The Great Okavango
- 10 days
- Delta water · floodplain · Linyanti · Savuti
- Signature Collection
- from USD 800 pp/day
Ten days and four camps, none of them much like the one before it. This is the route we tend to build for people who have already travelled a good deal and want the differences rather than the highlights.
You start on permanent water in the western Delta, where the safari happens by boat and mokoro and the game comes to you. Then a seasonal floodplain camp, where the water pulls back through the year and the land animals move in behind it. Then Linyanti, a private concession with very little vehicle traffic, where you can drive after dark and walk with a guide because it is not a national park. Then Savuti, whose lion prides are among the most studied in Africa and have a reputation the guides do not exaggerate.
Every leg is flown, which turns out to be part of the trip rather than a way of shortening it. The Okavango from a thousand feet, channels drawn out below you like veins in a leaf, is the thing people describe first when they get home.
How the days run
- Day 1Arrive in Maun. Light aircraft west into the permanent Delta. Afternoon boat cruise through the channels.
- Days 2–3Water safaris by mokoro and motorboat, island walks, and catch-and-release fishing in season. Sitatunga, red lechwe and some of the best birding in the country.
- Day 4Fly to a seasonal floodplain camp. The safari turns to land: game drives morning and afternoon, with the flood edge moving through the year.
- Days 5–6Two full days on the floodplains. Leopard in the riverine woodland, elephant crossing at dusk, and wild dog if the season is with you.
- Day 7Fly north to Linyanti. Afternoon drive, then a night drive with a spotlight — permitted here in a way it is not in the national parks.
- Day 8A guided walking safari at first light with an armed professional guide, and an afternoon on the Linyanti waterway.
- Day 9Fly to Savuti. The marsh, the sandridge and the lion prides that work them — the most dramatic predator country in northern Botswana.
- Day 10A final morning drive, then fly back to Maun or on to Kasane for Victoria Falls.
- Best monthsMay to October, when the flood is high in the west and the game concentrates in the east
- Where you sleepFour premier camps of six to twelve tents inside private concessions, with plunge pools and dedicated guide-and-tracker teams
- Who it suitsHoneymooners, celebration travel, serious photographers, and guests who have already seen East Africa
- Who it may not suitNervous flyers, since every leg is in a small aircraft, and anyone who would rather spend ten days in one or two camps.
