Day 1 - Flight to Botswana
An easy overnight scheduled flight takes you from the UK, via Johannesburg, to Maun in Botswana where you begin your Classic Botswana Safari.
Includes dinner on the flight.
Days 2 to 4 - Kwara Camp
On arrival in Maun you will transfer to a light aircraft for the flight over the Okavango Delta to the private Kwara Reserve. Seeing the Delta from the air is a real experience and helps you appreciate Botswana's remarkable geography. The Kwara Reserve covers about 1,750km2 of lovely and particularly varied environments at the Okavango's northern edge. During your stay you'll explore a patchwork of deep-water lagoons, open floodplains, dry country scrub and mopane woodland. The usual modus operandi for game drives at Kwara is for an experienced guide and a tracker to run a safari. They will venture off-road and stay out longer than usual when tracking interesting encounters - a method that gets you involved in seeking out hard-to-find animals and often yields spectacular results.
Kwara is a relatively small camp with eight large, en-suite tents dotted along the edge of a tree island, overlooking a floodplain. A comfortable lounge and dining area, shaded by a large jackalberry tree, sits on raised decking overlooking a shallow lagoon that often attracts good numbers of game. Near the swimming pool, a raised viewing deck has been built for an elevated view of the same lagoon. Activities from Kwara Camp include day and night 4WD safari drives on land and trips on the Okavango Delta by mokoro (dug-out canoe) and an unusual double-decker boat. This last gives great views over the papyrus and affords better angles for photographers. This is especially relevant when visiting the Gcodikwe Lagoon where the heronry is a real spectacle from September to around January and you find yourself eye level with nesting open-billed or yellow-billed storks.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Days 5 to 7 - Santantadibe, Okavango Delta
After a morning game drive and something to eat, a 40-minute flight will take you back to Maun where you will be met by Grant Truthe, your private safari guide for the next four days. From here you drive north through rural Botswana, past villages and cattle posts for about 30 minutes before turning onto a remote road to the veterinary fence - separating the wildlife reserves from communal farmland. This is where your game-viewing experience begins. The remainder of your journey to your private Santantadibe mobile camp can take anything from two hours depending on what sights you see on the way.
A team that travels ahead of you will have the camp set up and prepared for your arrival. The team takes on all the camp chores, allowing you the undivided attention of your private safari guide. Meanwhile the camp chef prepares fresh and tasty three-course meals over the fire for you to enjoy at a candle-lit table set with linen, crockery and glasses. It's a combination of first-class guiding with a very comfortable camp.
Santantadibe is one of the more beautiful areas of the Okavango Delta and offers a variety of landscapes to explore, from palm-covered islands to grassy meadows, and mopane woodland to river systems which fill with water after good rains. This is the area of Botswana Grant, your guide, grew up in, so he is immensely knowledgeable about its inhabitants and how to seek them out. There are often herds of buffalo, giraffe and zebra to be found here, along with lion, cheetah, leopard and, occasionally, wild dog. You'll spend your time exploring the reserve on day and night safari drives and, as this is a private reserve, it is possible to drive off road to reach less-accessible game. There is also the opportunity for canoe and motorboat trips - and we recommend you try a spot of fishing during your stay, too!
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 8 - Flight to London
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.
Includes breakfast and lunch. Dinner is on the flight.
Day 9 Arrive in London
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