Flame of Africa

Zambezi Queen Online

Mac's Laws of survival

Do you remember the first three laws of survival?
Your brain is your number one survival tool, so don’t forget...

1. S.T.O.P
   • Sit
   • Think
   • Observe
   • Plan
2. The Rule of threes
   • 3 weeks no food
   • 3 days no water
   • 3 minutes no air
3. P.R.W.F - Please Remember What’s First
   • Protection
   • Rescue
   • Water
   • Food

Mac's fourth law of survival

...is to avoid problems by being prepared:

• Plan for the worst eventuality.
• Place a log of where you will be and when on www.flameofafrica.com/sos
• Have a full medical and dental check before you go, and think of having a tetanus jab.
• Have a survival kit on hand.
• Do research on the area you’re visiting: its weather, terrain, customs and taboos.
• Check your equipment, clothing, radios, GPS, vehicles and recovery gear.
• Let someone know where you are to be by when, so alarms will go off if you don't arrive.

Flameofafrica.com/SOS

Read more and place a log of where you will be and when on www.flameofafrica.com/sos

I’m uploading this from Rhino River Lodge near Mkuze in KwaZulu Natal. It’s taking ages (there’s no 3G out here in the bush) but, here’s the thing: Just a few years ago this would not have been possible. The wonders of technology. I just love it!!!

Wow, what fun we had. Pat and I left Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park where we’d been trying to photograph wild dogs with little success and headed for Bonamanzi, a smallish private nature reserve just outside Hluhluwe village in Zululand. After setting up our gear in the conference centre that was to be our base for the next few days we headed down to the reception area to await our guests. The were some from previous workshops – Mariaan and Olaf (all the way from Holland) and Viv Proudfoot (a wonderful fine artist based in Hilton in KwaZulu Natal) as well as some new faces. All in all 14 people arrived – a little over subscribes but, the more the merrier…

Right from the outset there was a wonderful atmosphere and even Eddie jumping onto the wrong game drive vehicle (not his fault, you understand) early on Friday morning and almost spending the day looking at wild animals in Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park did little to dampen the spirits.

Zimbabwe is having an election re-run on 27th June 2008. As with the March election, this is not expected to impact on the tourist destination of Victoria Falls. We are aware of the diplomatic incident outside Harare yesterday. In talking to our colleagues there are no issues on the ground arising from it.

Victoria Falls operations continue as normal with all GoToVictoriaFalls.com campaign members expressing utmost confidence in the destination. This is illustrated by their steady investment of human and capital resources into the area. As long-established tourism players living, working in and sharing this special oasis with visitors, operators see no reason for any change in plans to visit this World Heritage Site.

The Victoria Falls community, being entirely dependent on tourism, is keenly aware of the need to safeguard the industry and to ensure that visitors have a positive and memorable experience. At a distance of 878km from the capital, Harare, and 439km from Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, Victoria Falls operates as a microcosm of its own.

The romantic destination of Mauritius will enchant you, uplift your soul, making you feel that you belong to the chosen few.

It is so often said that it is the people that make the place. In the case of Mauritius this is no understatement.

Every visitor enjoys personal attention. The interesting blend of cultures with the cross pollination of Indian, European and Chinese has come up with a Creole nation that is dedicated to making you feel that this island paradise is your home as well as theirs.

Where else on the surface of the earth would you see a mighty river just disappear underground as you would when observing the Okavango Delta.

This natural phenomenon, creating a series of fleeting waterways and floodplains, has given birth to one of the most amazing ecological wonders.

The opportunity to sit in a makoro (dugout canoe) being poled along by a professional guide, while gliding silently pass Africa’s Big 5, will imprint itself indelibly in your memory.

After an overnight stop in Durban to celebrate the birthday of friend and fellow writer Sue Derwent, Pat and I headed up to the oldest game reserve in Africa – the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park.

HiP as it is know, is located just to the west of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park that incorporates Lake St Lucia, the largest estuarine system in Africa. Our mission? To link up with Endangered Wildlife Trust researchers Brendan Whittington-Jones, Zama Zwane and Carla Graaff, all wild dog specialists and what followed was a number of highs and lows.

It has been our intention all along, to include as much traditional knowledge as possible in this book about the wild dogs. Getting this traditional information has been a bit of a nightmare as, what is becoming apparent, is that there is simply not that much out there. The much more readily available scientific information is easy to get. Few people, certainly in the areas that we have been to, seem to have any knowledge of these animals at all, often confusing them with both side-striped and black-backed jackals. Our reading of old hunting and travel books (by the likes of Kirby, Stevenson-Hamilton and others) have shown that there was also some confusion about exactly what a wild dog was. Cape hunting dog, hyena dog and painted wolf, are just some of the names that there were given.

