Absolute Africa

Hi Lena, thank you for your review. We are glad the tour exceeded your expectations and will pass on your positive comments to your tour leader, Jones :)

Hi Luke, We are sorry to receive your review. As a travel company our commitment to diversity and equal opportunities is fundamental. All our customers, staff and crew matter and we endeavour to act in ways to advocate equality and respect on our trips. There was never any report brought to our attention as to homophobic abuse, and you did not raise this in the detailed list of concerns you sent to us last week. The first we heard about this was only after we had sent you an official warning in response to the numerous complaints from other travellers in regard to your ongoing actions. This is at least 4 weeks after you said the incident occurred. You have also provided no information at all in regard to this accusation. If we had known we would have been able to step in as a priority. Living together on adventure camping trips like these for a long period of time is challenging. We understand this. In regard to your actions during the tour though, we cannot accept our crew being insulted while they are working hard to deliver a tour, nor can we allow rudeness, including offensive language to be used towards other travellers on the tour. It is worth mentioning that out of a group of up to 24 people who have travelled with you since Nairobi, we have received no complaints about the running of this tour from anyone but yourself and your sister. Most of the passengers are on for the full 77 days to Cape Town from Nairobi and in fact other emails from the travellers on your truck have detailed serious complaints about your and your sister's continued adverse, upsetting, disruptive behaviour throughout the trip, along with support for both the tour leaders and how they've conducted themselves. It is unfortunate that the only possible outcome as a result of your behaviour was for us to terminate your tour, given that even after having been given an official warning, you continued to insult and upset staff and other passengers. Our experience running overland tours in Africa stretches over forty years. Management have lived and work on the Continent. With this level of experience we have created predeparture information that sets out comprehensive and clear guidelines regarding the day to day expectations of each group member during a tour. We ask that all travellers acknowledge and agree to these guidelines prior to departure. These include following the requests of our experienced crew, being respectful and courteous to all members of the group at all times as well as our crew, attending the group briefings and partaking in the regular duties that make up a participation tour, taking care of the equipment which everyone is relying on day to day, and being respectful of the people, traditions and laws in the many places that we visit. This is to ensure that everyone signing up for a tour can rely on the fact that everyone in the group is aware of, and agrees to, these essentials. A group overland tour is a very different style of travel to other travel experiences. For us then it is very important that everyone receives this detailed information and agrees to the tour expectations so each group member is well prepared and can also be assured that we will step in where a traveller is not fitting in with these expectations, as we have been forced to do in your case. Absolute Africa runs adventure trips in Africa. As detailed in all our documentation given the conditions on the Continent, things do not always run smoothly over the 77 days. This is clearly explained on our website and in all our predeparture information. Where things may not go to plan and we see a pattern that we can avoid though, we do look to make adjustments and contrary to your review, we do actively seek to remedy certain issues, as we have done with some issues you raise. We are in total agreement that the situation in Mwanza was not proving suitable and have been searching for another option since we started getting reports on changes at this campsite and particularly on some evenings. There can be limited options as to where we can safely and securely camp in some destinations but where a problem does arise we will actively seek an alternative which we have been doing and have now managed to secure a new far more suitable beach campsite for our future groups which the October trip has just visited. That being said though it is also of note we did not receive feedback from yourselves about your particular experience in Mwanza, until over 3 weeks after the event which we find surprising given the seriousness of the reported incident. We also know that our tour leader would have taken the situation as reported seriously and that our staff would have been caring and supportive if you had sought their assistance. We agree a 19 hour day was far too long. This was obviously not intentional or the norm. Unfortunately the road from Kande to South Luangwa has now deteriorated to an extent that the usual itinerary can no longer be followed though and this being the case we have taken the decision to build in a stop to split this drive for our future tours and to ensure we arrive into South Luangwa at a more appropriate time. The day to day briefings the crew hold are important and the briefing for this day had detailed it was a long drive day and to be prepared with snacks, drink and your lunch. Given this there was no reason to not have food though on this journey where passengers attended the meeting. It has been reported to us though that unfortunately you didn't want to listen through all these briefings. As usual the tour leader had briefed the group prior as to arrangements for the upcoming drive days in regards to organising lunches, when and where to shop to organise packing your own lunch or purchasing a lunch box from the campsite before you left camp. Dinner was booked in ahead of time at the campsite so a meal was ready and waiting on arrival, given we would be late. When you sent your concerns in to us this was on your conversation page on the Tour Radar platform. You did not talk to any staff member personally, indicate for this to be regarded as confidential, or that you wished anything to be kept from the tour leader. The tour leader is our representative on the ground and so when there are concerns from any party our first port of call would always be to speak with them to further ascertain the situation and work to a resolution at the very earliest. If the tour leader is unable to solve an issue themselves on the ground then they will pass it up to the office to assist and both these are very usual approaches. Likewise, when we receive a complaint, it is very difficult to do anything to try to resolve or explain a situation without first speaking with the tour leader. As we have said though, the complaints we’ve received from your truck are in regard to yourself and your sister and have come from a large number of the group - this is in contradiction to your claim that others are also dissatisfied of which there is no indication is the case. Your sister has continued to demand that we forward you these complaint emails and imply we are fabricating these emails if we refuse. However you fail to understand that we are not at liberty to share other passengers’ correspondence with you due to privacy restrictions (GDPR) and we have already responded to your sister to explain this. Our goal is always for all of our clients to enjoy their trip. For this to be the case it is essential that they must feel safe and at ease when travelling. All our staff have hands on experience in Africa and have been involved in the running of tours on the Continent, bringing their love of the Continent to the work they do. We do all well understand the challenges of the Continent, most of us having worked in the industry for many years. Our local crew are well trained and responsible with a clear code of conduct and our staff work very hard on the trucks which go long distances and carry a lot of equipment that needs constant monitoring. For each tour there are documentation requirements which must be completed including of the vehicle and equipment pretour maintenance. Careful checks are made of different aspects of the vehicle and its equipment's servicing and maintenance. All trucks have a First Aid kit on board, as does yours, which was checked on departure. Budgets are carefully created to ensure our groups always eat well and tours are carefully supported and monitored. All this so that each tour is set to have the best adventure trip possible. We understand you are upset as to what has transpired but to later find out you have vandalised our truck locker and then later the seats, fridge and front window as well as left defamatory comments over social media unfortunately only compounds the reports from other travellers as to the upset you have caused so many people on this tour. It is disappointing but unfortunately given your actions the only possible outcome was to terminate your trip with us.

