Itinerary

1. Day 1: Maun to Boteti River

   •  Meet the tour guide after having your breakfast and leave for Maun. (Our exact departure time depends on the commercial airline schedules and will be confirmed closer to the time of your safari. Therefore we leave for the moment. The finer details of departure until your flight time of arrival are confirmed. Departure timeline we can easily adjust accordingly.)
   • Travel south through the dry savannahs and grazing lands to our lodge on the banks of this watercourse, with brief stops. We arrive in time for lunch at our lodge, and soon after, we begin exploring these important, life-supporting waterways and an important wildlife migration route between seasons. During the rainy season (Jan - Mar), you may be lucky to witness the Zebra migration that happens here annually. 
   • Experience the culture tour with a visit to the Khumaga Village and take a guided nature walk in the area surrounding the lodge. It is a chance to enjoy sundowners overlooking the seasonal Boteti River. As Zebra and Wildebeest migrate from North to South and East to West, following seasonal rain and nourishing pasture, the Boteti River and Khumaga area literally come back to life and are full of activities. It's truly a magnet for all life around there and is a key part of the zebra migration within Botswana - which moves from as far north as the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta to the short grass regions around Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans to the east and south. The Boteti River itself is not a permanently flowing system, as it depends almost entirely on the push of water from the Okavango Delta and the Thamalakane River of Maun. Whatever the levels, it provides vital water to the animals in the park as well as to community livestock in the area. A wide array of birdlife inhabits the river and scrubland areas. Bee-eaters, Goliath Herons, Terns and even the rare Wattled Crane can be sighted. Fish Eagles and Pied Kingfishers are always evident. In the Acacia woodlands, owlets are frequently heard and seen. Therefore, giving you an experience of its own kind, coupled with a visit to the local community to experience and enjoy their rich culture, traditional foods and dances.
   • Return back to the camp/lodge for dinner and a restful first night in the bushlands of Botswana.

   Main destination: Boteti River waterways. Accomodation options available and proposed.
   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

2. Day 2: Boteti River to Central Kalahari Game Reserve

   • Wake up early and depart after breakfast for the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, where our base for the next three nights has been set up in this extensive game reserve; Our drive takes us through dry savannahs into the vast, harsh beauty of the famous Kalahari Desert. 
   • Arrive in time for lunch at our remote camp for a hearty meal prepared by our cook and check into your en-suite tented camps, which are set up, ready, and waiting for us. Kalahari is home to the renowned Kalahari lions and the nomadic San people; the 52800 km game reserve is the second largest in the world. The riverine valleys of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve landscape are ancient dried-up rivers. After a little rain, these extinct river valleys and the vast scrub savannah plains are flush with green grasses, attracting huge herds of antelope, wildebeest, zebra, springbok, and gemsbok in search of nutrition. We'll see many pans - ancient flat lakebeds, contrasting vividly with the savannah scrub. After a light lunch, there is time to settle in, rest and relax before your afternoon game drive. 
   • Drive to local watering holes, searching for the best opportunities for you to spot the amazing range of wildlife that survives in the harsh sun-scorched and stark environment; as the vast African skies light up at sunset.
   • Explore this vast park till sunset and enjoy a leisurely drive back to the camp. Returning to camp, we have the luxury of a hot shower awaiting in your en-suite bathroom before you enjoy a sumptuous three-course dinner. We chat under the huge open star-filled skies, listening to the bark of the Kalahari gecko and all the other sounds of the bush around us as we assemble at the campfire, comparing notes of the day's events and encounters as we map up our activities for the next day. 
   • Retire to bed early tonight to be able to rise early for the dawn game drives.

