Jessie Neil was a Californian who had been coming to Botswana for years. In 1982 she built the original camp here, under a stand of ebony trees, and in the early 1990s she left the safari business. The ebonies stayed. When the camp was rebuilt completely in 2018 it rose beneath the same trees, its sunken bar curving around a termite mound and one of the ebonies themselves.
Hippos surface between the water lilies as they pass.
Today, game drives and boat trips leave from the same lagoon shore, inside Moremi Game Reserve on the eastern Okavango Delta. Hard-bottom motorboats cross Xakanaxa Lagoon. Hippos surface between the water lilies as they pass. On land, open 4x4s cross mopane woodland and floodplain morning and afternoon, into country where lions, leopards and cheetahs are regularly found.
The boats are aluminium and hard-bottomed, with comfortable seats and life jackets, and canvas roofs that fold away. From August into the early rains they run the deeper channels to the heronries at Xakanaxa and Gadikwe, where the herons gather in breeding colonies. Along the edges, big game moves through the reeds to drink or bathe, and hippos wallow in the clear, cool water.
African fish eagles call across the open water.
More than 400 bird species are recorded across the whole reserve. African fish eagles call across the open water. Malachite kingfishers flash low over the channels, and Pel’s fishing owl appears occasionally in the riverine trees. In spring and summer the migrants arrive to breed, and their busiest weeks overlap with those of the heronries.
Moremi Game Reserve was proclaimed in 1963 and takes its name from Chief Moremi III of the Batawana. Under its rules the drives run in daylight and keep to the tracks, and there are no night drives or guided walks. What the reserve gives back is variety, and all of it within easy reach of camp. Around Xakanaxa, mopane woodland, open grassland, seasonal floodplain and riverine channels lie close together, so a single morning can move from leopards in the mopane to the reed margins of the lagoon.
Wild dogs are reported regularly around Xakanaxa, and cheetahs work the open grassland where the mopane gives way. Lions lie flat in the long grass, so still they are hard to pick out until they move. Impala and kudu feed along the woodland edges, and waterbuck down by the water. In the dry season, between May and October, elephants and buffalo come in to the permanent water of the lagoon and its channels, zebra with them, and the drives follow them there. Out on the deeper channels, sitatunga and lechwe keep to the papyrus beds.
Lions lie flat in the long grass, so still they are hard to pick out until they move.
Meals are served in the open-air boma or the elevated dining area, and afternoon tea comes before the boats or 4x4s go out again. In the hours between, raised boardwalks link the bar to the lounge and library and out to the pool. The bar is self-service and fully stocked. After dinner the evening gathers on the open fire deck at the front of camp. Once the generator goes off at night, the tents run on 12-volt lighting, soft enough that the boardwalks fade into the dark beneath the ebonies.
Neil’s first camp was Camp Okavango. It went up on Nxaragha Island in 1980, and when she built Camp Moremi two years later, she ran the two as a pair. They still fit together, with Camp Okavango’s days built around the water and Camp Moremi adding big game on land to its own lagoon trips. Children aged six and over are welcome here. The family tent has two en-suite bedrooms joined by interleading doors, keeping parents and children under one roof. Like every tent, it is raised on a timber platform, with a private deck over the reserve.
accommodation
Camp Moremi has 12 thatched tents for up to 24 guests: 11 luxury tents and a family tent whose two en-suite bedrooms are joined by interleading doors. Each is raised on a timber platform, its private deck looking over the reserve. A fan stands in for air-conditioning, and each has double vanities and a shower.
activities
Morning and afternoon game drives in open 4x4s follow Moremi Game Reserve's tracks through mopane and open floodplain. Hard-bottom motorboats cross Xakanaxa Lagoon and its channels, with heronry trips to Xakanaxa and Gadikwe from August into the early rains. Birding runs through both, peaking in spring and summer.
