Delta & Desert
- 7 days
- Okavango · Moremi · Kalahari
- All collections
- from USD 450 pp/day
Seven days that take you through three completely different versions of the same country, which is the thing about Botswana that is hard to explain until you have done it.
It starts on water. A mokoro is a shallow dugout poled from the stern, and it moves through the channels at walking pace, low enough that you notice reed frogs and dragonflies before you notice the hippo. Then Moremi, where the floodplains hold lion and leopard and give you about the best chance in Africa of finding wild dog. Then everything changes. The Kalahari has no standing water, the horizon runs unbroken in every direction, and at night the silence is total in a way that takes most people a day to get used to.
We run this route at every tier, from a mobile camp to a private concession. The places are the same. The beds are not.
How the days run
- Day 1Arrive in Maun. Light aircraft or road transfer into the Okavango Delta, and an afternoon settling into camp.
- Day 2A mokoro morning through the channels with a village poler, and a walk on one of the Delta islands in the afternoon.
- Day 3Transfer east into Moremi Game Reserve. Afternoon game drive on the floodplains.
- Day 4A full day in Moremi — dawn start for the predators, a long midday break, and out again for the last light.
- Day 5South to the Kalahari. The landscape empties out; the drive is part of the experience. Sundowners on an open pan.
- Day 6A full Kalahari day — black-maned lion, oryx, and a night sky with no light pollution anywhere near it.
- Day 7A last morning, then the transfer back to Maun.
- Best monthsYear-round. The flood is highest June to September; the Kalahari is at its best December to April when the rains bring the game back
- Where you sleepThree camps across three ecosystems, at whichever tier you choose
- Who it suitsFirst-time visitors who want to understand the country rather than just photograph it
- Who it may not suitTravellers who would rather stay put. This route moves camp twice in seven days, across three very different landscapes.