Hi Beth, We are sorry to receive this review. At the same time we cannot accept our crew being insulted while they are working hard to deliver a tour, nor can we allow rudeness, including offensive language being used, towards other travellers on the tour. It is our duty to ensure that all of our clients and crew feel safe and at ease on their tour. We set out clear guidelines in our predeparture information regarding the day to day expectations of each group member during a tour, and we ask that all travellers acknowledge and agree to these prior to departure. This includes being respectful and courteous to all members of the group, partaking in the regular duties as part of a participation tour, taking care of equipment which everyone is relying on day to day, and abiding by and being respectful of the people, traditions and laws in the many places that we visit. This is to ensure that everyone signing up for a tour can rely on the fact that everyone in the group is alert to these essentials for the tours to run successfully. A group overland tour is a very different style of travel to other travel experiences and we spend a lot of time to ensure that everyone receives this detailed information so they are well prepared. We feel that by laying out guidelines that this allows those booking with us to feel secure and safe throughout their trip and that we will follow through with terminating a tour where this is threatened, as we did in your case. After receiving numerous serious complaints though from other travellers regarding yourself and your travel companion’s behaviour, unfortunately we were left with no alternative but to ask you to leave the tour. This is not something we take lightly and after looking into the complaints thoroughly, a warning was given. As this was ignored and the code of conduct continued to be disregarded, our responsibility was to protect the rest of the group and crew for the rest of their trip. We wish you well with your future travels.

Thank you for your review, Maryke. We are happy to hear you enjoyed your tour and will pass on your comments to Pete and Dave :)