Overview of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure

The 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure covers the exciting destinations of Maun – Moremi Game Reserve – Khwai Community Area – Savuti – Chobe National Park – Chobe River Front – Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Safari Highlight of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure

Day 1 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Discovery B&B, Maun

Day 2 -5 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Moremi Mobile Tented Camp, Moremi Game Reserve

Day 5 -6 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Magotho Khwai Community Campsite, Khwai Community Area

Day 7 – 8 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Savuti Campsite, Savuti – Chobe National Park

Day 9 -10 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Camp Chobe, Chobe River Front

Day 11 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Bayete Guest Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Day 12 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Departure

Detailed Safari Itinerary of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure

Day 1of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Discovery B&B, Maun

Maun is the starting point for most expeditions into the Okavango Delta and as a result, has developed into a bustling metropolis that is considered Botswana’s tourism capital. Area attractions include a renowned river boat that offers ‘booze cruises’ up and down the Thamalakane River, and the forest groves of the Maun Game Reserve.

On arrival in Maun you will be met at the airport and taken to the guest house – about 30 minutes road transfer by car. Here you will spend your first night – you will be briefed on what will happen the following day.

Accommodation: Discover B&B

Day 2 – 5 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Moremi Mobile Tented Camp, Moremi Game Reserve

Our Safari starts around 10:00 and your guide will pick you up at your lodge in Maun. We will depart for Moremi for an all day game drive and picnic lunch before arriving at our campsite.

Making up around one third of the Okavango Delta, Moremi offers swamps, rivers, flooded grasslands and tree-strewn plains that attract bird life, fauna and big game in abundance. Permanent swamps and rivers teem with birdlife while seasonally flooded grasslands attract a wide variety of large fauna. Much of the dry land consists of mopane veld, a species of tree that dominates much of Botswana: giant specimens regularly provide a surreal atmosphere unique to this area. The activities on offer in Moremi will be game drives.

Moremi Game Reserve

The amazing foresight of Chief Moremi created one of the world’s most famous reserves, conserving part of the Okavango Delta and the plains to its east. The reserve covers more than 4871 square kilometres of pristine wilderness, and the varied terrain includes savannah, winding waterways, and thick forest.

This diversity supports an incredibly wide spectrum of wildlife, ranging from large herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebra, to the rare sitatunga and lechwe antelope, and lion, cheetah and packs of wild dog in the open grasslands. The birdlife is prolific and includes most of the 550 bird species recorded on the Botswana national bird list. A range of luxury lodges in the reserve offer visitors the perfect base to experience this corner of paradise.

Accommodation: Moremi Tented Camp

Day 5 – 6 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Magotho Khwai Community Campsite, Khwai Community Area

After breakfast and a short morning game-drive, we will head to the Khwai Community Concession. We will enjoy a picnic lunch en-route to Khwai and will likely arrive in camp in the afternoon – whilst the staff sets up the camp you will be able to relax a bit. To the east of The Moremi Game Reserve is the Khwai River, where seasonal floodplains and impressive riverine woodland meet. Wildlife is drawn to this river in great numbers, especially in the dry season. Spectacular game viewing is almost guaranteed. Activities on offer in Khwai will be game drives night and day.

Khwai Community Area

The Khwai area of the Okavango lies along the northern boundary of the Moremi Game Reserve. This is an unfenced boundary allowing wildlife to move freely between the woodlands in the wet season when water is plentiful and back to permanent rivers and lagoons in the dry season. The Khwai area offers the same wildlife experience as the reserve with the added advantage of being a private concession which means the ability to do walking safaris and night drives.

Accommodation: Magotho Khwai Community Campsite

Day 7 – 8of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Savuti Campsite, Savuti – Chobe National Park

After breakfast and a morning game drive in Khwai, we will move North to Savuti. The next campsite in Savuti is a private site, so there will be no other groups camping nearby. We will enjoy some game viewing and a picnic lunch en-route. Savuti, part of the Chobe National Park, is most famous for supporting one of the largest prides of lions in Botswana. In the hot dry season members of the Savuti Pride (sometimes more than 25 in number) will gather at the waterholes. There, they prey upon other users, mostly elephants, to satiate their hunger. Other predators are plentiful but elusive. Leopards favor the rocky hills while the open grasslands of the Savuti Marsh are the preferred hunting grounds for cheetah. We can also see zebra migrating from the Chobe River in the North to the Mababe Depression further to the south. Finally, the mysterious Savuti Channel inexplicably flows and ebbs dry, cutting off a vital supply of water for the resident elephants. In recent history it spilled out onto the immense Savuti Marsh. After being dry for two decades, the Savuti River has started to flow again! The Savuti Marsh is revitalized – transforming the dry marsh into a magnificent wetland. Guests will enjoy game drives in this area only.