   Main destination: Central Kalahari National Park

   Accomodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

3. Day 3: Central Kalahari

   • Rise up early, and we find breakfast and lunches already packed for day-long activities. 
   • Leave before breakfast, but tea/ coffee is served with some light snacks to awaken you up for the morning drive. 
   • Venture out early when animals are still active before they go for cover from the heat of the scorching sun. At 0900hrs, we find a scenic place where we can have our bush breakfast as we view the vastness of the Kalahari landscape, with all its spectacular beauty.
   • Start exploring the unspoiled and unforgettable landscapes of the Central Kalahari on early morning and evening game drives, taking lunch and time to relax at base camp in between. You may see the famous black-maned Kalahari lions as we explore the fossilized river valleys of Deception Valley and Passarge Valley. 
   • Visit Sundays Pan, a vast crater-like pan surrounded by high dunes and dotted with islands of acacia trees which the animals use for shelter in the mid-day heat. Cheetahs, leopards and brown hyenas are other predators attracted by the game here, and you may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the endangered African wild dogs. This extraordinary cultural safari offers an insight into the culture and history of the Kalahari's oldest inhabitants, the San People (Bushman), the first people of Africa. Combined with game drives and wildlife viewing in the largest game reserve in Botswana.
   • Go on an educational nature exploration walk in the afternoon guided by the traditional San people/Bushmen hunters and wildlife trackers. This is a total learning experience, as we will learn about the ways of tracking and bush-craft, the medicinal use of plants and of the oldest hunter/gatherer cultures in the world. This evening you are in for another treat. 
   • Experience the tribal dance of the San people around a blazing campfire. It is a way of teaching their children and a way of telling stories through movement. Our evenings are spent chatting around the campfire with drinks after a luxurious dinner, in the timeless African tradition at around the campfire, and soaking up the solitude of the vast, untouched wilderness of the Central Kalahari.

4. Day 4: Central Kalahari - Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

   • Wake up this morning to a hearty breakfast. After breakfast, you will leave the Central Kalahari and go to Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
   • Drive northeast to the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Our journey takes us past lunar landscapes - the shorelines of the salt pans formed as Lake Makgadikgadi slowly evaporated into smaller and smaller lakes millennia ago. The Makgadikgadi Pans – actually a group of separate pans - form the largest salt pan system in the world and cover over 16 000km² of the Kalahari basin. Each year after the first rains, these vast, inhospitable pans are the site of one of the largest wildlife migrations in Africa, the spectacular Mkgadikgadi-Nxai zebra migration. After checking into our camp, lunch is served.
   • Embark on this spectacular moment of scenic landscapes and wildlife. We will spend our next two days venturing out into endless horizons.
   • Return back to the camp for dinner and overnight. And an evening assembly at the campfire as we have, the sparkling beauty under the African skies.

5. Day 5: Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP) and Nxai Pan National Park

   • See the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP) and Nxai Pan National Park. Both are physically and ecologically connected and are part of the "Kalahari Desert," being very dry for most of the year. The Makgadikgadi Pans are the remains of a former "super-lake" that dried up due to changing climatic and geographical conditions. The deepest parts of the lake are now completely barren, moon-like salt flats, devoid of visible life – supporting no vegetation at all. Parts of this salt pan system are surprisingly full of life and fortunately have been protected in the form of National Parks with infrastructure, including private and remote campsites, which we've full access and explore the prolific wildlife found in this pan, both resident's animals, adapted with the desert environment as well as thousands of migration animals that happens during the rainy season. The salt pans are incredibly large, and the areas outside of these parks are also worth visiting. We, therefore, will cover the "Greater" Makgadikgadi area. Desert-adapted antelope like springbok and gemsbok (oryx) occur in good numbers, as well as decent populations of giraffes, elephants and other general game. Predators, too, are generally thriving in the well-protected core areas of these parks. You'll like this region because it remains largely untouched and provides intrepid visitors with adventure, unique wildlife sightings and even more unique landscapes.

