鵜鶘點小屋

Arrivati all' aeroporto, in 5 minuti ci viene a prendere un accompagnatore gentilissimo di nome Marlon. Dopo una mezz'ora arriviamo all'hotel. Ci accoglie lo staff gentilissimo e alcuni carinissimi sciacalli. Stanza bellissima dove la notte ti accendono il fuoco e ti mettono la borsa dell'acqua calda dentro il letto per riscaldarti. Offre di tutte le esperienze che vorreste fare tutti almeno una volta nella vita. Ci hanno trovato un pallone per giocare a calcio tra di noi. Dune bellissime. Giro in quad ancora più bello. In poche parole esperienza stupenda! Continuate così!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The positives of the place was the location.... really beautiful,  wonderful birds and other wild life. We very much enjoyed kayaking with the seals and on the food front, the oysters were amazing.  Sadly,  there are many negatives: Communication with the lodge was terrible. Despite phoning the day before we left (we initially had to phone a number in United Arab Emirates, Dubai... and they knew nothing about the arrangements, but they gave us the direct number for the lodge). We eventually talked to the lodge manager,  who told us we would be met at the airport and escorted to the lodge, and then escorted back on our last day after a boat trip, which contradicted what your company had set out for us.  Anyway,  there was no one at the airport when we arrived on time, and no answer at the lodge on the phone! So we drove to Walvis Bay and eventually managed to reach the lodge,  and they then sent out a 4 wheel drive car to escort us in. On arrival,  the staff were friendly but the lodge itself is poorly maintained. The corridors smell of sewerage and the room,  although nice in appearance,  was very run down with corroded sliding doors and broken and rusted loungers on the balcony. There was no fan or aircon and leaving the door open just filled the room with flies. Rather bizarrely,  the staff only turned the generator on from 6am to 9am and then 6pm to 10pm. This would have been fine but they often forgot to turn it on and turn the water on,  and as a result, we did not have a hot shower during our entire stay.  There is as yet no load shedding in Namibia!  The food standard was poor and at breakfast there seemed to be a lack of supplies ie. Not enough fruit and no butter, even though only 4 guests were staying at the time. The wine selection looked good but all of our wine requests weren't possible as they were out of stock,  forcing us to purchase the most expensive wines.  There was no clarity about activities and no discussions or planning prior to doing them, almost as if no one was really in charge of the situation.  There was clearly a skeleton staff on at the lodge and universally the training of these individuals was poor although they were very nice well-meaning people. Overall,  the place was shabby and shambolic,  run down and poorly managed but it is very expensive in price and that is unfair. 

I regretted booking that place from the very first moment since the owner, Dirk, has a very interesting idea on how to look after the needs of his guests; upon several requests of sharing the wine lists with us, or any other specifics of the property, he staunchly refused saying that he wants to surprise guests. I’m not traveling 2000 km to a place in the middle of nowhere, nestled on top of a June, just to be surprised. No transparency, the property has aged badly since this would not have been my first trip there, and compared to my last visit it definitely went down a few levels.