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Highlights of this Owl Safari holiday to Botswana include Moremi Game Reserve, where a variety of
environs - including riverine forest, lagoons and open savannah - create a home for a dazzling array of
wildlife; the unique Okavango Delta with its papyrus channels and floating reed beds; Chobe
National Park where the mysterious Savuti Marsh lies; with the sight of the majestic Victoria
Falls as a grand finale. It is a fully inclusive camping safari, using en-suite tents and mobile camps.
As well as game drives, you have the opportunity to walk and to explore tranquil channels by boat.
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Pel's Fishing Owl Safari Summary:
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| Day 1 |
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Flight to Botswana |
| Day 2 |
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Maun, lodge |
| Day 3, 4 & 5 |
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Moremi Game Reserve, mobile camp |
| Day 6 & 7 |
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Khwai area, mobile camp |
Day 8, 9 & 10 |
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Savuti, mobile camp |
| Day 11 & 12 |
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Chobe river front, mobile camp |
| Day 13 |
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Livingstone, hotel |
| Day 14 |
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Flight to London |
| Day 15 |
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Arrive in London |
NB: On some dates this itinerary may run in reverse from Livingstone to Maun.
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DETAILED ITINERARY:
Day 1 – Flight to Botswana
Scheduled overnight flight from London, via Johannesburg, to Maun: the gateway to the Okavango Delta.
Day 2 – Maun
On arrival you are met and driven to Motsentsela Tree Lodge, where you can relax after your flight. This
delightful tented lodge is situated on a small private game farm on the outskirts of Maun: you could spend the
afternoon by the pool or stroll around some of the property’s marked nature trails. The reserve is home to game
species including springbok, kudu, zebra and giraffe.
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Day 3 – Moremi Game Reserve
There is time for a leisurely breakfast at Motsentsela before your transfer back to Maun in the late morning.
Here you will meet the rest of the group and your guide before heading north to the Moremi Game Reserve and the
real beginning of your holiday adventure to Botswana.
After approximately an hour and a half’s drive, passing through various villages, you will reach South Gate, the
southern entrance to Moremi Game Reserve. After a picnic lunch, your game viewing begins. You will travel through
various landscapes including open plains, thickets and mopane woodland on the way to your private campsite at
Xakanaxa. The camp crew will have arrived before you, to make your mobile camp ready to welcome you when you
arrive just in time for sundowners.
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Day 4 & 5 – Moremi Game Reserve
The Okavango Delta is a unique ecosystem, an inland delta situated in the middle of the largest stretch of
continuous sand in the world – the Kalahari basin. In 1962 the local BaTawana people set aside a third of the
Okavango Delta to protect for the future. They called this the Moremi Game Reserve, and it now forms the core
of the region’s reserves. Moremi encompasses a large area of the Okavango Delta’s eastern wetlands. The main
dry peninsula that juts into the Delta here is known as the Mopane Tongue and it is at the tip of this tongue
that the Xakanaxa Lagoon lies.
Where land and delta meet, a patchwork of lagoons, grasslands, forests and pans provide an extremely rich and
diverse habitat in which a multitude of animals flourish. Leopard and cheetah are regularly seen and the
density of antelope is amazing. The area’s birdlife is exceptionally varied, from innumerable herons, egrets,
storks and other waders to many species of harrier, buzzard and kite.
Spend time exploring this lush and diverse reserve with your guide. Plan your days like the predators; rising
early to seek out your quarry, resting in the middle of the day, and then heading out again in the
mid-afternoon.
On one of your days here, an early-morning game drive takes you to the Xakanaxa boat station from where you
will travel deep into the heart of the Okavango Delta. You will spend the day exploring the endless network
of crystal-clear waterways and secret lagoons by motor boat, and may venture onto one of the surrounding
palm-fringed islands on foot. Today’s mode of transport allows you a different view of this unique habitat.
Boating through papyrus channels might reveal crocodiles basking on logs, a perching fish eagle or a pair of
fishing otters; shallow reed beds and flood plains provide security for red lechwe and the elusive sitatunga;
or you may spot a rare Pel’s fishing owl roosting deep under the cover of a jackalberry tree.
Day 6 & 7 – Khwai Community Area
From Xakanaxa you game-drive your way north-east towards the Khwai community area and your private mobile
camp here. The Khwai River forms a boundary between Moremi and the community area. Although the animals don’t
know the difference, being outside the boundaries of a national park allows you to go on night drives and
guided walks.
This is a lovely area where tall evergreen trees line a wide floodplain. You could spend the morning driving
along the waterline where huge crocodiles bask and herds of buffalo come to drink. After your midday siesta
it is well worth setting out from camp on a guided walk for an up-close and personal encounter with the
smaller aspects of Botswana’s flora and fauna. Then your day could end with a spot-lit drive in search of the
nocturnal animals that you’ll rarely encounter during the day – there’s a particularly good chance of seeing
leopard.
