Honeyguide Tented Safari Camps - Mantobeni

We stayed at Mantobeni Camp in the Manyeleti Game Reserve which is owned and managed as a private reserve by the local Mnisi tribe. It borders on Kruger and the animals roam freely within Manyeleti - so, the benefits of Kruger without the density of tourists and with the freedom of private concessions and their small limit of jeep numbers at sightings. The camp is run by local people and seems to be quite large and the 10-seater jeeps were mostly full to capacity but game drives,on the whole, felt quiet as there are fewer jeeps and fewer camps in the Manyeleti area. Our guide, Twice, was excellent and we had some great sightings of a large pride of lions, their cubs left behind alone, cheetah sightings, rhinos, leopard and many more. The jeep experience, however, is largely dependent on who’s on the jeep with you. Most of our game drives were wonderful and we shared with like-minded people but we were unlucky with two game drives when we shared with a loud and obnoxious large family group who repeatedly disrespected the rules that had been explained by the excellent guide at the outset. We’ve been on three other safaris in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana and have never experienced anything like this! It is no fault of the camp whatsoever but we would urge the camp to consider allowing temporary transfer to another jeep in special circumstances. The camp is high end, comfortable and unfenced. It is visited daily by a large herd of elephants once or twice a day. Lovely to watch the antics of the babies. Our last morning had the added excitement as we finished breakfast in camp, of impala alarm calls and a lioness approaching the waterhole close by. The tents are huge and are well sited and private. The dining area, lounge, bar etc were well-maintained and pleasant. Staff were excellent - efficient, charming, friendly and very good-humoured, especially Mumcy! Thank you to the team for the surprise, magical bbq and delicious dinner by the fire in the Boma.