Camp Okavango has no safari vehicles, and was not built for them. The days are spent among the channels and reeds, never on a road. Motorboats run the deeper lagoons, mokoros are poled through the shallows, and walks cross the neighbouring islands on foot. Nxaragha Island is held in the Delta’s permanent water, which never drains away, so the boats go out in every month.
The days are spent among the channels and reeds, never on a road.
Jessie Neil was a Californian who had spent six or seven years visiting Botswana. In the early 1980s she built the first camp on this island, then Camp Moremi on Xakanaxa Lagoon. In 2016 her camp was rebuilt from the ground up. Its suites and decks, and the walkways between them, were lifted onto timber platforms beneath the island’s trees, and the whole camp now runs on solar power.
Motorboats with fold-away canvas roofs cover distance quickly, running the deeper channels and out across the lagoons. The mokoro moves at water level through the reed-lined shallows. It is slower and quieter, and the day slows with it. On the neighbouring islands, small groups set out on foot with two guides, reading the tracks of the larger land animals that share this wetland.
The mokoro moves at water level through the reed-lined shallows.
Birds fill the gaps between everything else on the water, and the wetland specialists of the reed beds and lagoons are watched from a drifting mokoro rather than from a road. The whole camp takes no more than 24 guests. Camp Okavango gives the water half of a Delta safari. A few nights at its sister, Camp Moremi, where the big game is followed by vehicle, give the other half.
Sweeping ramps lead down from the main area to a lower deck, where seating gathers around two open-air fire pits. Up at the main level, walkways join one room to the next, so moving between the two lounges and the dining room means stepping through open air rather than down a corridor. The library is stocked with wildlife reference books, and the same walkways lead on to a self-service bar and a curio shop. A third deck holds the rim-flow pool, with a thatched lounge beside it out of the sun. Further walkways run out to the suites through the thick island vegetation.
Brunch and afternoon tea are laid out on the wide open-air patio beyond the dining room, fitted between outings by boat and mokoro, while dinner moves between several settings, indoors and out. After dark the fires on the lower deck are lit, and the day on the water gets talked over. Before long someone reaches for the library’s reference books, which settle most disputes about a bird glimpsed from the boat. Laundry is washed and returned every day, which means the bags can be packed light.
After dark the fires on the lower deck are lit, and the day on the water gets talked over
Children are welcome from the age of six, and the family suite was designed around them. Its two interleading bedrooms each have their own bathroom, and between them they sleep two adults and up to three children. Out on the water the motorboats carry life jackets. Seasonal fishing for bream and tigerfish uses tackle kept in camp, so no one needs to pack a rod.
Neil’s licence was approved in 1980, and on the island lease that followed she built Camp Okavango. By 1991 the spread of new lodges across Botswana had left her uneasy about commercialisation, and she walked away from the industry. In 1992 her camps changed hands, and Camp Okavango was refurbished and extended. The 2016 rebuild replaced everything that stood on her island, but kept her premise of a safari run entirely by boat and on foot.
accommodation
Eleven safari suites and one two-bedroom family suite, each raised on its own wooden platform and linked by walkways. Stacked glass doors slide back onto a private deck over the water. Bathrooms have twin basins, a double shower and a separate toilet with a view. Fans stand in for air-conditioning; each suite has a safe and kettle.
activities
The days are spent on the water, by motorboat along the deep channels and lagoons or by mokoro through the reed-lined shallows. On the neighbouring islands, walks set out with two guides. Birding runs through all of it, and seasonal fishing for bream and tigerfish uses tackle kept in camp. Everything happens on water or on foot, in every month of the year.
dining
Every meal is part of the stay at Camp Okavango, brunch, lunch and dinner, with sundowners in between, and so are local-brand drinks; premium labels are charged separately. The bar in the main area is fully stocked and self-service, so guests pour their own between outings on the water. Each suite has a kettle with tea and coffee, and drinking water comes from the camp's own treatment plant, with bottled water on request.
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.
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By light aircraft to the camp's own grass airstrip on Nxaragha Island, a few minutes' walk from the suites. Most guests fly in from Maun or Kasane on a shared seat-in-plane service that may call at other camps on the way, with the time confirmed the afternoon before. Arriving from another Delta camp works the same way, so Maun is not the only starting point.
For your own timings, or for a family or a small group, we can arrange a private charter in a single-engine light aircraft such as a GippsAero Airvan, landing on the same island strip. On the shared flights luggage is limited to 20 kilograms a person, hand luggage and cameras included, in soft bags with no frame, because the bags ride in a pod under the aircraft.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, places the northern half of Botswana, the Okavango Delta within it, at high risk of malaria from October to May, when it recommends antimalarial tablets, and at low risk for the rest of the year, when it advises awareness and bite avoidance. The CDC includes the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among the areas where it recommends preventive medicine.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so the choice of tablets sits with you and your doctor or a travel clinic. Low risk is not no risk, and an island ringed by water in every month has mosquitoes in the dry season too, so long sleeves after dark and repellent by the fire deck are sensible all year.
No. Camp Okavango is a water camp with no safari vehicles on the island, and the days are spent on the water and on foot instead. There are motorboat trips in hard-bottomed aluminium boats along the deeper channels and lagoons, mokoro outings poled through the shallow reed beds and floodplains, and walks on the neighbouring islands in small groups with two guides, so you never walk alone.
Birding is the strong suit, and fishing for bream and tigerfish can be added in season. For lion, leopard and big herds seen from a vehicle, we pair the island with a land camp, and the natural partner is its sister camp, Camp Moremi, on Xakanaxa Lagoon inside Moremi Game Reserve. Two or three nights on the water and then a land camp shows the delta both ways.
Yes, from the age of six. There is one family suite: two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, joined by an inside door, with twin beds and a roll-out bed in the second room, so two adults and three children can stay together. A children's corner has games and books, and the pool on its own deck fills the middle of the day.
Every outing here is by boat, by mokoro or on foot, so it suits children who are happy on the water and can sit quietly for a while. For a family we usually build in a private boat and guide, so the outings run at the children's pace and come home when they have had enough. Tell us their ages at enquiry and we will plan the days around them.
June to October, with July to September the strongest stretch. The flood from Angola reaches the delta in Botswana's dry winter and stands high around July and August, so the channels are full, the mokoro routes are at their widest and game gathers along the water as the land around dries out. October is the hottest month, often above 40C, which suits some people less well.
Nxaragha Island sits in water that never dries up, so boat and mokoro trips run in every month, though the shallow routes shrink when the channels are at their lowest in the rains. November to March is green, hot and quiet, with afternoon storms, the best birding of the year as migrants arrive, and big skies that photographers love. April and May are shoulder months as the water rises again.
Jessie Neil, an American who fell for the delta, took a lease on Nxaragha Island in 1980 and built the first camp there, then built Camp Moremi on Xakanaxa Lagoon soon after. She sold her camps in the early 1990s, so the founding story is pedigree rather than a sign of who runs it today.
In 2016 the camp was rebuilt from the ground up. The eleven suites and the family suite stand on raised wooden platforms under the trees, each with a private open-air deck, a double shower and fans rather than air conditioning. The camp runs on solar power, with a generator kept as back-up, and the main deck carries a rim-flow pool and two fire decks over the water.
rated five stars by our clients
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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.
