A quick update of progress on Roar 3 (I like that better than the Roman Numerals)

Ker & Downey
Just for your information Ker & Downey was named by National Geographic as the number one tour operator and was rated third by Travel and Leisure. Ker & Downey are much smaller, not as well known and a far better value than the big operators like Abercrombie and Kent and Tauck so this is quite an achievement. Kudos to the original ROAR planners who picked Ker &
Downey out as one of the operators for me to check out for the group.

Pricing and negotiation
Since I returned from the Voyager I have been in direct negotiation with the properties we will be using. It has not been as easy this time as everyone in South Africa is convinced that after the world cup in 2010 that South Africa will be flooded with tourists. That remains to be seen.

Accommodation Costs
Nonetheless I am glad to report that ALL the properties have now committed to holding prices at the 2010 level so our accommodation, the major part of the expense, will be confirmed now. Prices are bound to increase in 2011. They have gone up every year since we started doing safaris. So this should represent a good savings for us. A similar commitment on Roar 2 holding prices to the 2006 level for 2008 resulted in a really value priced safari.

Where we are now
This negotiation is now being turned over to Ker & Downey for pricing of the safari. Hopefully I will have this back sometime next week. The rand will have a significant impact on what we eventually pay. Once I get the figures from Ker & Downey in rand I will price the safari for you in US dollars at an 8.5 exchange rate. It has fluctuated in the last few years approximately between 6.5 and 11.00 to the US $. I estimate our safari will come in around R70,000 per person you can see below the significance of the rand exchange rate.

Difference in R70000 @ 6.5 = $10,769 @ 8.5 = $8235 @ 11 = $6363

Air and Transfer Costs
The charter air cannot be confirmed. As with any air ticket until you actually purchase the ticket the pricing can fluctuate. So this part of the safari will be priced at current 09 pricing. These air costs are bound to increase before we actually purchase the air. For Roar 2 I did recommend purchasing the charter air earlier and that saved us quite an increase. As it gets closer if that seems to be appropriate I will advise those booked accordingly. Transfers are the same these cannot be locked in but will be priced at the 2011 prices in effect when we make final payment.

The dates are set for the safari
04/30/11 Arrival in Johannesburg and overnight at the Sun Intercontinental Hotel
05/01/11: Transfer to the Federal Air Terminal and fly to either Chitwa Chitwa or Leopard Hills.
05/03/11: ONLY Susan and Ngaire switch camps
05/05/11: Everyone but Susan and Ngaire switch camps – short 15 minute flight
05/07/11: ONLY Susan and Ngaire switch camps
05/09/11: Main safari group fly from the game parks to JNB to fly home
05/09/11: Those doing a post Lion Sands extension travel to Lion Sands
05/11/11: Those with 2 nights at Lion Sands fly home
05/12/11: Those with 3 nights at Lions Sands fly home

Pre trip to Birkenhead House and La Residence
Pick up at the airport on arrival and transfer directly to Birkenhead House
04/25/11: Optional additional night at Birkenhead House
04/26/11: Birkenhead House FI
04/27/11: Birkenhead House FI
04/28/11: Transfer from Birkenhead House to La Residence (1 hour)
04/28/11: La Residence BB
04/29/11: La Residence BB
04/30/11: Fly from CPT to Johannesburg and overnight at the Sun Intercontinental Hotel

Next Step
Once I get the final figures I will send these to all those on the list, with details on the deposit required, cancel penalties and paperwork necessary. Since everyone is a past ROARER most of the paperwork can just transfer over to the new safari. If anyone decides not to move forward then I will contact the next person on the waitlist.

Be back “hopefully” next week.

Woo HOO! We are on our way! Figuratively speaking, of course.

Yippee !!


Lets hope the exchange rate goes to 11 or 12. In any event it is a once (maybe twice) in a life time opportunity.

:banana: :banana: :banana:we're ROARen to go....now to start saving our Rand.

If "everyone" is a past ROARer, then should I conclude that we did not make the cut?
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Helen

Helen - That is how I interrupted it. :mecry:
Sad, but look at all the money we will have for more cruising!

true enough Betty, but I am still pretty disappointed. Was looking forward to not only making my first trek to Africa but to finally meeting some LCTers.
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Helen

Helen, there were many many changes before the first two ROAR's got "in the air" so to speak. So don't be disappointed just yet!

Thanks Olivia, I will keep a good thought.
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Helen

Agree with Olivia. Hang in there, Helen and Betty. A lot can change between now & 2011.

Cheers, Anne

We're among those that didn't make the cut either. We'll keep hoping along with the rest..

dick and Sue

A thought for ROAR 3. I am working on this today in preparation for the figures, hopefully next week.

Tips - such a pain. I always include tips at Birkenhead House and La Residence, the airport, transfers, flights etc and pre-pay as much as I can for everyone and add that to the safari so you do not have to worry about it.

