Maningo has a deft touch, both in interpersonal relations (his great sense of humor, and ability to imitate American accents helped) and in sensing the group’s interests and needs. If I had to make a criticism, I’d note our occasional frustration as to where he was taking us on game drives; at times we would have liked to know that, “we’re driving down near the river, hoping to see X or Y,” but I’m pretty sure he was reluctant to spell out his plans because he didn’t want us to get our hopes up.
Talking to travellers we met I felt most of them thought THEIR guide the best in the business; with Maningo, I’m pretty sure he really WAS one such guide!
“Excellent. From the beginning, Karen helped us design a custom trip that fit our interests. For example, my partner is very interested in birds. We got birds. We were interested in avoiding crowds. We did, as much as possible. And the choice of Mkomazi was ideal. There were remarkably few glitches along the way, and Joachim addressed each of them with calm professionalism. The trip was as close to perfect as we could have imagined. From Karen’s initial consultations to Joachim’s expert guiding, we could not have asked for more.”