conservation
Through the community programme it shares with its sister camps, the camp supports education and youth development in Botswana. The same programme supports staff training and staff wellbeing, alongside conservation work. Staff and managers are recruited mainly from communities near where the camps operate, and Batswana managers run the camps.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
01
The Okavango Delta
02
The Okavango Delta
03
The Okavango Delta
04
The Okavango Delta
05
The Okavango Delta
06
The Okavango Delta
07
The Okavango Delta
08
The Okavango Delta
09
The Okavango Delta
10
The Okavango Delta
11
The Okavango Delta
12
The Okavango Delta
13
The Okavango Delta
14
The Okavango Delta
15
The Okavango Delta
16
The Okavango Delta
17
The Okavango Delta
18
The Okavango Delta
19
The Okavango Delta
20
The Okavango Delta
By light aircraft from Maun to the Xakanaxa airstrip, a short flight over the eastern Delta, then a drive of about four kilometres through the reserve to the camp on the lagoon. Flight times are set the afternoon before, so the day stays flexible. If you would rather fix your own timings, we can arrange a private charter into the same Xakanaxa strip, typically a Cessna Caravan.
Camp Moremi is also linked to its sister camps by water. The boat transfer between Camp Moremi, Camp Okavango and Xugana Island Lodge runs through the channels past the Gadikwe heronry, which by August is filling with herons and storks, so a move between camps becomes an outing in itself. Pack soft bags without a frame, because the light aircraft stow luggage in a small belly pod.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates the northern half of Botswana, the Okavango Delta included, as high risk for malaria from October to May and recommends antimalarial tablets for those months. From June to September it rates the same area as low risk and advises awareness of the risk and avoiding bites. The CDC lists the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among those where it recommends preventive medicine.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so we do not make medical recommendations: whether to take tablets, and which, is for you to settle with your doctor or a travel clinic. Low risk is not no risk, even in the dry winter, and the camp sits beside open water all year. Long sleeves and trousers from dusk, and repellent at dinner in the boma, make sense in every month.
Yes, from six years old. The camp's family tent is two en-suite bedrooms joined by interleading doors, so parents and children each have their own room and bathroom with a door between them, which suits a family of four well. The other eleven tents sit on raised decks of their own, and with no more than 24 guests in camp it never feels crowded.
The pool on its own deck gives the hot middle of the day a focus, between the morning drive and the afternoon on the water. Outside the tents, children stay with an adult at all times, because this is open wild country. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will ask the camp about a private vehicle so the drives run at their pace.
Motorboat trips are the other half of a stay at Xakanaxa. The guides take hard-bottom aluminium boats with a canvas roof out across the lagoon and into the deeper channels around it, where sitatunga and lechwe keep to the papyrus and the reed beds. It is a different view of the Delta from the game drives, slower and closer to the water.
For birders the draw is the heronries. Herons, storks and other water birds gather to breed in colonies at Xakanaxa and at Gadikwe, out towards Camp Okavango, and the colonies are busiest from August into the early summer. African fish eagles and malachite kingfishers are common along the channels, and the rare Pel's fishing owl turns up now and then, though no guide can promise it.
June to September. The Kalahari around the Delta has dried out, elephant, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest move in to the permanent water, and the flood peaks in July, opening new channels for the boats. Wild dogs den from June for three or four months, which makes them easier to find. October is hotter, often above 40 degrees, with game at its most concentrated.
November to March is the green season: storms, newborn antelope, migrant birds and busy heronries, a quieter choice for birders and photographers. Pack warm layers for June and July, when nights drop close to freezing, light neutral clothing and strong sun cream for the heat later on, a light rain jacket from November, binoculars for the boat, and all of it in one soft bag.
No. They are two separate camps on the same stretch of the Xakanaxa Lagoon, under a kilometre apart, and both run game drives and boat trips, so the names are easily mixed up. Camp Moremi is the one rebuilt in 2018, with eleven thatched tents and a two-bedroom family tent around a sunken bar built into a termite mound, a library and a pool on its own deck.
Camp Xakanaxa has its own page with us. Tell us which camp you have in mind, or ask us to set the two side by side for your dates, and we will make sure the flights and the tents are held at the right one.
rated five stars by our clients
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
