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The Kalahari Collection

Adventurous value. No compromise on the wilderness.

Fully-serviced mobile camping in private campsites inside Moremi, Khwai, Chobe and the Central Kalahari, from USD 250 per person per day.

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The same ground. A different bed.

A private campsite inside Moremi is still inside Moremi. The lion have no idea what you paid, and sunrise over the floodplain looks the same from a canvas tent as it does from a suite with a plunge pool.

What you give up here is thread count, air conditioning and somewhere to swim. What you keep is a private vehicle, one guide for the whole trip, campsites nobody else can book while you are in them, and a fire to sit at once the light has gone.

The planning and the guiding are the same as on the most expensive journey we sell, and so is the number you call if something goes wrong at midnight.

Water channels winding through the reedbeds of the Okavango Delta
One journey

The Kalahari Collection

Every itinerary below is a private departure and can begin any day of the year. The day-by-day flow is how we would run it as written — and every one is a starting point we expect to rewrite around you.

Open floodplain and palm islands in the Okavango Delta

Okavango Under Canvas

  • 8 days
  • Moremi · Khwai · eastern Delta
  • Kalahari Collection
  • from USD 250 pp/day

A mobile camp is a crew, a truck and a set of walk-in tents that go up in the afternoon and come down after you leave. Ours travels with a guide and a cook who stay with you the whole eight days, and it pitches in private campsites that nobody else can book while you are in them.

The tents are walk-in canvas with real bedrolls, not backpacking domes. There is a hot bucket shower filled when you ask for it, a long table under a tree, and a fire the cook works over three times a day. No fence, no generator, no other camp in sight. Most nights something comes through: hyena at two in the morning is common, and it is not unusual to find elephant browsing forty metres off while you are eating breakfast.

It is close to how Botswana was travelled fifty years ago, with better mattresses. It is also the least expensive way into this part of the country, which surprises people who assume the cheapest option must be the compromised one.

How the days run

  1. Day 1Arrive in Maun. Meet your guide and crew, kit check, and the drive into Moremi Game Reserve. First camp pitched before sundowners.
  2. Days 2–3Moremi — the Delta's protected heart. Full days on the floodplains and Xakanaxa lagoons, where the predator density is the highest in the country.
  3. Day 4North to the Khwai community area. Afternoon drive along the river, where elephant cross at dusk and wild dog den in season.
  4. Day 5A full day in Khwai, including a mokoro morning poled through the reed channels by a Motswana poler from the village.
  5. Days 6–7The eastern Delta channels. Game drives, walking with your guide where the concession permits it, and two nights in the quietest campsite of the trip.
  6. Day 8A last morning drive, then the road back to Maun and your onward flight.
  • Best monthsMay to October, when the flood is up and the tracks are dry
  • Where you sleepWalk-in canvas tents with bedrolls, hot bucket showers and a private campsite each night
  • Who it suitsYounger travellers, seasoned campers, budget-conscious families and anyone who wants wilderness over thread count

Enquire about Okavango Under Canvas

Indicative from-rates are per person per day, excluding international flights, and vary by season. Compare all four collections, or ask a Travel Designer for a quotation against your dates.

On the ground

What a mobile camp actually is.

Walk-in canvas, real beds

Tents you can stand up in, with proper bedrolls rather than camping mats, and a private bush toilet and hot bucket shower at each site.

Your own vehicle and crew

A private 4×4 Land Cruiser, a professional guide and a cook who travel with you for the whole journey. Nobody else joins.

Private campsites

Sites inside the reserves that are booked exclusively for your party. No fences, no neighbours, and no other vehicles at your sightings.

Banded mongoose in Moremi Game Reserve
A hippopotamus surfacing in an Okavango Delta channel
A female kudu in Moremi Game Reserve
Reedbeds and open water in the Okavango Delta
Before you book

Mobile camping, answered honestly.

What is the difference between participation and fully-serviced camping?

On a participation safari guests help pitch tents and wash up; on a fully-serviced safari a crew does all of it and you do nothing but travel. We quote both. Most guests choose fully-serviced, and almost nobody regrets it after a 5.30 a.m. start.

How comfortable is it, honestly?

More than people expect and less than a lodge. Walk-in canvas tents you can stand up in, proper bedrolls rather than camping mats, a hot bucket shower filled on request, a chemical toilet in its own tent, and meals cooked over the fire that are better than they have any right to be. There is no electricity beyond charging points off the vehicle, and no Wi-Fi.

Is it safe to camp unfenced?

Yes, with rules. Your guide sleeps in camp, the fire is managed, and you do not walk between tents at night without calling for an escort. Animals move through camp — that is the point of an unfenced private campsite — and the crew are experienced at managing it. Every departure carries emergency evacuation cover.

Do we drive the whole way?

Yes, in a private 4×4 Land Cruiser with your guide. Botswana’s distances are real, and some of the drives are long. That is the trade for the price — and the drives themselves are game viewing, not transit.

Can families do this?

Often yes, and it can be the trip of a childhood. We would generally want children to be eight or older, comfortable with early starts and long drives, and we will say honestly if we think a lodge-based trip would suit your family better.

Camping, or a camp bed with a roof?

Tell us how you like to travel and we will tell you honestly which collection suits you — including when the answer is a different one.

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