I found such a brilliant blog post the other day and thought I would share it with you.

It’s such a simple concept, really. Tell the truth when something goes wrong and the customer will often understand and be supportive. Lie and CYA...and you send customers into a rage. When people are lied to, they wig out.

Let's forward backward to a situation when I was stranded on the tarmac last December for over three hours. It was snowing hard and a rookie ground crew didn't know how to apply the de-icer. They tried three times over the three hours and failed miserably each time.

The difference: The pilot was on the intercom every 15 minutes, updating us, sharing his frustration. At one point, when it looked as if we might actually get off, he said, "The crew chief on the tarmac just held up four fingers...I gave him one finger back." The whole plane roared with laughter.

Read the complete blog post about customer service and management in travel: Lies, Lies and More Lies by Bill Geist

Kalahari Bushman, Mobile Safari and Okavango Houseboat Experience, fly from Johannesburg, 5 nights.

Self-catering units from R290 per person per night.

Island getaways, fit for royalty, fly from Johannesburg, 3 nights.

Online presence is vital today. And fun! I truly enjoy spending time online with all you fellow travelers, bloggers and readers.

It's addictive though. Sometimes I look at the time and it's way past bedtime...it's normally closer to wake up time. ;-) But it's so much fun that it's easy to get carried away!

If you haven't already checked us out, please go ahead and jump straight into it!

By Yasine Mohabuth, BBC Sport, Port Louis

The Mauritius Football Association (MFA) has confirmed the national football team's withdrawal from the African Nations Championship (CHAN).

Club M want to focus on the joint qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.

South Africans will be free of scheduled power cuts next week, Eskom said on Thursday.

Set to be a short working week because of public holidays, the parastatal said the scheduled power cuts would not go ahead as demand for power was historically lower on public holidays.

Flame of Africa is offering Exclusively Yours holidays whereby you can book out an entire lodge or houseboat in the Golden triangle of Hwange, Chizarira and Kariba.

You can choose between the camp known as Bumbusi Wilderness Camp in Hwange (sleeps 10) the Leopard’s View Lodge in Chizarira (formally known as Jedson’s) (sleeps 10) and the Lady Jacqueline cruiser in Kariba (sleeps 10).

The rate for any one of these holidays is R 3000 per night, including the staff but excluding catering and fuel, for a maximum of 10 persons. That's R 300 per night per person.

Zimbabwe's opposition has released its results from the presidential election, saying they give it victory.

The main opposition MDC in Zimbabwe has released its own results from the presidential election, claiming they prove it won.

Party Secretary General Tendai Biti told a news conference that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 50.3%, so avoiding a run-off.

DAY visitors to the Kruger National Park (KNP) will no longer be able to book their entry as this will be done on a strict "first come, first served" basis.

"We decided to do away with the day-visit booking system as it created logistical problems and was considered unfair by many of our visitors" says KNP public relations head, William Mabasa.

South African Airways (SAA) is moving into the next phase of its membership of Star Alliance, with both parties focusing their efforts on furthering their combined presence on the African continent.

The airline announced an increase in its flights to Entebbe, Uganda, from the current five per week to a daily flight.

Author and adventurer: Lew Phelps, of Pasadena, CA, his wife and two adult daughters traversed the Zambezi Rive rapids on 30 November 2006.

The Zambezi River rapids immediately downstream from Victoria Falls on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, are considered the most difficult rapid in the world that can be navigated by commercial rafters (this is, rafts for hire to carry passengers).

Shearwater Adventures, a premier rafting company located in the town of Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side of the river, is very professional, well equipped and experienced. They take possible precautions to ensure that their customers have an exciting, eventful and most of all a safe rafting experience.

By Alison Westwood, Getaway Magazine

There's only one man to call if you decide to go to Zimbabwe, and that's Brett MacDonald of Flame of Africa.

The fact that I'm enjoying the last gasp of a hellish hot day sitting on the deck of a well-run luxury lodge with a cold Guinness at my side, and not rotting in the wrong queue at the border is chiefly due to Big Mac.

Its always good to hear that the efforts of others are proving to worthwhile.

While reading the Sunday Argus this weekend, we came across this interesting article about conservation of the Gorillas in East Africa.

Being actively involved ourselves, through one of our lodges in Uganda (Nkuringo Safari Lodge), we are extremely

Our friends over at GoToVictoriaFalls.com have published a really good response to the recent security concerns about traveling in Zimbabwe. Below is the brief newsletter they sent out to address this issue. Be sure to check it out on http://www.gotovictoriafalls.com.

Dear All

With Zimbabwe's increased publicity in recent weeks, most of us have been
receiving

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