Day 1 - Maun to Santantadibe
Your private safari guide will be at Maun Airport to welcome you on arrival, usually in the late morning. Alternatively, if you spent the previous night in Maun as part of a longer Botswana safari, your knowledgeable guide will meet you at your accommodation after breakfast.
From Maun you drive north for about an hour through rural Botswana, passing villages and cattle posts, before reaching the veterinary cordon fence that separates wildlife from cattle. This is where your game-viewing experience begins. The remainder of your journey to the Santantadibe Mobile Camp usually takes about two and a half hours, maybe longer depending on what wildlife you stop to look at on the way. The Okavango Delta's exceptional flood in 2010 altered the terrain in some places and navigating the affected areas could mean an extended road transfer taking up to twice as long.
As this is a community area, visitors can gain a real insight into how local Botswana people continue to live in harmony with the bush. You will pass villages as you drive deeper into the reserve and may see villagers out fishing or cutting reeds for their huts.
The camping safari team will travel ahead of you to set up the camp and have everything prepared for your arrival. The tents are pitched in the shade of tall jackalberry and sausage trees, overlooking open marshy plains and a natural waterhole.
Includes lunch and dinner.
Days 2 & 3 - Santantadibe, Okavango Delta
The private Santantadibe reserve is dotted with palm-covered islands and the river systems of the Okavango Delta which fill with water after good rains. Herds of buffalo and giraffe can be found here, along with lion, cheetah, leopard and, occasionally, wild dog.
You spend the next two days exploring the area with your private camping safari guide. This is the place where he grew up, so he knows it intimately and is immensely informative about the resident wildlife. As this is a community reserve rather than a national park, it is possible to drive off road to reach less-accessible game, to explore slowly on a guided walk, or to search for nocturnal animals on a night drive - as well, of course, as doing the usual and rewarding game drives by day. Further options include fishing - bring fresh bream back for dinner! - and excursions by canoe. In canoes you can glide along the waterways of Botswana's Okavango Delta without disturbing the wildlife, listening out for the plop of a thumb-sized frog hopping into the stream, or papyrus rustling in the breeze - sounds that would be drowned out by the engine of a motorboat.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 4 - Santantadibe to Maun
After a leisurely breakfast, you begin your game drive back towards the vet cordon fence and the end of the wildlife reserve. You reach Maun Airport in time for your scheduled homeward flight to the UK; or, if you are combining this with another Botswana safari, you will be transferred to your next accommodation.
Includes breakfast and lunch.
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