Savuti – Chobe National Park

In the heart of Botswana’s Chobe National Park lies a dynamic wilderness, a sweeping expanse of savannah brooded over by several rocky outcrops which guard a relic marsh and the dry channel that was once its lifeline. This is Savute, where mysterious wet and dry cycles mould the landscape and dictate the nature of its wild inhabitants. Currently it is dry, and wild dogs hunt in the channel where crocodiles swam only twenty years ago.

The Gubatsa Hills shelter leopard and klipspringer and rock paintings of early man’s wildlife sightings. During the arid winter months game viewing concentrates on Savute’s resident bull elephants, antelope and lion prides, and black-backed jackal, bat-eared foxes, tsessebe, and kudu, abound.

The summer rains bring a feast for lion, hyena and cheetah as thousands of migrating zebra and wildebeest assemble in a chaotic pattern on the marsh. Cape buffalo herds arrive and migrant birds swell Savute’s 300 resident species, thrilling bird-watchers with their spectacular antics.

Accommodation: Savuti Campsite

Day 9 -10 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Camp Chobe, Chobe River Front

Yet another early rise and we will head to Chobe National Park. We will explore this area by game drives and finish your Botswana adventure with a boat cruise on the day of departure in the morning. We will drop you at the lodge from where you will start your boat cruise and he will head back to Maun.

The Chobe River is perhaps the greatest attraction of the Chobe National Park; nowhere in Africa is better for viewing and photographing elephants.

Forming the northern boundary of the park, the vital Chobe waterway attracts animals in great numbers during the dry season when water in the interior of Northern Botswana is scarce. The most impressive sight is the vast numbers of elephants found here. The river provides water for drinking, cooling off and even for play, while the grass on the floodplainsis a vital source of nourishment. In season, the riverfront is teeming with thousands of zebra. They spend most of the dry season by the river, attracted by the guarantee of water and good grazing. Hearing the zebras’ far-reaching calls during the night while tucked up safely in your tent is one of Africa’s most memorable experiences. Incredible birdlife, good populations of game and large buffalo herds can also be found here.

Chobe River Front

The Chobe River forms the northern boundary of the Chobe National Park, renowned for its reliable and diverse game viewing. Safaris are conducted both by boat and on land. This section of the park is best known for its elephant and hippo populations but the waters attract all manner of game including large herds of buffalo and the lions that prey on them.

Accommodation: Camp Chobe

Day 11 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Bayete Guest Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

After enjoying your morning boat cruise on the Chobe river – the best way to say farewell to Botswana – a road transfer will take you across the Zimbabwean border. Please make sure you have foreign currency to obtain required VISA.

You will be taken to Bayete Guest Lodge where you will stay your last night. Many activities are on offer here – although the main attraction will be a visit to the Falls – which is easy to be organized at the guest house. If you do require any assistance with any other activities or wish to extend your stay please contact us.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Resting on the southern banks of the Zambezi river at the western end of the eponymous falls, this popular tourist town is compact enough to walk around and makes an ideal base for travellers exploring the seventh wonder of the world, the unfathomably vast Victoria Falls. About two thirds of the falls can be viewed from the Zimbabwean side and, while the falls are undoubtedly the star attraction, the area provides both adventure seekers and sightseers with plenty of opportunities to warrant a longer stay. Popular activities include scenic flights over the falls in helicopters or micro lights, bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls Bridge, white-water rafting (seasonal), and day trips to Chobe National Park. The town itself offers some excellent accommodation and restaurant options as well as an eclectic variety of African curios and authentic art sold by friendly Zimbabwean locals who are wonderfully welcoming and eager to help you enjoy your stay.

Day 12 of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure: Departure

A road transfer will inform the guest house on your pick-up time for the next day to take you to the airport on time for your flight back home.

End of the 12 Days Best of Botswana Camping Safari Adventure

Getting There

General Safari Inclusions

• Gorilla Permit (for gorilla trekking safaris)
• Chimpanzee Permit (for chimpanzee trekking safaris)
• Full Board Accommodation on Safari
• Transportation in either 4X4 Safari Van or 4X4 Safari Land Cruiser all with Pop up roof & AC
• Fuel
• Professional English Speaking driver guide. Any other foreign language speaking guide can be arranged on request.
• Entrance fees to the tourist sites including Protected areas mentioned
• Activity fees of the tourist activities mentioned
• Bottled water while on safari
• Border crossing fees (for cross border safaris)

General Safari Exclusions

• General tips for the driver guide, site guides and service staff at the lodges
• Laundry Services
• Other Beverages / drinks of personal nature like Alcohol
• International Flights (Arranged on request)
• Domestic Flights (Arranged on request)
• Visas
• Optional Activity fees
• Other extras not mentioned in the Itinerary
• Airport Transfer (Arranged on request)
• Accommodation in Kampala or Kigali unless it is part of the Itinerary (Arranged on request)