10-Day Botswana Safari from Kasane with Okavango and Kalahari

• Meet your tour guide after breakfast and leave for Maun. The exact departure time depends on the commercial airline schedules and will be confirmed closer to the time of your safari. The finer details of departure will be adjusted accordingly once your flight arrival time is confirmed.
• Travel south through the dry savannahs and grazing lands to our lodge on the banks of this watercourse, with brief stops along the way. We arrive in time for lunch at the lodge, and soon after, begin exploring these important, life-supporting waterways and a key wildlife migration route between seasons. During the rainy season (Jan - Mar), you may be lucky enough to witness the annual zebra migration that takes place here.
• Experience a cultural tour with a visit to 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 activity. It is truly a magnet for all life in the area and 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 water 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, while in the acacia woodlands, owlets are frequently heard and seen. This gives 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 to the camp or lodge for dinner and a restful first night in the bushlands of Botswana.

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

• 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. The Kalahari is home to the renowned Kalahari lions and the nomadic San people. This 52,800 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 flush with green grasses, attracting huge herds of antelope, wildebeest, zebra, springbok and gemsbok in search of nutrition. We will 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 to spot the amazing range of wildlife that survives in this harsh, sun-scorched and stark environment, as the vast African skies light up at sunset.
• Explore this vast park until sunset and enjoy a leisurely drive back to camp. Returning to camp, you have the luxury of a hot shower awaiting you in your en-suite bathroom before enjoying 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 gather at the campfire, comparing notes of the day's events and encounters while mapping out our activities for the next day.
• Retire to bed early tonight so that you can rise early for the dawn game drives.

Main destination: Central Kalahari National Park

Accommodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

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

• Rise early, and find breakfast and lunches already packed for the day's activities.
• Leave before breakfast, but tea or coffee is served with some light snacks to wake 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 0900 hrs, we find a scenic place where we can have our bush breakfast while taking in the vastness of the Kalahari landscape and 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 that animals use for shelter in the midday 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, 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 traditional San people, Bushmen hunters and wildlife trackers. This is a total learning experience, as we learn about tracking, bushcraft, the medicinal use of plants and one 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 telling stories through movement. Our evenings are spent chatting around the campfire with drinks after a luxurious dinner, in the timeless African tradition, and soaking up the solitude of the vast, untouched wilderness of the Central Kalahari.

• Wake up this morning to a hearty breakfast. After breakfast, leave the Central Kalahari and head to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
• Drive northeast to 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 16,000 km2 of the Kalahari Basin. Each year after the first rains, these vast, inhospitable pans become the site of one of the largest wildlife migrations in Africa, the spectacular Makgadikgadi-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 to camp for dinner and overnight, followed by an evening gathering around the campfire beneath the sparkling beauty of the African skies.

• See Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP) and Nxai Pan National Park. Both are physically and ecologically connected and form part of the Kalahari Desert, remaining 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 and supporting no vegetation at all. Parts of this salt pan system are surprisingly full of life and have fortunately been protected as national parks with infrastructure, including private and remote campsites, to which we have full access as we explore the prolific wildlife found in these pans. This includes both resident animals adapted to the desert environment and thousands of migratory animals that arrive during the rainy season. The salt pans are incredibly large, and the areas outside these parks are also worth visiting. We will therefore cover the greater Makgadikgadi area. Desert-adapted antelope such as springbok and gemsbok (oryx) occur in good numbers, along with decent populations of giraffes, elephants and other general game. Predators, too, are generally thriving in the well-protected core areas of these parks. You will like this region because it remains largely untouched and provides intrepid visitors with adventure, unique wildlife sightings and even more unique landscapes.

• 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 Bushmen, begin trekking across the vast land on foot while gazing out onto the salt pans. Even after two days, it is still a sight to behold. We just cannot get enough of the endless stretches of the Kalahari Desert and the shimmering salt pans of Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan. This is 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's game reserves 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 lions, bat-eared foxes, African wild dogs and brown hyenas, which are never far from their prey. We will also pay a visit to the amazing seven Baines Baobabs, which are over 1,000 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, witness the game up close and enjoy a personal experience on this exciting safari. You are more likely to encounter herds of elephants than another vehicle, and it feels like losing yourself in the midst of nowhere. But this is the everyday life of the indigenous Bushmen. Today we head into the bush on foot, picking a path with a Bushman guiding the way and showing you the only life they know. These indigenous hunter-gatherers have survived harmoniously 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 is possible to be.
• See their fur and hide clothes, and their semi-nomadic huts, as you admire their ability to survive in what you may consider a harsh environment. Indeed, it is, but that is life to them. It is an intimate and awesome experience, and it is impossible not to glow with admiration at the different reasons why people want to get lost in Botswana's landscapes.
• Drive back to camp to refresh. Dinner and overnight are at the comfort of your camp. We take our usual evening moments around the campfire to review our itinerary, what we did and what to focus on as we continue our stay in Makgadikgadi Pans and Nxai Pan.

