Thebe River Safaris

Most of the sites had their own Boma which was VERY welcome in the heat and also made a huge difference to the comfort of our stay.

The Thebe River Lodge's resort is right on the main road through Kasane and lies on the banks of the Chobe river, it was an easy resort to get to. Most of the others are on the end of a couple of km of hectic sand roads. The facilities are good and initially we were very happy. We were told that we were getting the big site as we were two families each with a car / trailer. At the site, it looked like it was kitted out for groups, and was at the front of the resort against the river. Cars / trailers could access the south and east edges of the site, the rest was blocked off by a roofed cooking / preparation area and shade net structures. We set ourselves up making good use of the space. The resort runs safaris into the Chobe and River cruises. We used those services - very well run. BUT - on returning from a game drive on day two, we found a bus load of European and Australian tourists "sharing" our site with us. The lady at reception told us that she told us that we were on the "communal" or "shared" site. Maybe we missed that. They definitely DID NOT tell us to use the space we had carefully as we would be sharing our site for the second night with 14 tents / 25 tourists plus staff! I am sure we would have remembered that! Other camping space in the resort had the vans / trailers packed in - not fun! On our way out the next day, we were delayed by a power failure when filling up with diesel at a local garage. A whole queue of Thebe Safari vehicles queued up behind us. We discovered that the owner was in the queue and went to talk to him about the "mix-up". He said he was aware of our complaint! So, why not take the trouble to come to us at least to apologise? He apologised there at the garage, but it was just a polite obligatory apology that was not sincere. So - if you plan to use the resort, expect to be packed in like a sardine if it is remotely busy, it seems to us that the money is more important than repeat business. We wont go back there. There are many other great places in Botswana we would rather stay at!!