The last thing you want to see on your African bush safari is more humans than hippos. But in certain parts of Africa, if you can’t afford top dollar outfits you may find yourself cheek by lens with other Nikon-wielding tourists, all surrounding a single hapless lion. Botswana’s Okavango Delta, on the other hand, offers safari in a more intimate setting. Nestled between the sands of the Kalahari and the rampant tourism of Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls, Botswana is an oasis of calm, filled with enrapturing landscapes and blessedly few people. The size of France, the country has only 1.5-million people but one of the largest elephant herds on the continent. A strict policy of high quality, low-volume tourism has helped to preserve wildlife and has kept the Okavango Delta almost completely pristine. Even so, a privately guided tour can cost as little as $350 (per person) for four days, if you bring your own food. Locals have control over which guides operate in the Okavango, ensuring keen attention to the local environment and communities.
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Africa usually conjures images of rolling open plains or dense jungles, but here the attraction is water. Fed by the Okavango River, which runs out of Angola, the delta spreads like a watery palm frond over almost 10,000 square miles before drying out in the Kalahari. There are few roads in, so a bush-plane is the preferred mode of transport. In under an hour, you’ll get from a bar stool in Maun (a frontier town turned tourist gateway, about a 90-minute flight from Gaborone, Botswana’s capital) to the backcountry.
Once in the delta, set up in Gunn’s Camp, a way station that has accommodations ranging from basic (bring your own tent) to deluxe (triple-walled tents with Plexiglas windows and high-backed chairs out front). The local guide will take you game-viewing on various islands in the delta both on foot and in a mokoro—a long, thin, poled canoe.
In a place that’s more water than terra firma, hippos top lions as the biggest threat. With tusks up to two feet long, they have been known to attack canoes—in one instance, splitting a mokoro in half and sending two terrified guests into the silty water. Only a guide’s dexterity saved their lives.
After spending the night in Gunn’s Camp, you’ll set out through the delta past hippos, buffalo and crocodiles, and eventually stop on one of the many small islands to set up camp for the night. Over the next few days, follow your guide on foot along the island’s game trails, hunting the hunters in the cool of dawn, then move by mokoro to another island for a new camp and more game walks. Stalking lions, wildebeest, elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffalo and impala on foot is a riveting experience. Knowing you are low on the food chain, and exposed, heightens your senses in a way that buzzing along in a Jeep cannot. When the day heats up, you head back to camp to relax and take a swim in the languid river. As evening draws near and the sun’s intensity fades, you venture out for another game walk, till the light has disappeared. As the stars light up the African sky and you stare into your campfire, you have a sense of what being a part of the land means for the people who live here. Camped by the water’s edge, you fall asleep to the sound of lions calling out hunting ranges to one another.
During the rainy season—November to March—the rivers of the delta swell and spread out, and lush, high grass covers the ground, making game more difficult to spot. Late summer and fall is the best time for safari in Botswana, when the broad swamps dry up and game is more easily seen.
Based in Botswana, Bathusi has an experienced and knowledgeable staff of guides and coordinators. BATHUSI has been planning safari itineraries since 1989, and boasts a small but highly motivated team of travel professionals. With a collective 50 years experience we’re on the ball, know where it’s happening and most important of all, we know how to offer it to you. With access to a large pool of specialised personnel, BATHUSITravel & Safaris effectively books the best possible team to undertake your safari...
Okavango Delta is an unique wetland covering 13000 square kilometres of Botswana’s north western region. The annual flooding of the Okavango is regulated by rainfall experienced in the southern highlands of Angola. The Okavango is protected as part of the Moremi Game Reserve and other game management areas, accessible only in some parts to visitors.
BATHUSI Offer you the Perfect Balance of Adventure and Comfort -- Exploration, Relaxation and Outstanding Gameviewing in Comfortable Mobile Camps. BATHUSI provide: * IATA Qualified Travel Consultants * Experienced Safari Co-ordinators * Multi-lingual Interpreters * Licenced Professional Guides * Cultural Tour Experts * VIP Safari Hosts * Private Pilot/ Guides.
Contact BATHUSI Travel & Safaris
Riley's Garage Complex, Private Bag 44, Maun, Botswana
Phone: ++ 267 660647
Fax: ++ 267 660647
e-mail: bathusi@info.bw
Website: http://www.info.bw/~bathusi/
Africa Travel Centre has created the nonprofit African Wildlife Conservation (AWC) to provide a forum for information exchange and focus on African environmental issues. Africa Travel Centre:
Best Time to Visit
Most non-desert destinations have good game viewing year round, however, May - August is the most comfortable time to travel with temperatures ranging between 45 and 85 degrees. This is the ideal time to visit because it is also the dry season sighting distances increase as vegetation recedes. The desert regions have the best viewing from December to May.
Contact Africa Travel Center
P.O. Box 1918 / Boulder Co 80306
Tel: 303-473-0950 or 800 361 8024
E-mail safaris@africatvl.com
Website: http://www.africatvl.com/
Nearing it's 25th year in business, Wilderness Travel has been operating in Botswana for over 20 years. Stanley Dube was born and raised in Zimbabwe on the edge of Hwange National Park, where his natural affinity for the wildlife began at an early age. After attending Gwanda Teachers College in 1985, he taught African languages and history in Bulawayo. In 1995, he began his apprentice guide training in Zimbabwe’s Matusadona National Park and earned his full Zimbabwe Guides Licence in 1998. He later moved to Botswana to further his career and has held a Botswana Guides Licence since 2004. Stanley is a keen birder and speaks fluent English, Ndebele, and Tswana.
One of the major wilderness sanctuaries of Africa, the Okavango is the largest inland delta system in the world. The 800-mile-long Okavango is “the river that never finds the sea,” disappearing into a remarkable maze of lagoons, channels, and islands to create the vast Okavango Delta. Wilderness Travel Botswana Private Journey offers a fantastic safari from Okavango to Chobe National Park.
In the Linyanti Game Reserve (bordering Chobe National Park), Wilderness Travel camps and luxurious game lodges offer easy access into the heart of Botswana’s vast wilderness, serene settings in riverine forests and grasslands, a delightful contrast to the Okavango Delta. The camps have luxurious, raised, tented rooms under thatch with private facilities, indoor and outdoor showers, and plunge pools. Thrilling game tracking by open vehicle, safaris by riverboat and mokoro, and game walks with your naturalist guide are complemented by stays in premium luxury camps. In the heart of the lush Okavango Delta, search for wildlife by 4WD and mokoro (dugout canoe). An exclusive private reserve on fabled Chobe National Park’s western edge, Linyanti’s riverine forests, grasslands, and waterholes along the Savuti Channel are habitat for zebra, giraffe, buffalo, lion, wild dog, hyena, hippo, and more. Explore on guided walks, by 4WD, and from special gameviewing hides.
Contact Wilderness Travel
1102 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
Toll free: 1-800-368-2794, Local: 1-510-558-2488, Fax: 1-510-558-2489
Website: http://www.wildernesstravel.com/