6. Day 6: Makgadikgadi Park / Nxai Pan and the Bushmen

   • Wake up this morning and prepare for another encounter with the local community, a moment to step out of the safari vehicle and with the guidance of the local Bush men, we begin to trek to the vast land on foot, gazing out onto the salt pans. Even after two days, it's still a sight to behold. We just can't get enough of it, the endless stretches of the Kalahari Desert and the shimmering salt pans of Makgadikgadi and Nxai pan. A sparsely populated place and home to fascinating tribes. Here we meet the Bushmen, thought to be one of the oldest cultures in the world, whose lifestyle has remained largely unchanged since the Middle Stone Age.
   • Step into the heart of this refreshingly untouched destination, embark on a trip into the vast lands of Botswana Game Reserve and experience Nxai Pan with its famous Baines Baobabs. Amid the huge, hostile desert are springbok, impala, gemsbok, giraffe, kudu, hartebeest, zebra, and wildebeest.
   • Look out for the lions, bat-eared foxes, African wild dogs, and brown hyenas who are never far from their prey. We will also pay a visit to the amazing seven Baines Baobabs, which are over 1000 years old - the same trees that Thomas Baines painted when he travelled to Botswana in 1865.
   • Experience camping in the pure wilderness as we explore nature in its raw form and witness the game up close and have a personal experience on this exciting safari. You're most likely to encounter herds of elephants than a vehicle, it sounds like losing yourself in the midst of nowhere. But this is the everyday life of the indigenous Bushmen. Today we'll head into the bush on foot, picking a path with a Bushman guiding the way, showing you the only life they know. These indigenous hunter-gatherers have harmoniously survived in this environment for millennia, and their skills continue to be passed down through the generations. There are clues everywhere. But you have to stop and look to follow the scent. In comparison, the Bushmen can nimbly follow a trail without ever breaking stride. This is a very rare opportunity to spend a day with small tribes scattered across the Kalahari desert ecosystem; who are as culturally different from you as it's possible to be. 
   • Check out their fur and hide clothes, and see their semi-nomadic huts as you admire their ability to survive in what you may consider a harsh environment. Indeed, it's, but that's life to them. It's an intimate and awesome experience, and it's impossible not to glow in admiration at the different reasons why people want to get lost in Botswana's landscapes.
   • Drive back to our camp for refreshing. Dinner and overnight at the comfort of your camp. We take our usual evening moments around the campfire to take stock of our itinerary, what we did, and what to focus on as we widen up our stay in this place in Makgadikgadi Pans and Nxai pan.

   Main destination: Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans

   Accomodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

7. Day 7: Makgadikgadi / Nxai Pan - Maun - Moremi Game Reserve

   • Have breakfast. We're leaving the amazing contrasts of the Makgadikgadi and Nxai pans behind us. We head for Maun this morning after breakfast, en route to the famous Okavango Delta. In Maun, you'll experience the local flavours of Botswana at a restaurant where we have lunch. 
   • Set off to our next adjacent to the Moremi Game Reserve, in a private concession of the Khwai area. A seemingly endless maze of lakes, waterways and rivers, covering up to 18 000 square kilometres, the Okavango Delta is a watery, green contrast to the harsh, stark beauty of the plains. For the next two days, we dive deeply into the spectacular scenery and rich wildlife of the unique ecosystem of the Okavango Delta. You will get a chance to take a two and half hour mokoro trip, exploring the delta by water. The mokoro, a traditional dug-out canoe, is propelled by your expert guide/riders standing with a pole behind you. This once-in-a-lifetime mokoro safari gives you a really close-up view of the Okavango Delta. As you're steered through the reeds along the narrow channels, keep your eyes open for animals, birds and small creatures. You could spot red lechwe or sitatunga in the water or hidden on a papyrus raft and, of course, herds of elephants grazing in this vast Okavango Delta Ecosystem. 
   • Get up close to an elephant drinking from the shores as you silently navigate the Okavango Delta channels. At sundowner, we drive back to our camp to wine and dine, welcomed to a hearty and tasty dinner at the dining tent. We'll then assemble at the campfire as we take stock of the day's activities, what we missed and what to focus on in our search as we map out the next day's game drive and day's activities. Having done our introductory game viewing, we sit back around the flickering campfire under the stars - the perfect way to end your day on safari in Bush. 

