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Superb service at Kruger's Tsendze camp

30/8/2011

5 Comments

 
Rodgers Hobyane and Elina Mona, Tsendze camp, Kruger National Park
By Roxanne Reid
Rodgers Hobyane and Elina Mona know exactly what customer service is about. Anyone who has ever been to the rustic Tsendze camp in Kruger National Park can tell you that.

That’s why it’s no surprise that year after year both of them win achievement awards for outstanding customer service. Rodgers also received a SANParks’ Kudu Award last year for excellence in the workplace.

Full of enthusiasm for their jobs as at this small camping-only site seven kilometres south of Mopani, they take great pride in their work. Whatever needs doing at Tsendze, they’re the ones who do it. They rise before sunrise to unlock the camp gate, check the solar batteries that power the lights, clean the ablutions and braais. (If there’s a cleaner braai to be found anywhere in Kruger I’d like to know about it. I thought they were new, which made Elina laugh. ‘They’re still the ones from five years ago,’ she insisted.) And they’re still active as you sit around your fire at night, coming round to check you’re happy or if there’s anything they can do for you.

They’re a pleasure to be around, their cheeriness hard to resist. Elina calls Rodgers ‘Talk-Talk’ (for obvious reasons) while he calls her ‘Chameleon’ because he thinks she’s quieter and slower than him. Although many people assume they’re a couple, they’re just good friends. Elina’s husband died 12 years ago and she’s brought up four children on her own, while Rodgers has a wife and family at Malamulele near Punda Maria gate. Between them they have 29 years of experience at Kruger, and they’ve been at Tsendze together since it opened to visitors in November 2006.

Tsendze is a small camp of just 30 sites cleverly carved into the surrounding bush so that each is a secluded enclave, almost as if you’re camping alone in the middle of the bush. The layout and the natural feel of the camp – where there’s no electricity and no generators are allowed – are two of the camp’s best attractions. The third is Roger and Elina themselves, so welcoming, helpful and friendly that visitors greet them like old friends.

‘We’re here to make each and everyone feel the bush,’ says Rodgers with his trademark grin. He’s more than happy to tell you when there’s an elephant just outside the fence or to point out a genet or Verreaux’s eagle-owl he has located inside the camp.

‘What I like about them is that they don’t phone me with problems,’ says hospitality manager Garth Holt at nearby Mopani, the man they report to. ‘They phone to tell me about the solutions they have already found and implemented.’ High praise indeed.

More about Kruger National Park

Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
5 Comments
Gerrit Oosthuizen link
2/9/2011 02:40:28 am

Proudly South African!!

Roxanne - is it bearable to stay here over the Christmas season? - being in Hermanus the past 22 years made me acclamitize to the moderate cool climes of the coast!!

Gerrit

Reply
Roxanne
2/9/2011 03:02:58 am

Gerrit, do you mean stay at Tsendze over Christmas? Depends how you handle heat, I suppose. The one time we went to Kruger in October it was pretty hot (to people who wilt in the heat, admittedly) so I reckon it would be pretty darned hot in December!

Reply
Roxanne
13/9/2011 08:17:52 am

And they've done it again! Rodgers and Elina have scooped yet another award for special service to tourists at a SANParks award ceremony on 6 September. They truly are stars!

Reply
Dave and Jean Blakey
5/1/2012 12:27:01 pm

We would just like to add our comments on Tsendze - a lovely little campsite that is probably the cleanest and most welcome we have been to. We love the fact that it has no electricity and that the sites are kept so natural but carefully concealed in the centre are the cleanest ablutions we have ever used. The outside showers are a treat under the stars and moon and it is the first time I have showered without slops in an ablution.! It is defenitely all thanks to Rodgers and Elina who have such passion for their work. Although it would be a great loss to Tsendze the two of them should be out there teaching others who serve the public how to treat guests and visitors to our country. What a humble team they are - when we praised them they did not even tell us about their awards. We are so pleased that their hard work and their extra effort is noticed by those they report to! I wonder how many hours a day they work? We stayed for three nights and they had us in fits of laughter each night when they did their 'rounds'. On the morning we left we went to say goodbye and once again he had the four of us in fits of laughter telling us stories. And we agree, on a more serious note, he shares so much information about the environment. Although it was incredibly hot and there were still a few mopani worms dropping on our tent and we did not see as great a variety of animals as we would have liked to, we will go back there one day because Elena and Rodgers have made the difference!

Reply
Roxanne
5/1/2012 11:42:23 pm

There it is in a nutshell. That's the experience of anyone who goes to Tsendze and shows just why Rodgers and Elina keep winning service awards - they go the extra mile!

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    I'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel.
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