Motswiri Safari Lodge

Madikwe, South Africa

GENERAL SCORES /5:

Lodge/Hospitality: 4

Rooms: 4

Food: 5

Guiding: 2

Game Viewing: 4

OVERALL: 5/10

Vital Statistics:

Country: South Africa

Game Reserve: Madikwe

Management:

Year we stayed: 2009

Approx price pppn then: $700

Motswiri Lodge Review Summary:

This is a very pleasant lodge with lovely rooms and excellent food, but was severely let down by the guiding when we were there. The welcome was good and the hostess had even memorised our dietary requirements, which was impressive. But we were there for the guiding and were extremely disappointed.

Motswiri Safari Lodge Review

Our welcome to Motwiri Private Safari Lodge, in the western part of Madikwe game reserve, was very good. We were met by the main hostess, who had actually memorised Lou's (reasonably complicated) dietary requirements and verified them with us. She also led us to our rooms, which were not actually the standard ones; because of a plumbing problem, we could not stay in the ones we would have, but were put in the directors' house instead. This was fine and perfectly comfortable. We did sneak a look at the normal rooms and they were very nice indeed - quite sumptuous with curves everywhere and a nice fireplace (gas, I believe, which seemed a bit strange) in the wall between the bathroom and bedroom, warming them both.

As we gathered for the afternoon game drive we were a little concerned that we had seen only one game vehicle and quite a few people - the lodge had 9 of a possible 10 guests. Our fears were well founded and we all squeezed onto the one land rover and there was not a tracker/spotter with us - a luxury we have come to expect from the more up-market (and some not so up-market) lodges. With three people to each bench someone has to be in the middle, making it much more awkward to take photographs, and there is no space for photography equipment and binoculars etc on the bench. Our camera bag had to be stuffed down by our feet, making it much more difficult to access lenses or swap SLR for camcorder.

On the four drives we had a few quite good sightings - a large herd of elephants, three lions lazing by a drying waterhole, two honey badgers darting into the undergrowth. However, the guide made no effort to move the vehicle occasionally so that those on the wrong side could get a few photos and almost never gave any information about the wildlife unless specifically asked - and then he would often only answer to the person who asked the question - in Afrikaans sometimes, which we don't speak. It was not that he didn't know the information - he was very knowledgeable - but he didn't seem to feel the need to impart that knowledge. I once timed almost 2 hours, with several sightings, during which time he only volunteered one piece of information! The drives were also quite short - never more than three hours and once as short as two and a half hours. Driving back to the lodge after dark he waved a flashlight around, but I never got the impression he might actually spot anything, without a tracker.

As you can tell, we were extremely disappointed with the quality of the guiding from Motswiri. We found out that he wasn't the normal guide. He was the manager, a very nice chap who normally does a little guiding but was doing all of it whilst the normal guide was away for a few weeks. I guess he was exhausted from two weeks managing the lodge as well as doing all the guiding, but when the guests are paying $700per person per night I believe everything should be first class. And to me that means a dedicated guide at the top of his game who can entertain and inform, whether the animals are out or not. It also means having a tracker/spotter and every person having a "window" seat (it is an open game vehicle, no windows, but youknow what I mean).

One thing that Lou and I love is a walking safari. We asked about doing one of these but unfortunately it was not possible.

The food at Motswiri was excellent. Lou's diet was catered for not with simple salads or vegetables instead of what she couldn't eat, but with tasty, imaginative replacements. As always, there was more than enough food served through the day for even the largest appetite. One disappointing food-related thing was that there was no filter coffee. I don't drink the stuff, so I don't know the difference, but Lou was incredulous that a place charging $700 per person per night would not even have decent coffee. The other was that drinks were not included, which I think they should be at that price. We did not have to sign every time we had something, but it was there on the bill at the end - even bottles of water! Perhaps the managers believe that people who can afford their prices won't baulk at paying a bit more, but I found that very poor and was tempted to downgrade the hospitality score to 3 - only I wasn't sure it should come under "hospitality".

There is a small waterhole next to the pool-deck in the communal area of the lodge, which is sometimes visited by various animals. A very nice touch is that there is a red flashlight (red to avoid disturbing the animals) which guests can use themselves to view the animals. Unfortunately the waterhole can only be seen from a fairly small area of the deck and only a couple of the rooms, but it is better than no waterhole at all!

In summary, Motswiri Safari Lodge is a very pleasant, luxurious place to stay, with excellent food and good hospitality. However, we go on safari to see, photograph and learn about the animals. For us there were too many guests in the vehicle, with a friendly but uninformative guide and no walking safaris possible. Overall, so disappointing that we were tempted to leave after only one night, despite having paid for two!