GAME PARK TIPS
At the game parks we have always had everyone tip independently. The rangers and trackers depend heavily on their tips and often a ranger or tracker get more than the "recommended amount" As you past safari goers know you get to really like these Rangers and Trackers. You spend 6 -8 hours everyday with them. The rangers like to keep the same people so they can build a rapport with their guests.

HOWEVER, that said the last few safaris we have found we want to trade around with the vehicles. It is fun to go with different people in the group and experience the different rangers and trackers. I particularly like to do this and get to go out with everyone at least once. The group has the whole lodge and we seem to mingle with all the rangers whereas when people do not know each other there is more distance between the guests in each land rover. In fact by trading vehicles and getting to know all the rangers even better it may be a really nice thing

The only danger in this is if one ranger is far superior to another and once you go out with Ranger A you prefer him over Ranger B. That happens sometimes but not often. They are usually all good. If that happens we must be polite with each other and take turns.

What I am going to suggest is that I charge you all upfront for your tips for the number of nights you are in the game parks. We can start with a group in a vehicle but feel free to move around knowing the tipping is NOT an issue now. Just like dining with different people on a Regent cruise --- called OPEN SEATING LAND ROVERS. Also you do not have to worry about tipping. Everyone forgets what they should be tipping and it is always an issue, I print envelopes, people ask me numerous times this way you have NO TIPS at all on the entire safari to worry about as long as one of the escorts is with you. Do anything on your own and of course you would tip as normal.

So I have mentioned this to the game parks and explained the situation. They are perfectly fine with what one big tip shared among the Rangers and Trackers and said that as long as they knew upfront that was the plan the Rangers and Trackers would not have a problem at all.

At Madikwe on Roar 2, with the last group we were so all over the place it became difficult. So I talked to the Head Ranger Jocko, and we all gave the recommended amount to reception and the rangers split it. We must have everyone participate in the standard tipping to make this work. Those that wanted to give something extra to a certain Ranger could do so outside of the normal tipping arrangement. I think a few actually did give a little extra and that was only the amount OVER the normal suggested tip. This is entirely voluntary of course and you are free to do that if you decide to tip additional to your favorite ranger.

Tips at a game park are as follows per couple (divide in half for a single)

$20 to the ranger
$10 to the tracker
$15 to the general staff, waiters, barman, maids etc

$45 per day per couple
$22 per day per single (wont worry about the .50cents)

So on the 8 night safari 45 x 8 = $360 per couple or R3060 at 8.5 rate to the US $
Single $180

If you the majority of you like this idea then I do want to be responsible for making the payments to the lodge and collecting prior to the safari. We will wait until the time of final payment as this is something I will be doing independently of K&D so we will do the exchange rate at that time.

This will be a real experiment to have OPEN SEATING LAND ROVERS. We have done this a little but not totally open without pre-assigned basic land rovers. It can be a lot of fun so we will see how it works. On Lion we did a BOYS land rover and a GIRLS land rover once it was fun. The girls had a cute ranger who entertained us well, who said men do not talk much our ranger Brandon could talk up a storm, and the guys talked cameras and computers.

Comments please is everyone okay with this idea?

I like this concept a lot. I think having different ranger experiences would be a good thing and it mixes up the people you are with. Again a good thing. I avoids having to carry extra cash and convert dollars into Rand. Based on the people that have signed up I know that Carol and I would like to be with several people on the Rovers, this makes it easier to mix it up.

One minor question, Would this include all the tips including the general staff. I would like that. Just that much more that we do not have to worry about. Kinda like Regent " all inclusive".

Carol and I vote for.

PS. If the girls get a cute ranger, does that mean the guys get a cute female ranger.

PSS- Would we do this for the Lion Sands extension also. Would agree to that also.

Yes, we will do this for all the game parks nights. NO TIPPING ANYWHERE for anything we will handle it all.

Only time you would tip is if you do something individual, like a massage and want to tip that person who is offering a service outside the normal.

I really enjoyed going out with ALL the Rangers over the six days I had at Madikwe. The one Ranger that did not look as "exciting" as the others turned out to be just super. They all had their different styles and they were all good. Same at Leopard Hills, Hannis, Marius, Gary made no difference all great guys but again all different styles.

Not many female rangers but some I have seen were cute! You never know your luck Ralph.

I like those ideas, too, Ngaire!

I like the idea of including the tips too. It makes it easier for all of us.

Can we start a roll call for ROAR 3 ?

Adding: Doug, I see what you're saying and from our experience the rangers did seek out different terrain and wildlife on different days as not to duplicate.

The tip idea is a great one. Makes life easier.
The open seating sounds good, too. But I'm not all that sure about swapping Rangers....
My recall of Roar I & Roar II is that the Rangers tried to pace our multi-day experiences. Saw a lot of lions one day? Let's look for elephants today... or whatever. The mixing and matching of Rover Buddies and Rangers could affect what is seen and experienced.
All the Rangers are good. Some are great and some are merely good. It is the luck of the draw. But that is one reason we go to more than one camp.... to vary the experience.
The Rangers want to keep their Rover's together to insure that the tips flow...... perhaps we want to do the same to insure our experience flow?

