The Guide's Tale Blog.

Every now and then we're going to look at our choice of best safari lodges in Africa. This month's is: Ta Shebube Polentswa Lodge, Botswana.

The small safari lodge concept is done better in Africa than anywhere else, and we are fortunate to have visited a fair few on our tours and travels. This month’s featured safari lodge is Polentswa, situated deep in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, on the Botswana side of the Nossob River, in one of the remotest parts of Southern Africa.

If 2020 gave us anything, it was time – time to learn and take on new hobbies and pursuits. And birding became one of the new ‘cool’ things to get into. It’s one of the Covid-19 winners, along with virtual safaris and multi-national drug conglomerates. All over the world, laypeople became birders overnight, as it’s something that one can do in the back garden, helping to pass the time and keep the grey matter stimulated during the dark days of hard lockdown, when the golf course and bridge club were well out of bounds.

Christmas is Coming

As a Lowveld resident how do we know that Christmas is coming? Not because the geese are getting fat but because Christmas Beetles are humming in full chorus, so loud at times that it is difficult to hold a conversation in their midst. They start their merry song when the weather is hot and balmy about a month or more before Christmas and continue well into January, or even early February at times. Hence the name we all give them.

If you are planning for a safari in South Africa, you may be having some difficulty choosing where to go. Indeed, making your final choice is probably the most difficult part of the whole process! Let us help you with our advice on the top safari destinations in South Africa!

Choosing a safari lodge can be an intimidating and somewhat confusing exercise. Plug your search phrase into Google and you’ll probably be rather overwhelmed by the results. And how do you choose? It’s actually a case of too much choice, thereby making it difficult to choose! 'Insider' recommendations can go a long way in helping you make up your mind. Over the years we’ve used a number of lodges in the Greater Kruger National Park, and there are a few that remain firm favorites. Here are 5 that we can thoroughly recommend (though there are many more out there). These are in no particular order, besides geographical location (going north to south).