On arrival at Maun Airport you will be met by your guide and settled into the game vehicle for your road transfer to your first camp, Khawi, situated in the eastern Moremi. You set off in your custom built 4x4 game vehicle, secure and comfortable – with great views enhanced by your elevated position thereby maximizing your chances for good game spotting!

All aboard and you depart for the Eastern Okavango, a gently -paced drive of approximately 5 hours in length. As we pass through Maun and the nearby rural villages, you will have a glimpse into rural Botswana life. Very soon there are fewer people and more animals and you can start enjoying some interesting sightings along the way. Arriving into camp in the late afternoon, your team will be ready to welcome you to your new temporary home base for a few days. Settle into camp where hot water will be available for showers after the long journey. Then, meet for refreshing drinks around the camp fire, a hearty dinner and bed for a much needed rest after your long first day. Hopefully you will not be too tired to take in the nearby sounds of the African bushveld at night….? Hippos honking in the bushveld background often make up the soundtrack to superb evenings in Khwai.

We wake early with the dawn chorus – the best time for game viewing is in the cool early morning while the predators are often still active. We have a quick breakfast around the camp fire and then set off for our first morning game drive. Perhaps following up on the sounds heard in the night? Your professional guide will read the tracks in the bush like a newspaper for the news of animals movements in the night and interpret these for you. Every drive is different – there is always so much to learn.

We return for lunch as the day heats up, followed by a few hours of rest in the cool of the shade before setting off after in the mid-afternoon for another game drive, returning after sunset. Night drives are also possible from Khwai, offering the opportunity to see nocturnal animals rarely seen in the day such as genet, aardvark, bush babies and caracals – and of course the usual nocturnal predators like lion, leopard and hyena.

Game drives explore the dry-land habitats around the leadwood and camel-thorn woodlands and savannahs as well as the riverside and marshy back-waters of the Khwai river. These varied landscapes are home to a wild range of animals.

Khwai has impressive populations of elephants, both bull elephant as well as breeding herds. Predators numbers are excellent too, as well as lion and leopard there are good wild dog numbers here. Buffalo visit the area seasonally with large herds moving in during the summer rains. The swampy areas in the west are home to the aquatic adapted antelope such as red lechwe. Other species to look out for include tsessebe, blue wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, sable antelope, roan antelope and impala.

Evenings are spent around the camp fire and dinner table, sharing stories and discussing our experiences of today and the route ahead.

This morning after breakfast we set off to Savuti in the southern reaches of Chobe National Park, where we will spend the following three nights. As before the camp staff drive ahead to set up camp while we spend the rest of the day making our journey at a more gentle pace, stopping to enjoy sightings along the way and indulge in a delicious picnic lunch.

This is an interesting drive. We pass evidence of the Paleo-Lake Makgadikgadi that dried up some ten thousand years ago. We continue on through to the Magwikwe Sand-ridge that formed the shoreline for this massive inland sea, this can be a challenging road when the rains arrive! The old lake bed now forms Mababe Depression and the thick clay floor of the depression yields grass high in protein for wildlife. As a result animals are abundant in the area after the rains. During the rainy season the depression is impassable due to the “cotton soil” and alternative routes must be used.

During this drive we cover a wide range of habitats typical of northern Botswana. It is certainly not all landscape to be seen, there is great game viewing to be had. This is good lion territory and very good cheetah country too. Elephant can be seen too though they are more commonly found at the end of the drive as we near the permanent waters.

Arriving into camp the team will be waiting for us. After a long day we will settle into camp, enjoy hot showers and dinner before retiring to our tents, ready for the next day.

For the next two days we arise early with the dawn chorus and enjoy early morning game drives, returning to camp for lunch and a rest before setting off as the day cools in the late afternoon for another drive. The rhythm of safari will be very familiar to you by now!

Unusually for Botswana, Savuti is not completely about the dramatic landscape, despite first appearances! Large rocky outcrops lift up out of the Kalahari sands and savannah. These hills create a very unique habitat attracting a variety of different animals. The most famous feature of this area is the Savuti Marsh, which has been the setting for many of the most dramatic wildlife documentaries in Africa. The large Marsh Pride of lion have learn to hunt elephant and hippo, making for explosive viewing - this is rarely seen during the day as lions prefer to hunt at night. Saying that, even during the day these lions are a formidable sight.

The Savuti Channel runs through this landscape linking the dry sand-veld, the waterholes, the hills and the grassland that was the Savuti Marsh. This channel is usually dry- its water flowing rarely and unpredictably.

The waterholes, the only permanent source of water, are always an interesting spot for game viewing. These are pumped by the Department of Wildlife and provide a major attraction for birdlife.

This morning we rise early for breakfast and bid farewell to the team as we make our way to the Chobe Riverfront and Kasane, where the safari ends.

This is an interesting drive, with lovely game viewing along the way, though we will be aiming for an arrival into Kasane for around midday. Beautiful Sable and Roan antelope live in the woodlands. Leopard too. Elephant are abundant, even as we enter the town of Kasane it is not uncommon to see elephant causing a traffic jam!

This safari ends at Kasane Airport. For those interested, extensions can be arrange to include a stop on the Chobe riverfront, where Chobe Game Lodge is suggested as a suitable accommodation option. Victoria Falls is only 1.5 hours away and can also be included in the itinerary with a number of suitable hotel options. Please speak to us for more details.