   Main destination: Okavango Delta

   Accomodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

8. Day 8: Moremi Game Reserve

   • Wake up early in the morning for dawn game drive when the animals are very active before most go into hiding from the scorching sun. Therefore, there are the best moments we can spot in a real-time big cat hunting experience. 
   • Leave at 0600hrs before breakfast and return back to the camp for a full breakfast, but tea/coffee with some snacks is served to wake you up for the morning activities. 
   • Return back at 0900hrs when breakfast is served. After breakfast, with packed lunches, we embark on a full-day exclusive game drives in this vast game reserve; Moremi, situated in the central and eastern areas of the Okavango Delta and boasts diverse ecosystems ranging from floodplains, lagoons, grasslands and riverine to Mophane woodlands. Therefore, a diverse spectrum of wildlife comes with this wide variety of vegetation. Your days will be spent searching for the wide variety of wildlife and birds that this area is renowned for, in the midst of this spectacular wild side of Botswana, absorbing the sounds and beauty of the African wilderness at its best indigenous state. Expect to encounter huge herds of buffaloes and elephants in the Mophane scrub, and keep an eye on the elusive African wild dogs, lions, and leopards, among others. You're also certain to encounter birds of prey on this safari drive, such as the mighty Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle, the majestic African Fish Eagle and that incredible aviator–the Bateleur and many others.

   Main destination: Moremi Game Reserve (Okavango Delta)

   Accomodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

9. Day 9: Chobe National Park

   • Wake up early in the morning to freshen up with a cup of tea or coffee and some snacks. And at 0600 hrs, leave for the dawn game drive, with the rare opportunities to spot most of the nocturnal animals, the big cats, lions, cheetahs, and leopards, amongst others, in real-time hunting for their prey. 
   • Return to the camp where full breakfast is served. With picnic lunch boxes, we depart Moremi and head to Chobe National Park with enroute game. This area has the largest population of elephants in the world, and seeing several hundred a day is normal; expect them to visit the camp. The area has one of the densest animal concentrations in Africa. It expects to watch many different species: roan antelope, sable antelope, puku, red lechwe, and giraffes are commonly seen, and the possibility of seeing lions - leopards - wild dogs is high. Chobe never disappoints. There's always something out there to make every moment special and out of the ordinary. An action-packed scenery, with prolific wildlife and birdlife, is found in this spectacular place. Lunch is served in camp, or we can opt to have picnic lunch boxes to give us more time to see the most and especially in the afternoon when we make short drives along the Chobe riverbank, as this is the opportune time most animals come to the river to drink. Chobe National Park, tucked up in Botswana's far northeastern border with Namibia, Chobe National Park is one of the great wildlife destinations of Africa. At approximately 11,900 square–kilometres, Chobe is made up of rich ecosystems and pristine landscapes consisting of savanna plains, rivers, swamps and scrub. With these varied environments and habitats, Chobe provides a magnificent array of wildlife. It is the ultimate haven for vast herds of elephants – as many as 120,000 of the animals depend on the Chobe River's life-sustaining waterways when the dry season kicks in. Other resident game species are large herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, the rare puku, roan and sable antelopes. These are normally trailed by the notoriously fearless lions of the Chobe, leopard and cheetah, amongst other wildlife. 
   • Explore the Chobe River and make an extensive game drive along its borders until late afternoon; at Sundowner, we drive our camp in time for dinner, we check in and refresh, and the dinner is served. After dinner, we enjoy our last campfire of this safari at Chobe, where we shall conclude our main adventure goals with one last experience at the magnificent Chobe the following morning.
   • Retire to our respective luxury tents, with our minds filled with action-packed memories replying to a sweet silent night in the African Bush.

   Main destination: Chobe National Park

   Accomodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

   Meal plan (FB) full-board: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

10. Day 10: Departure

    • Wake up very early to enjoy a breakfast prepared by our safari chef. After your breakfast, you will take our last enroute game drive through Chobe National Park as you head out to Kasane. Chobe is one of the best places to see and photograph Roan and Sable Antelopes. Puku Antelope occurs nowhere else in southern Africa but only on the Chobe floodplains. On the other hand, the massive herds of African Buffalo roaming the vast Chobe are constantly flanked by the ever–hungry lions of the Chobe. Our safari ends around mid-day upon reaching Kasane or Maun. 
    • Drop off at your hotel or at Kasane Airport for your onward travel. 

    Accommodation: No accommodation (End of tour)

    Meals: Breakfast

    Note: Additional accommodation can be arranged for an extra cost.