Main destination: Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans

Accommodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

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

• Have breakfast. We leave the amazing contrasts of the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans behind us and head for Maun this morning, en route to the famous Okavango Delta. In Maun, you will experience the local flavours of Botswana at a restaurant where we have lunch.
• Set off to our next stop adjacent to Moremi Game Reserve, in a private concession in 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 this unique ecosystem. You will get a chance to take a two-and-a-half-hour mokoro trip, exploring the delta by water. The mokoro, a traditional dugout canoe, is propelled by your expert guide standing behind you with a pole. This once-in-a-lifetime mokoro safari gives you a really close-up view of the Okavango Delta. As you are 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 shore as you silently navigate the Okavango Delta channels. At sundowner, we drive back to camp to wine and dine, welcomed by a hearty and tasty dinner at the dining tent. We then gather at the campfire to review 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 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 the bush.

Main destination: Okavango Delta

Accommodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

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

• Wake up early in the morning for a dawn game drive, when the animals are very active before most go into hiding from the scorching sun. These are the best moments to witness a real-time big cat hunting experience.
• Leave at 0600 hrs before breakfast and return to camp for a full breakfast, though tea or coffee with some snacks is served first to wake you up for the morning activities.
• Return at 0900 hrs when breakfast is served. After breakfast, with packed lunches, embark on full-day exclusive game drives in this vast game reserve. Moremi, situated in the central and eastern areas of the Okavango Delta, boasts diverse ecosystems ranging from floodplains, lagoons, grasslands and riverine habitats to mopane woodlands. With this wide variety of vegetation comes a diverse spectrum of wildlife. Your day will be spent searching for the wide variety of wildlife and birds for which this area is renowned, in the midst of this spectacular wild side of Botswana, absorbing the sounds and beauty of the African wilderness in its best indigenous state. Expect to encounter huge herds of buffalo and elephants in the mopane scrub, and keep an eye out for elusive African wild dogs, lions and leopards, among others. You are 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 the incredible aviator, the Bateleur, among many others.

Main destination: Moremi Game Reserve (Okavango Delta)

Accommodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

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

• Wake up early in the morning to freshen up with a cup of tea or coffee and some snacks. At 0600 hrs, leave for the dawn game drive, with rare opportunities to spot nocturnal animals and big cats such as lions, cheetahs and leopards in real-time pursuit of their prey.
• Return to camp where a full breakfast is served. With picnic lunch boxes, depart Moremi and head to Chobe National Park with game viewing en route. This area has the largest population of elephants in the world, and seeing several hundred in a day is normal. Expect them to visit the camp. The area has one of the densest animal concentrations in Africa. Expect to see many different species: roan antelope, sable antelope, puku, red lechwe and giraffes are commonly seen, and the possibility of seeing lions, leopards and wild dogs is high. Chobe never disappoints. There is always something out there to make every moment special and out of the ordinary. Action-packed scenery, with prolific wildlife and birdlife, is found in this spectacular place. Lunch is served in camp, or we can opt for picnic lunch boxes to give us more time to see the most, especially in the afternoon when we make short drives along the Chobe riverbank, as this is the opportune time when most animals come to the river to drink. Chobe National Park, tucked into Botswana's far northeastern border with Namibia, 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 savannah 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 begins. Other resident game species include large herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and the rare puku, roan and sable antelopes. These are normally trailed by the notoriously fearless lions of Chobe, as well as leopard and cheetah, among other wildlife.
• Explore the Chobe River and make an extensive game drive along its borders until late afternoon. At sundowner, we drive to camp in time for dinner, check in and refresh before dinner is served. After dinner, we enjoy our last campfire of this safari at Chobe, where we conclude our main adventure goals with one last experience at magnificent Chobe the following morning.
• Retire to our respective luxury tents, with our minds filled with action-packed memories, ready for a sweet, silent night in the African bush.

Main destination: Chobe National Park

Accommodation options available and proposed: In lodges and tented camps

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

• Wake up very early to enjoy a breakfast prepared by our safari chef. After breakfast, take our last en route 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 except 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 Chobe. Our safari ends around midday 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.