Ädam
I don?t propose here to try to respond to your comments on Rob?s complaint
but I have real problems with your interpretation about what happened with
me in Cameroon, and I can?t help feeling that there are some half-truths at
best here.
You say:
Finally I would like to respond to Greg who also took this opportunity to
criticize Rockjumper. Cameroon is another very difficult country in which to
travel where we issue very similar warnings as above about the possibility
of logistics sometimes going awry. This incident unfortunately happened in
2006 that Greg missed his airport pick-up when hearrived the night before
the tour began, despite the fact that two other participants on the same
flight were collected. This is what our representative reported of the
incident ?Good day sir, I am Neville a colleague to ???.; I was at the
airport to meet with clients for the Cameroon Trip. I was at the arrival
gate on the 10/04/2006 with a sign "ROCKJUMPER" ten minutes before the
first passenger descended from the plane; I waited there until the last
passenger descended from the plane; during which time I met ???.. and ????
we waited till the last passenger descended before proceed past the police
to the arrivalwhere we collected their bags. When I noticed Greg Roberts was
not among the passengers I called David on my mobile and informed him on the
state of affaires and he said he was going to mail in to find out!? That
same evening I personally sent an email to Greg asking if he had missed his
plane. When he contacted us and explained what had happened, we profusely
apologized to Greg for this mishap and offered him a US$300 discount off a
future Rockjumper tour. Greg responded ?Thanks for this. I'm aware that
Neville met people coming off the plane and I accept that for some reason I
did not see him (I was one of the first off the plane, and I was not
expecting to meet anyone there, but rather as we left customs checks).? The
tour itself was a great success and in fact Greg wrote ?And I do hope to
travel again with you sometime because this incident aside, it was a very
nice trip.?
Adam Riley
Managing Director
Rockjumper Birding Tours CC (Reg 2001/059480/23)
Adam omits to mention some salient points here. Most importantly, the two
other participants on the flight that were met by Rockjumper (referred to
above) have both confirmed that whatever the circumstances of me not
connecting with the Rockjumper fellow, he made NO effort whatsoever to find
me in the airport after Customs clearances, although I waited in the airport
for two hours while being seriously harassed by various gangster-types. All
this was going on while Adam?s Rockjumper fellow - and the two who were
lucky enough to meet him - were quietly waiting for two hours 200m away for
their vehicle pick-up. Such was the degree of antagonism that I faced from
these dodgy characters that I was physically prevented from leaving the
terminal; I escaped eventually solely due to the spirited intervention of a
kindly but armed guard from a hotel nearby. Moreover, Adam failed to mention
that BOTH the emergency after-hours contact numbers that Rockjumper had
given me went to Voicemail; he also failed to mention that the number given
for the hotel we were supposed to be staying at similarly did not work. In
other words, I was on my own. I travel extensively in the Third World,
often by myself, and the situation I encountered in Cameroon was arguably
the worst.
Safety was a primary reason for my opting to go with Rockjumpers. Yes, this
incident aside, it was a very nice trip... but the memories are forever
scarred by a life-threatening situation that is not easily assuaged by a
$300 discount offer.
Greg Roberts
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