So we've got no choice but to research each place and try and make our own bookings. As has been said many times, that's where this forum comes into its own.
(for example, we were prepared to splash out on a Wilderness 'Footsteps across the Delta' walking safari for 3 nights but Wilderness Safaris wouldn't deal with us, not spending enough!!)

pippa13

tokoloshe
i can only speak for europe:
WS doesn't accept direct bookings from european FIT. as soon as an individual contacts WS for a quote WS recommends the nearest representative rejecting direct bookings.

tockoloshe

pippa13
Yes, they suggested a representitive but that's when we found out the reps wouldn't deal with us unless we booked whole itineraries with them. Can't blame them really if they are making no money from doing it, but frustrating nonetheless.

pippa13

sorry, but this is no excuse at all. they get their commission anyway!
and of course they have connections to DMC's which do all the rest!
i think you have been fooled by a rep which should not represent WS at all - attitude to service and business is more the questionalble!
if i were in your shoes i would inform WS head office about that attitude.
i would bet WS will talk to that guy.