Day 1 - Flight to Botswana
A scheduled overnight flight takes you from Heathrow Airport in London, via Johannesburg, to Maun in Botswana.
Includes dinner on the flight.
Days 2 to 4 - Nxai Pan National Park
Upon arrival in Maun you will be met at the airport by a transfer guide. Departing in an air-conditioned minibus, you will drive east through rural Botswana, passing villages and cattle posts, before reaching the fence that separates cattle from the wildlife of Nxai Pan National Park. The drive from Maun to the park border lasts around 90-minutes. Your guide and safari vehicle will be waiting to meet you at the point where the tarmac ends and the sandy roads commence - this is where your game viewing experience begins. After a further hour or so drive, depending on what you see, you will arrive at your private mobile safari camp set up on the outskirts of Nxai Pan.
The Kalahari Desert pans such as Nxai Pan are fossilised and covered with short nutritious grasses and stunted acacia trees, creating areas rich in wildlife surrounded by vegetated dune savannahs. This fascinating park is often underrated because of the unpredictability of its game sightings. During the dry season (May to October) there is a good population of springbok, giraffe, gemsbok and a smattering of hartebeest - animals not often seen in the Okavango Delta and Botswana's northern regions. It's also one of the only parks where you'll find impala and springbok grazing side by side.
The best time to visit is during the rainy season (November to April). Soon after the first rainfall the pans and dune valleys fill with nutritious grasses concentrating the areas herbivores. Game numbers are enhanced by a sizeable zebra migration as it returns from time spent further south, deep in the Makgaikgadi National Park. This in turn attracts predators such as the magnificent black-maned Kalahari lions, cheetah and both brown and spotted hyena. Spending time watching a waterhole often yields exciting results!
Close by is an extraordinary beautiful group of trees known as Baines' Baobabs, which stand on an island at a spectacular site on the eastern edge of the Kudiakam Pan. They were immortalised in a painting by Thomas Baines who came here in May 1862 and have altered very little since then. The site around the island has been dated to about 105,000 - 128,000 years old, around which time it stood at the edge of the great super-lake. If time-out from game viewing allows, and the surrounding area is not too boggy from rains, you might be able visit and stand below these magnificent ancient trees.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Days 5 to 7 - Khwai Reserve
Transfer by road from your luxury mobile camp in Nxai Pan to Maun Airport where you board a light aircraft for a 30-minute flight across the Okavango Delta to Khwai. Your destination is a small, semi-permanent tented camp which overlooks the Khwai River and is situated in the Khwai community reserve. The reserve forms the border between northeast Moremi Game Reserve and the private wildlife reserves to the north. It is a lovely area where tall trees line a large floodplain and mopane woodland is broken by open glades. There are no fences dividing Moremi and Khwai so the wildlife passes freely between the two. This pretty region boasts an excellent diversity of prey and predator species. Lion prides are often spotted in the area; your guide is adept at seeking out leopard in the riverine woodland they love; cheetah are occasionally spotted on the outskirts of the floodplain; and wild dog can pass through as they cover their vast terrain.
Whilst here, you stay at the intimate Khwai Tented Camp, sleeping in one of only four smart tents. Each tent has comfortable twin beds and an en suite bathroom with bucket shower and flush toilet. Spend your time exploring with a very knowledgeable guide on safari drives along the riverside where huge crocodiles bask, on a guided walk stopping often to discuss animal spoor and listen to bird calls, and on spot-lit night drives in search of nocturnal species.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 8 - Flight to London
There is time for a final morning activity before a light aircraft takes you back to Maun, ready to catch your scheduled international flight to the UK.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 9 - Arrive in London
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