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Day 8 – Savuti
Begin the day with a last game drive along the banks of the Khwai River before turning north towards Savuti
in the Chobe National Park. Stop for a picnic lunch and rest in the cool shade of a tree halfway through this
long day’s drive. Although many of the animals seek respite in the shade during the middle of the day, keep
an eye out for birds as you’re heading into drier regions and the varieties will change. Arriving at your
camp in the mid afternoon, you have time to stretch your legs and relax before a short evening drive.
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Day 9 & 10 – Savuti
Chobe National Park covers about 11,700km2 of the northern Kalahari. Key to the Savuti area is the mysterious
Savuti Channel, which sometimes flows from the Linyanti’s waterways and into the heart of the Chobe National
Park, flooding the Savuti Marsh. The channel’s flow is unpredictable: it has appeared and then dried up
several times over the past few centuries. The marsh has been dry since 1981 and now forms a vast, open
grassland dotted with the skeletons of drowned trees. The Savuti sand ridge and volcanic hills (unusual in
Botswana’s flat landscape) are also unique to this area.
Much game passes through Savuti on annual migrations between Botswana’s dry interior and the rivers of the
north and west – attracted by the area’s particularly nutritious grasses. Some animals maintain permanent
territories here: leopard are always plentiful around the granite kopjies, the packs of spotted hyena and
prides of lion are notoriously large and a cohort of old bull elephants is always around. Activity often
concentrates on Savuti’s three waterholes, and in the past few years the large lion prides here have made a
speciality of killing sub-adult elephants.
Drives with your guide will help you to get the best out of this area, whether visiting new territory each
time or perhaps returning to the site of a kill or a pack of resting wild dogs before they set out on a hunt.
Day 11 & 12 – Chobe River Front
Leaving the parched landscape of Savuti behind, you will travel north-east to the contrasting river-front
region of Chobe National Park. The far north of the park, bordering the Chobe River which forms the border
between Namibia and Botswana, has long been renowned for its dense game. The lion are common and nonchalant,
the antelope prolific, and the herds of elephant and buffalo among the largest anywhere.
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Over the years this river-front area has become increasingly popular and quite busy. Your private mobile camp
will be set up in a less frequented area of the park, thus giving you the best opportunity to enjoy the wildlife
in the area without sharing your sightings.
On the final afternoon we take you on a stunning boat cruise on the Chobe River: enjoy the coolness of being on
the water while spotting the colourful water-birds, from fish eagles to a multitude of herons and waders. Also
you can watch the procession of animals that come to the river to drink, and there’s a good chance of seeing some
sizeable hippos and crocodiles.
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Day 13 – Livingstone, Zambia
After breakfast and a final morning game drive, your guide takes you to Kasane Airport where the safari ends.
You are met here for a transfer that begins with a boat ride across the confluence of the Zambezi and Chobe
Rivers. Here Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe all meet. You land on the north bank, in Zambia, from
where it’s a swift drive to Livingstone and your accommodation at the Zambezi Sun Hotel beside the mighty
Victoria Falls. The afternoon is free for you to relax or walk through the falls park alongside this
magnificent waterfall. Dinner will be at your own expense.
Day 14 – Flight to London
From the hotel you will be transferred to Livingstone Airport in time for your departing flight, via
Johannesburg, to London.
Day 15 – Arrive in London
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Find out more about this safari on the general
Owl Safaris
page.
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Departures:
Cost is per person sharing, departing and returning UK
There is a single supplement of £245.
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| 29/03/09 - 13/04/09 | £3313 | | 01/04/09 - 16/04/09 | £3779 | | 11/04/09 - 26/04/09 | £3815 | | 30/04/09 - 15/05/09 | £3646 | | 03/05/09 - 18/05/09 | £3313 | | 10/05/09 - 25/05/09 | £3683 | | 13/05/09 - 28/05/09 | £3276 | | 01/06/09 - 16/06/09 | £3276 | | 04/06/09 - 19/06/09 | £3646 | | 11/06/09 - 26/06/09 | £3276 | | 14/06/09 - 29/06/09 | £3683 | | 03/07/09 - 18/07/09 | £3313 | | 04/08/09 - 19/08/09 | £3555 | | 07/08/09 - 22/08/09 | £3961 | | 14/08/09 - 29/08/09 | £3445 | | 18/08/09 - 02/09/09 | £3961 | | 05/09/09 - 20/09/09 | £3815 | | 19/09/09 - 04/10/09 | £3445 | | 07/10/09 - 22/10/09 | £3779 | | 10/10/09 - 25/10/09 | £3779 | | 08/11/09 - 23/11/09 | £3815 | | 11/11/09 - 26/11/09 | £3409 | | 18/11/09 - 03/12/09 | £3779 | | 21/11/09 - 06/12/09 | £3445 | | 10/12/09 - 25/12/09 | £3807 | | | | | | |
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This itinerary can be downloaded from our Downloads Page
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