Your first night is spent in Maun, a chance to recover from the journey and settle into the gentle pace that is African time. Flights into Maun usually arrive around lunchtime. You will be met at the airport and transferred to your lodge where you will have the late afternoon to rest and relax by the river in a peaceful setting. An early night ensures you have time to recharge for the safari adventures tomorrow.

This morning after breakfast you are met at your lodge by your guide. Your safari begins! You set off in your custom built 4x4 game vehicle, secure and comfortable – with great views from your elevated position which ensures that you are able to maximize your game spotting chances!

All aboard and you depart for the Moremi Game Reserve - a drive of approximately 5 hours at a gentle pace. As we pass through Maun and the surrounding rural villages you will have a glimpse into rural Botswana life. Very soon you will notice that there are fewer people and more animals. Arriving at the park gates we enter the Moremi Game Reserve and slow to a gentle game drive pace, enjoying any sightings along the way. Arriving into camp in time for lunch we then have time to settle into camp and rest before setting off on an afternoon game drive.

Stopping in a scenic spot to enjoy the sunset with some drinks and snacks, we soak up the scenes of splendid African skies before returning to camp before dark. The roaring camp fire will be waiting for us – with hot water for showers. Drinks around the camp fire and then dinner and bed- ready for the adventures the next day.

For the next 2 days we will explore the Xakanaxa region with early morning and late afternoon game drives. Animals tend to rest in the shade during the heat of the day and we do the same! We depart early after breakfast to catch sightings of the animals while they are still active in the cool early morning, returning for lunch and a siesta before setting off again as the day cools in the later afternoon.

This section of the Moremi lies in the eastern corner of the Okavango Delta. Xakanaxa is a very varied environment, with every type of habitat being showcased - from the towering cathedral woodlands and redlined lagoons to the drier and harsher habitats and extensive stretches of scrub mopane. These varied habitats ensure wonderful diversity of both wildlife and birdlife. As well as having lion, leopard and hyena the Moremi is amongst the best game reserves in Africa for viewing the endangered African wild dog.

Xakanaxa is home to a huge resident herd of several hundred buffalo whose range covers the territories of a number of prides of lion, often spotted following the constantly moving herd.

Breeding herds of elephant move between their browsing areas in the mopane forests and the fresh water of the Okavango. Red lechwe are one of the more unusual antelope species commonly found here and favoring the fringes of the wetlands.

This morning, after breakfast, we head east for our next camp in the Khwai Community area, the eastern Okavango. The team will set off ahead of us to set up camp while we enjoy a leisurely all day game drive, with a picnic lunch along the way, arriving into camp in the mid-afternoon. Along the way we will

Our journey follows the Manuchira Channel, which becomes the Khwai River at the eastern reach of the Moremi. We follow the meandering waterway and floodplains into the mopane veld and the woodlands that make Khwai one of the most scenic areas of the Okavango. Hippos are plentiful in this part of the river and you will likely just see a pair of ears and a nose poking out just above the water during the midday heat. Come night time you will surely hear them!

This is a wonderful drive, a beautiful area with plenty of plains game as well as chances of seeing predators along the way- lion, leopard and wild dog are all commonly seen here. Sometimes even Cheetah.

We arrive into camp in time to settle into our new home and freshen up with a hot shower. After our long day we will enjoy sundowners in camp followed by dinner and relaxing around the camp fire.

For the next two days we explore the lively Khwai area with morning and afternoon game drives, returning to camp for lunch and a rest between activities. Night drives are also offered in this area and offer a chance to see nocturnal animals rarely seen in the day such as genet, arrdvark, bush babies and Caracas – and of course the usual nocturnal predators like lion, leopard and hyena.

Our drives cover the dry-land habitats around the lead-wood and camel-thorn woodlands and savannas as well as the riverside and marshy back-waters of the Khwai river.

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 tsesebe, blue wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, sable antelope, roan antelope and impala.

Nights are spent around the campfire listening to the sounds of the bush and sharing stories.

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 a 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 landscapes, 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 common 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 rise 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 by now!

Unusually for Botswana, Savuti is not completely landscape, despite first appearances! Large rocky outcrops lift up out of the Kalahari sands and savannah. These hills create a very different 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 this is rarely seen as they hunt at night. Even in the day they 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 and 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.