Day 1 - Flight to Botswana
Begin your safari with a scheduled overnight flight from London, via Johannesburg in South Africa, to Maun in Botswana.
Dinner is included on the flight.
Day 2 - Maun
On arrival you are met and driven to the delightful Thamalakane River Lodge situated on the outskirts of Maun. Overnight in comfortable stone and thatch en suite chalets overlooking the river from which the lodge gets its name. This is a lovely spot to relax and acclimatise before your drive into the Central Kalahari the following morning. Although lunch and dinner is not included in the price here, there is a bar and restaurant with a view that offers tasty meals.
Includes breakfast on the flight.
Day 3 - Deception Valley Lodge
After an early breakfast, you are met by your safari guide and set out past villages and cattle posts to the borders of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve on a fairly long drive lasting about five hours. Your destination is the relatively luxurious Deception Valley Lodge situated on a private game farm bordering the Kalahari Reserve. You'll stay in stylish thatch chalets each with an en suite and linked to the main area by wooden boardwalks. There is a substantial amount of wildlife on this well established desert game farm and in the late afternoon there might be time to experience one of the activities offered here: day and night safari drives or a bushman walk.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Days 4 to 7 - Central Kalahari Game Reserve
This morning, after following the Central Kalahari reserve fence line for a while, you'll enter the game reserve. After stopping for a picnic lunch en route, you safari drive your way to were your comfortable mobile camp is already set up and waiting your arrival.
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the ultimate in remote destinations. It covers over 50,000kmē, most of which is inaccessible with only a few game drive tracks making the northern sector reachable to safari goers. The reserve was, until very recently, closed to the public, although there have always been small groups of Bushmen living here. The best-known account of this area of Botswana is the haunting book Cry of the Kalahari, written by American biologists Mark and Delia Owens about their research in Deception Valley - well worth a read before visiting here.
Despite what is generally said the Kalahari isn't a desert but rather a vast sand-sheet, a fossil desert, now largely covered in bushes, trees and grasses. Fortunately man hasn't yet found a use for all this sand, so most of the Kalahari remains untouched, as it has been for about 65 million years.
Within the Kalahari, Deception Valley is a fossil riverbed of fine clay, flanked by petrified dunes. When the rains arrive in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, they herald a short period when ancient river valleys like this one break out in new growth of nutritious grasses. This attracts huge herds of springbok, oryx and zebra from all over the park, creating a short yet incredibly prolific period of wildlife viewing. During this time you may also see large congregations of ostrich, giraffe and wildebeest, as well as cheetah and the Kalahari's famous black-maned lions. Leopard and brown hyena are also resident, though rarely seen. All of this combines to create some really outstanding game viewing - and it's witnessed by remarkably few people! On at least one of the days spent here before you travel to the Okavango Delta your safari guide takes you on a full-day safari drive, with a picnic lunch, to explore areas further afield such as Piper's Pan and the Letiahau Valley.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Days 8 & 9- Moremi, Okavango Delta
From the Central Kalahari it is around a six-hour drive back to Maun, where you transfer to light aircraft for a short flight (about 25 minutes) into Botswana's Okavango Delta. Your destination is Xigera (pronounced 'keejera'), a private and permanently flooded area inside Moremi Game Reserve. In stark contrast to the Kalahari Desert, you'll find a profusion of plant and animal life here, within a paradise of remote islands ringed by clear-water channels.
Although there is wildlife in the area, including red lechwe, the rare sitatunga antelope and elephant, it isn't the main focus of your safari visit. You come to Xigera to experience one of the Okavango Delta's lushest and most tropical areas, and to seek out the spectacular birdlife. Spend your time exploring the waterways by mokoro (traditional dug-out canoe used by some Botswana tribes) or motorboat. Expect to see numerous herons, egrets, cranes and smaller water-birds - and sometimes the occasional rarity like the Pel's fishing owl.
Xigera Camp is a permanent tented camp situated in a lush riverine forest in the heart of the Okavango Delta. Each room is raised off the ground on a wooden deck, and has views over the seasonal floodplain and waterhole.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 10 - Flight to London
After a final morning safari activity and a relaxed breakfast you will leave the Okavango Delta and fly back to Maun by light aircraft. Here you bid farewell to your safari guide and catch your scheduled flight home.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 11 - Arrive in London
Arrive home after a great safari visiting two contrasting wildlife areas in Botswana - the Central Kalahari desert and the Okavango Delta.
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