Just a thought. (Lord knows, this group always takes care of the Rangers and Drivers. That is not at issue.)

my 2 cents..Doug

PS: Yes, Marcie. Let's get a roll call. I want to know who I may need to out run if a critter attacks! (lol)

It makes sense to me that if you don't swap Rangers, then you can't have "open seating". ;)

Doug, Carol can not run fast but she has a cane to trip up the fast runners so watch out.

It might be too early for a roll call. Maybe after Ngaire has the pricing worked out and people have committed with a deposit. That should not be too long from now.

My recall is that on balance it is hard to not get a good ranger. I know I thought the ones who got Hannis lucked out but before the day was over I really got to like Gary. They each have their own strengths and it would be good to experience them all. With four days in camp and eight game drives there will be lots of repeats with the rangers.

I see this as more of a challange for the rangers. It will be harder for them to remember all our names etc. We will need to take some steps to make it easier for them.

Ralph: Maybe name tags around your neck laminted, of course! Or the alphabet association game - Ralph is for Rowdy (YEAH) or Refined (boring) Carol for Charming, Doug for Daring and Andi Alluring???? JK JK - just learned that from one of my grands - Just Kidding - whoops and Tom for Terrific and Marcie for Magical!!! Anne can help!!!

Ralph is for Rhino
Carol is for Cheetah
Doug is for Dukker
Andy is for Aardvark
Tom is for Tapir
Marcie is for (vervet) Monkey
Olivia is for Oryx
Ngaire is for Nyala
Pam is for Pelican
Mark is for Marshall (eagle)
Ken is for Kudu
Pat is for Plover
Ray is for Reedbuck ..

The beat goes on! Cheers, Anne

YES Anne Ranger talk!!!!!!!

I wasn't sure about daring (but thank you.)...... but what the Sam Hill is dukker?

No, I agree. It is not hard to get a good ranger. The really good ones are great. The lesser ones are really good.

Whatever happens, we all know that it will be another amazing trip.
They are all magical for one reason or another.

Doug

Anne, Meekats are kind of rodent looking....can I be a Monkey instead ? What about Olivia....? I'm not even sure which LCTers are on this...guess we'll find out soon enough.

Dukker - A small antelope, one of the smallest

You are right Doug the rangers can focus on specific animals and know where to normally go to find those animals and this is one of the reasons NOT to change rangers. There are many reasons not to change rangers. I have been preaching that for years - I am sure many of you remember that well.

However, there are also many benefits to change rangers. On my last group LION we had two vehicles - 12 people. At Leopard Hills we stayed with our assigned rangers. Then at Lion Sands we mixed and matched all the time and I really did enjoy that a lot at Lion Sands. It added a whole new dimension which gave me the idea to consider this new OPEN SEATING LAND ROVERS.

We will see how it works and we may decide NOT to do this again or to NEVER go back to assigned rangers and always do it this way. Time will tell.

If we do have some who have missed a certain animal we can have a LION land rover and a LEOPARD range rover! Who wants to come with me on a wild goose chase for WILD DOGS! I bet the other vehicle would see the dogs and I would not!

I'm with Doug; I can't imagine anything except an incredible trip.

Marcie - a monkey? I'm honored - it's my chinese year. Change noted!

A dukker is not only among the smallest antelope, but also super swift and very skilled at survival. If the name is true to form, no one will outrun Doug! ;)

Cheers, Anne

Whaaaaaa Anne!! I wanna be an Oryx, as I saw my first one last year at Madikwe Hills, love those horns!

Aw, Anne! LOL!!!!
Skilled at survival? Oh, yes, that is moi. You have no idea.

Doug

Y'know, Olivia, we are on the same wavelength. I was just going to offer you the oryx position. Consider it done! Cheers, Anne

What is this? Am I being submitted to the Babba Wawa category?While an acacia is a nice tree, no offense, Anne, I don't wanna be a tree. I never really ever wanted to be a tree and don't covet the maples, birches, elms, etc. in my yard.

I wanna be an animal like everyone else. I kinda want to be an aardvark. There are so many nice termite mounds in Sth. Africa for me to devour.

Andy I love Aardvark we saw one at Samara and followed it around for ages on foot at 4.00pm in the daylight it was great. Really beautiful animals. The ranger was so excited. An aardvark you should be.

Thanks, Ngaire. You are the best travel agent. You always make things go correctly.

Andi! Give me credit for ALLURING!!!!!! Beats that other A word any day!!!!!!!!

I loved the alluring!! You're number 1. I had to look twice to make sure that was about me.

Musical Rovers sounds like fun and I definitley agree to you handling the gratuities for us....makes life soooo un-stressfull.

Since we are on ROAR 3 may we add our names to the above list?

Pat is for Plover
Ray is for Reedbuck

Actually,Ray's nickname at university was "the Mongoose" when he played football...he even named his boat the mongoose.

Ngaire, if the vote of those who may or may not get to go counts, we like your tipping and rotating rover ideas.

Dick and Sue