Xakanaxa - Khwai approximately 60km, 3-4h

Following and early morning breakfast, guests take a slow drive through Moremi Game Reserve north-east towards the Khwai Community Area. The Khwai River forms a boundary between the reserve and the community area. Guests will spend 2 nights camping at an exclusive campsite in the community area, exploring the Khwai floodplains on game drives both during the day and at night.

Exploring after dark with spotlights offers guests an opportunity to experience some of the nocturnal animals that are rarely encountered during the day. They will also have the opportunity to explore the surrounding wilderness on foot and mokoro and enjoy an up close and personal encounter with Botswana’s flora and fauna. It is important to note that night drives and guided walks are not permitted within the national parks and reserves. These activities are conducted outside the boundaries of the Moremi Game Reserve in the Khwai Community area. Accommodation: Letaka Tented Camp. Meals: Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast. Camp activities: Game drives, walking safaris, night drives and mokoro excursions.

Exploration Days in the Khwai community area

Habitat: The Maunachira Channel is known as the Khwai River at its eastern most extremity. The day’s journey follows this water course, with the track weaving from the riverside and floodplains into the mopane veld and the woodlands that make Khwai one of the most scenic areas of the Okavango. Pass the magnificent Dombo Hippo Pools in the morning stopping to enjoy the scenery and the antics of the resident hippo. Time permitting, guests may visit the lagoons of Xakanaxa where the largest heronry in southern Africa exists.

Wildlife: The western mopane veld is home to mostly breeding herds of elephant whilst the eastern reaches of Khwai are home to some impressive old bulls. The mature bulls revel in the cool waters of the Khwai and are far more approachable while drinking and bathing than the breeding herds. The river has an unusually high density of hippo as well as some huge crocodile. Leopard, cheetah, serval and lion are common predators along this route and both Xakanaxa as well as Khwai are included in the home ranges of 2 different packs of wild dog. General game includes southern giraffe, Burchell’s zebra, tsessebe and red lechwe with roan and sable antelope being fewer common residents.

Birding: In the mopane woodlands African Hawk-Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Gabar Goshawk, Little Sparrowhawk, African Harrier Hawk and Shikra are common raptors. Mixed bird parties move through the canopy and include Red-headed Weaver, Stierling’s Wren-Warbler, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Neddicky, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Chin-spot Batis, Diederik Cuckoo to name but a few. The verges of the swamp form breeding grounds for the Rosy-Longclaw, Black Coucal, Long-legged Bustard and the African Crake.

Khwai – Savuti approximately 100km, 4-5h

The itinerary continues heading further north en-route to Chobe National Park, where guests spend the following 3 nights camping in an exclusive wilderness campsite in the Savuti region, exploring the dessert-like landscape of game drives. Accommodation: Letaka Tented Camp Activities: Morning and Afternoon Game Drives as well as Bushmen painting walks.

A fascinating days drive looking at some of the evidence of the Paleo-Lake Makgadikgadi that dried up some ten thousand years ago. The most challenging part of the trip is crossing the Magwikwe Sand-ridge that formed the shoreline for this massive inland sea. The winding track through this deep sand makes for interesting travel in the early summer. The old lakebed is now the Mababe Depression. The dense clay floor of the depression result in high protein feed for wildlife and the area teams with game after the rains. During the rain season the depression is impassable due to the “cotton soil” and alternative routes must be used.

Savuti, borders of Chobe National Park Exploration Days

Habitat: Unlike the vast majority of the country, Savuti is not a totally flat landscape. Large outcrops of volcanic rock reach up out of the Kalahari sands, towering over the endless savannah. These hills provide habitat for a completely different array of small wildlife, birds and plants. The Savuti Marsh has been the stage for many of the most dramatic wildlife documentaries in Africa. The wide open country, good ungulate populations and particularly strong prides of lion and hyaena clans make for dramatic wildlife interaction and excellent viewing opportunities. The now dry Savuti Channel runs through this landscape linking the dry sand-veld, the waterholes, the hills and the grassland that was the Savuti Marsh.

Wildlife: Undoubtedly it is the interaction between lion and elephant that is the most interesting aspect of Savuti. The area is inhabited by a huge pride of lions with numbers fluctuating from 20-30 members. These remarkable lion have learned over the years how to hunt these massive pachyderms that are supposedly above predation. Launching their attack under darkness and using their numbers, they manage to kill adolescent and even young adult elephant. The marsh is prime cheetah country and in the wet season it is not unusual to have the wild dog hunting here in Savuti.

Birding: The surface water that is pumped by the Government here provides a major attraction for birdlife. In the dry season thousands of dove and sandgrouse come down to drink in the mornings and are under constant surveillance by Yellow-billed Kite, Tawny Eagle and African Hawk-Eagle. Red-crested Korhaan are common in the Kalahari Apple-leaf (Lonchocarpus nelsii) veld. The marsh is the summer home for good numbers of Caspian Plover and Montague’s Harrier as well as Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark, Grey-backed Sparrowlark, Northern Black Korhaan, Rufous-naped Lark, African Pipit and Desert Cisticola. Dickenson’s Kestrel, Amur Falcon and Red-necked Falcon are found along the perimeter of the marsh.

Savuti - Chobe River approximately 170km, 5 hrs

On the final day on safari, guests will leave Savuti early to travel along the Chobe River arriving in Kasane where they will stop for a picnic lunch before taking an afternoon boat cruise to end the safari. Meals: Breakfast and lunch. Activities: Game drive and boat cruise.

As today is a long day we recommend either spending a night or 2 in Kasane or 2 nights in Livingstone. Dinner at guests’ own account at the lodge or any of the local restaurant. those transferring across to Zambia it is recommended that your transfer be organized to meet you at lodge at 15h30.

Chobe National Park exploration days

Habitat: The habitat on today’s drive takes us through the stunted mopane scrub of the Goha clay basin, across the sand-ridge and through the wonderful Zambezi teak woodlands of the Chobe Forest Reserve and along the Chobe River itself. The Chobe floodplain is tens of kilometres wide and in years of exceptional rains the water stretches as far as the eye can see.

Wildlife: While there are community areas that we pass through that are settled by local tribes, for the vast majority of the day’s drive we pass through wild country where wildlife moves un-inhibited by fences or man. Roan and sable antelope thrive in the teak woodlands where the low density of predators and lack of competition for food by other ungulates makes this prime habitat for these large ungulates. Leopard occur in these woodlands in low numbers but they are highly secretive and seldom seen. The Goha region has natural waterholes that hold water well into the dry season and herds of buffalo, Burchell’s zebra, greater kudu and elephant come down to drink.

Birding: The most unusual species are to be found in the teak (Baikea plurijuga) woodlands. This broad-leafed woodland, or miombo as it is locally known, provides good pickings for insectivorous birds that favour canopy habitat. Grey Tit-Flycatcher, Ashy Flycatcher, Paradise Flycatcher, Pallid Flycatcher, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Yellow-throated Petronia, Red-headed Weaver and Violet-backed Starling are only some of the species that move around in the “bird parties” in the canopy. Dickenson’s Kestrel, Red-necked Falcon, Peregrine Falcon and Lizard Buzzard are some of the raptors to keep an eye out for, while the diminutive White-faced Owl can often be seen roosting in the road-side vegetation. Flappet Lark, Fawn-coloured Lark, Dusky Lark, Olive-Tree Warbler and Neddicky are species more likely to be enjoyed by the birding enthusiast.