Updates

So, as we see Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the UAE and of course the USA allow travel to and from East and Southern Africa we can all safely agree the UK’s travel regulations are hideously and dangerously out of touch. They seem to clutch to the South African (beta) variant as the reason behind their draconian long haul travel regulations, although the variant does not evade the vaccine and is not dominant against the Indian (delta) variant. In fact this terribly frightening and scary variant has all but passed it’s way through East and Southern Africa with very little repercussions, small peaks, and thankfully very few deaths.

Our European and American guests are having some of the most exciting safaris possible largely due to the smaller number of people – we never use safaris camps or lodges in busy or overcrowded areas anyway but safe to say the safari camps are still quiet, making them feel even more exclusive than normal (if that’s even possible) and airports are currently blissful, as the smaller number of people travelling make for very seamless immigration and baggage carousel experiences.

The knock on effect of a lack of tourism through Africa is devastating, with families going hungry, resulting in an increase in poaching – which is hard to regulate due to lack of guides and rangers. Of course all of our luxury safari camps and lodges have done their best to keep every single employee employed and continue with their conservation efforts – of course this has not always been possible. We are currently seeing most properties running at 50% staff and 50% capacity which is at least better than 2020.

Both our MD Rose and our senior sales consultant Sophie have been in and out of Africa during the pandemic which has helped us to have the most up to date first hand knowledge of every single magical country we offer and as soon as the UK’s floodgates open we will be on the first flight out to Africa. There have been a few new camp openings which are extremely exciting and we will need to get out there to assess these, to ensure they’re up to standard for your next safari.

When the UK government are questioned on their awful travel rules they go very quiet and refuse to pass on any evidence they use – they hide everything and make some decisions which are not only beyond belief, but completely illogical. We’ll probably never know who’s making those decisions but some of them seem to have been made by a toddler.

The huge work that has gone into airports, aircraft and hotels to ensure they are covid safe must not be wasted – travel now feels exclusive, adventurous and exciting and many of you haven’t been away for months – a safari or any holiday at all will feel so special. On top of this the staff at our safari camps and lodges are treating everyone like VIPs, so delighted are they to see guests flock back into their pride and joys – their safari camps and lodges.