Lodge ambiance

[Sarg]

I think the thatched main dinning/bar area is great & on or view of water is very nice, in or again in view of Mountains, nice big tents with good bed, add game/animals !

I have seen & worked in some awesome areas & camps, was in Kenya a few years ago sleeping in very large tent right next to but above the Mara River, hard to sleep with the Hippos Honking, Lions Roaring, Leopard Sawing & Baboon screaming all night !

In our Tent camp right on the Ocean on Cobourg Penisula, we had Bantang bulls grazing the grass flats at night, two fighting Bulls took out my tent one night & there was lots of excitement & excrement, some even the Bulls !

 

[Doug3006]

I judge a place by how I feel on the last day...just as I'm getting ready to leave. If I don't want to leave...I'm well pleased with the place. As others have noted, it's more about how I feel toward the people...not so much the place itself. Fortunately, that's how I've felt about the 2 places I've stayed (so far) in Africa. I hated to go. I can't say the same about some of the places I've hunted in the US.

 

[jpr9954]

For the rural Africans grass is readily available and historically all of their dwellings were thatch, it is still used widely today. When the settlers arived their first houses were thatch too, and I suppose the nostalgia has persisted. It epitomises safari and the bush feel so well. We built our house of thatch too, and apart from the aesthetics it is very practical - cool in summer, warm in winter. I couldn't live under a normal roof again.

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I guess the North American equivalent would be the sod roofs you might see in the bush in Alaska even now or that the settlers in the 1800s used in the Great Plains.

 

[Tanks]

.... For me it is many additional things, here is the first - thatch!

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[Red Leg]

I think I have enjoyed the camps in Mozambique the most. The first trip was with my son and the second alone. On those two trips, I hunted with the same PH - a man I am now privileged to consider a friend (he is also my age and an old Rhodesian light infantryman - we had a grand time refighting old wars). Those evenings were always in camp chairs around a fire pit in about as remote as place as one can still find. Drinks were usually a nasty Manaca beer that was at least wet served by whomever happened to get up an walk to the cooler. Bread was baked daily in a clay oven, and the entrée was always something we brought in the day before. And yes Kevin - lots of thatch - with an occasional curious boomslang peering at us balefully.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Like this?

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Darn, cant open it - can you send again?

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

I think I have enjoyed the camps in Mozambique the most. The first trip was with my son and the second alone. On those two trips, I hunted with the same PH - a man I am now privileged to consider a friend (he is also my age and an old Rhodesian light infantryman - we had a grand time refighting old wars). But those evenings were always in camp chairs around a fire pit in about as remote as place as one can still find. Drinks were usually a nasty Manaca beer that was at least wet served by whomever happened to get up an walk to the cooler. Bread was baked daily in a clay oven, and the entrée was always something we brought in the day before. And yes Kevin - lots of thatch - with an occasional curious boomslang peering at us balefully.

The price we pay for that beautiful ceiling to look up at is the odd centipede or scorpion falling out of it - onto your bed usually. Sleeping nets are for more than mosquitoes.

 

[Tanks]

The price we pay for that beautiful ceiling to look up at is the odd centipede or scorpion falling out of it - onto your bed usually. Sleeping nets are for more than mosquitoes.

So, true. One time I heard a drip drip sound near the foot of the bed. I look up a huge spider going to town on a fair sized lizard in its web. It was blood that was dripping.

 

[Bill DeHaan]

For me, its the people more than the things. I'm the quiet guy that no one notices, I can hide in a crowd of 3, but I love hearing everyone else's stories. Well, except for the arrogant rich hunters and usually TV hunters, but hearing about normal folks adventures and misadventures really makes the camp enjoyable for me. A good view and the chance at least of seeing critters from camp is a huge plus.

x2
I am a pretty easy going, low maintenance gut. However life is too damn short to suffer fools in hunting camp.

 

[Bill DeHaan]

x2
I am a pretty easy going, low maintenance gut. However life is too damn short to suffer fools in hunting camp.

“guy”. (Damn it!)

 

[Sarg]

So, true. One time I heard a drip drip sound near the foot of the bed. I look up a huge spider going to town on a fair sized lizard in its web. It was blood that was dripping.

Wow that is amazing, some of those lizards are like little Crocs when you see them at work & shows how tables can turn, bit like Wild Pigs eating croc eggs & then they in turn get eaten !

One night in the PH quarters I had a huge Python come crashing down through the ceiling, half of him hit the bed with most of the ceiling, now that was super scary as we had just had a few farm attacks around us at that time & I was grabbing for the Hi Power & rifle & flashlight at the same time !

Oh for thatch it was just that Pinex stuff & the big old Python must have eaten some extra big squirrels in our roof gap !

 

[Happy Myles]

I love remote, isolated campi. Tented camps in places like Lake Burigi, the Ugalla River. The Selous all in Tanzania. Also, thatched huts on the banks of the Luangwa River In Zambia. These are places where the animals rule the night. Lions roaring, hyena wuping, elephants going to water and hippos grunting as they pass your tent to graze away from their resting water, unknown rodents and unseen slithering snakes rustling in the thatch. Things that go bump in the night. Sitting tired around the fire watching bush television, drink in hand wondering how it is possible I could be so lucky to be there.

 

[WAB]

Here is a photo from the back deck of our boat in one of my favorite anchorages. It’s our traveling lodge. Nothing like a warm boat and a hot meal after a cold wet day of hunting in AK. I can see the site of multiple bear kills in this pic.

 

[wipartimer]

One thing I thought of, that's been very helpful to me and those I hunted with when staying at a lodge, is all of the different taxidermy animals. One my first safari, seeing the mounted Waterbuck changed my wishlist as soon as I got to camp. Other times I've seen people ask whats this as they looked at different mounts.

 

[Ravensview]

I have not had the pleasure of staying at a hunting lodge or going to Africa yet, but have enjoyed many tents camps, to me it’s a small fire along side a river or a lake, a cup of warm tea or coffee after a long day, a good simple meal, shared with a good hunting partner, looking up at a star filled night sky from horizon to horizon, a cozy sleeping bag, the sounds of the wilds. I have stayed in grass roofed huts in Guatemala and fondly remember the Igaunas falling asleep in the trees and landing on the roof and scurrying away, and the various denizens of the jungle visiting through out the nights.

 

[ssubwave]

I haven't been to Africa yet but I'm heading there next year. When I go to any lodge I like to see taxidermy and good food lol. Doesn't even have to be good taxidermy , but the food has to be.

Second that, The food has to be top notch

 

[curtism1234]

Zebra skin rug....crackling fire in the fireplace...leather wing back chairs..two facing two, a dog curled up at your feet...a glass of Gentleman Jack...a conversation between hunters....Priceless. My first trip to Namibia

If you ever try Jack Daniels Single Barrel Proof, you will forever mix Gentleman Jack with cola

 

[spike.t]

I have to have a shower at nigh,t or in the absence of such, 4-6 strong drinks !

Presumably its because of the 4-6 strong drinks that you forget the shower.........

 

[gbflyer]

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Here is a photo from the back deck of our boat in one of my favorite anchorages. It’s our traveling lodge. Nothing like a warm boat and a hot meal after a cold wet day of hunting in AK. I can see the site of multiple bear kills in this pic.

Perfect. The mothership experience in costal Alaska, whether hunting or fishing, is one of my most treasured memories.

 

[curtism1234]

Presumably its because of the 4-6 strong drinks that you forget the shower.........

Probably not so much forgetting as much as not caring. Same with brushing your teeth; save the 4 ounces and leave the brush/paste at home...