Botswana’s Amazing Wilderness

You will fly to the airport at Maun in Botswana, via an European airport and Johannesburg

Meals and drinks will of course be included on your flight.

You will arrive in Maun airport in the early afternoon. At the airport you will be met by your driver/guide, who will drive you to your lodge in the small, charming town of Maun. The name Maun comes from the word “maung” in the San language, and means a place where low reeds grow. You will have the rest of the day free. You could relax by the lodge’s swimming pool, or perhaps book a “sunset cruise” on the River Thamalakane. At 18:00 you will meet your guide and the other participants on the tour, and the guide will tell you more about what to expect on the exciting safari you are just about to embark on. Dinner is not included, so you can choose to eat at the lodge or in one of the many restaurants in town.

After breakfast you will drive east to the Makgadikgadi Pans district, which is famous for its wide open vistas, huge baobab trees and remarkable biodiversity. On arrival at the lodge, you will be shown to one of the lodge’s cottages, where you will spend the next couple of nights.

After you have settled in, there will be time to stretch your legs on a guided tour through the baobab trees. The guide will tell you about the fascinating biology of the baobabs, the geology of the surrounding landscape, and the incredible ecosystem you find yourself in.

Overnight at Planet Baobab (or similar). Lunch and dinner included.

Distance driven during the day: circa 210km

After breakfast the tour will either take you out to Nxai Pan (if you are visiting between December and May) or the Ntwetwe Pan (if you are visiting between June and November), which are fossil lake beds in the midst of the dry Makgadikgadi ecosystem. In places these salt flats are covered in short, nutritious grass and islands of acacia trees, which attract many antelopes and other animals that are adapted to this dry habitat.

The nature here is amazingly varied, and enough food is available to support a relatively large population of predators, which you may be lucky enough to hear during the night. Lunch will be prepared by your guide underway, while dinner will be eaten back at the lodge.

You will arrive back at the lodge in the afternoon, where you will have time to relax by the swimming pool.

Overnight at Planet Baobab (or similar) including full board.

This morning you will travel back via Maun, the last “bastion” before the enormous Okavango Delta, to our next camp. The camp lies in a privately owned concession in the so-called Greater Moremi Region, which is owned by the local Khwai people, who live on the fringes of the delta itself. The Khwai-concession is renowned for its large concentrations of animals and offers fantastic safaris.

You will stay overnight at Bedouin Camp (or similar) with full board. After dinner there will be a night game drive, where you will look for the nocturnal animals that become active after darkness falls, and are rarely seen during the day.

Distance driven during the day: circa 330km

Mornings are really magical in Africa. It is still cool and you will feel fresh after a good night’s sleep. After a hearty breakfast you will be again ready to get out into the bush. You will spend the day in the famous Moremi Game Reserve. The whole day will be spent on an exciting safari, on which you can experience life in the African bush, where the carnivores are king, from a front row seat. Here, only the strongest, fastest, most cunning animals, or those that can just disappear in the throng, survive.

Moremi Game Reserve is regarded as one of the most beautiful and varied reserves in Africa, and has an impressive multitude of both plants and animals. A fifth of the reserve is in the delta, and there are a wide range of different habitats for the game. Acacia woodland, floodplains, reedbeds, lagoons, permanent wetlands, mopane woods and dry grassy savannah are all part of the varied vegetation of Moremi.

Overnight at Khwai Bedouin Camp (or similar) including full board.

Distance driven during the day: circa 150km

After breakfast you will be driven to the Khwai Airstrip - a small gravel landing strip in the bush, where you may see animals on the runway before they are scared away by the aircraft coming in to land.  After a short flight over the beautiful but impassible terrain, which you can really appreciate from the air, you will land at the small airport at Kasane, which is not far from the River Chobe. Here you will be met and driven to your lodge, where you will eat lunch (at your own expense).

During the afternoon there will be a sundowner cruise on the river, where it will be possible to see crocodiles, hippos, elephants and many other species of animals that live close to the river. The sunsets over the river are incredibly beautiful. You will then return to the lodge, where dinner is waiting (dinners is at your own expense), and enjoy a relaxing evening.

Overnight at the Chobe Safari Lodge (or similar) - lunch and dinner at your own expense.

This morning after leaving Chobe, you will cross the border into Zimbabwe and drive to Hwange National Park, which is an excellent park for seeing the famous Big Five: elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, lion and leopard. The nature of the accessible northern third of the park varies between flat, sandy areas with scattered vegetation, acacia savannah and a few more forested areas in the north eastern section of the park, plus areas more hilly in nature and with granite outcrops in the northwestern part.

Around 60 waterholes can be found in Hwange, most of which are artificial. In the larger waterholes you see hippos, crocodiles and turtles. On the savannah, close to waterholes, live many giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs and countless antelopes, including some of the largest and most impressive species such as greater kudu, eland, roan, sablel and waterbuck. The park also houses large populations of baboons, spotted hyena and not least, the otherwise rare African wild dog. You will visit The Painted Dog Conservation Center, where you can get an insight into the important conservation efforts being made here to help protect the African wild dog.

Overnight at Sable Sands Lodge (or similar) including full board.

Distance driven during the day: circa 270km.

The whole day will be spent on safari in Hwange National Park, and without doubt the day will offer some exciting encounters with the local wildlife. Picnic lunch in the park.

Overnight at Sable Sands Lodge (or similar) including full board.

After breakfast we leave Hwange National Park and drive to Victoria Falls. Here we will have a guided tour of this impressive waterfall, which is an incredible sight, no matter which season you visit it in. Huge amounts of water cascade 100m down into the gorge below the falls, which are almost 1.6km wide,  but there is significantly more water in the river during the spring than in the autumn. After checking in to your accommodation we have the rest of the day free. There are plenty of activities available around the falls you can challenge yourself with.

Overnight at Ilala Lodge (or similar) including full board.

Distance driven during the day: circa 190km.

The whole day is at your disposal to explore the area around Victoria Falls. You can book many adrenaline filled activities such as bungy jumping from Victoria Falls Bridge, white water rafting on the lower section on the River Zambezi, or a helicopter tour over the falls. For the slightly less adventurous you can take a boat trip on the Zambezi, go fishing or enjoy an elephant safari. Your guide will of course help you to book any extra activities.

You can also choose to simply relax in the peaceful surroundings of the lodge, or explore the small town of Victoria Falls.

Overnight at Ilala Lodge (or similar) including full board.

After breakfast you will be collected by your driver and taken to the airport to start your journey home. You will fly first to Johannesburg, where you will take an evening departure to Europe. If you are not flying directly to your home airport from Johannesburg,  you will change to another flight in Europe.

After catching connecting flights in Johannesburg and Europe you will arrive back in the early morning.