Five Meru-style tents look down from raised decks onto a small lagoon in Botswana’s south-eastern Okavango Delta. Chitabe Lediba is the quiet, private sister to Chitabe Camp, small enough that a family or small group can have it almost to themselves while sharing the same concession. Across it, wild dog, lion, leopard and cheetah hunt through the year.
Hippos surface mid-lagoon and elephants wade out of the woodland.
Lediba is the Setswana word for lagoon, and this one is a pocket of open water held within a Delta channel, with the pool and dining area turned towards it. Between drives there is often something to watch from camp. Hippos surface mid-lagoon and elephants wade out of the woodland. A bushbuck may lie up in the shade beneath a tent deck, and mornings bring birdsong and the faint smell of sage.
Dave and Helene Hamman ran Mombo from 1990 and spent those years filming its wild dogs. In 1996 they won the tender for the Chitabe concession, and that same year they came across a pack here with a white-tailed dog among it, one of the Mombo animals they had studied. The wild dog has been Chitabe’s emblem ever since.
Grassy floodplains open out between mopane and acacia woodland.
The concession has Moremi Game Reserve along half its northern border and a permanent channel on either flank, the Gomoti to the east and the Santantadibe to the west. Between them run grassy floodplains and mopane and acacia woodland, with riverine forest along the channels. Much of the ground floods only seasonally.
Two of the five tents are family units, their adjoining bedrooms close enough that younger children sleep within reach of their parents. A private vehicle can be arranged, so drives can be timed around the family. Wild animals move through camp, though, so children move between tents with an adult at all times. Beyond the tents, a raised boardwalk links the camp to Chitabe Camp, its larger sister, which shares the same concession.
Meals follow the group’s own tastes, and the chefs bring traditional Botswana dishes to the table using local ingredients. Vegetarians are well catered for too. Lunch might be served on the deck above the lagoon or carried out to a bush picnic in the shade. Evenings move to the boma, where dinner is cooked over the coals as the stars come out, and the evening ends around the firepit.
Once night falls, the spotlight comes on, picking out owls, genets and bushbabies.
Morning and afternoon drives work the open floodplains, where cheetah are regularly seen hunting, and the channel edges where red lechwe graze. The afternoon drive does not end at sunset. Once night falls, the spotlight comes on, picking out owls, genets and bushbabies. As the dry season begins, large herds of elephants and buffalo move through. On foot, a guided walk reads the night’s tracks in the sand, and birding fills the slower midday hours. Wild dogs range widely across the concession, and no guide can promise them on a given day.
A light aircraft covers the short hop from Maun to the Chitabe airstrip, and the transfer to camp doubles as the first game drive. Chitabe Lediba is open all year and runs on solar power, with a generator kept as back-up. Waste is trucked out rather than burned, and drinking water is purified on site and poured into refillable bottles. Many of the staff have been at Chitabe for a decade or more. Some guests have come back six, seven and eight times.
accommodation
Five Meru-style canvas tents stand on raised decks, each opening onto a private veranda. Each has an en-suite bathroom and an outdoor shower. Two tents are family units, their adjoining bedrooms sharing a bathroom, and boardwalks link them to the lounge, pool and dining area by the lagoon.
activities
Game drives run twice daily across the Chitabe concession, and because it is private land rather than reserve, the afternoon drive continues after dark under a spotlight. Guided bush walks read the tracks on foot. Birding fills the slower hours, along with bush picnics and sundowners, and every activity stays on dry land.
conservation
Each stay supports Wild Entrust Africa, whose Botswana Predator Conservation programme grew from Dr Tico McNutt's wild dog research, and the camp donates to it every year. Guest photographs of predators feed the African Carnivore Wildbook. Staff families receive help with school fees, uniforms and stationery.
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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The Okavango Delta
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The Okavango Delta
By light aircraft from Maun to the Chitabe airstrip, a short hop over the south-eastern Delta, and then a game drive through the concession to camp. The same small aircraft run circuits between the Delta's camps, so Chitabe Lediba can be the second or third stop of a safari rather than a return trip to Maun.
If you would rather fix your own timings, we can arrange a private charter from Maun straight to the Chitabe airstrip, usually in a Cessna Grand Caravan, which seats up to eleven, with the same drive in at the end. Every flight takes one soft-sided bag a person, no wheels or frame, at twenty kilograms all in, five of them hand luggage.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts the Okavango Delta in the high-risk northern half of Botswana from October to May, when it recommends antimalarial tablets, and at low risk from June to September, when it advises awareness and avoiding bites. The CDC lists the Ngamiland and Okavango districts among the areas where it recommends prescription medicine. Low risk is still not no risk.
We are travel planners, not doctors, so the choice of tablets, and what suits each person in the party, children included, sits with you and your own doctor or a travel clinic. The practical part is simpler: long sleeves and trousers from late afternoon, and repellent in the vehicle.
It is the smaller of the two camps on the same private concession, with five tents, and it sits apart, joined to Chitabe Camp by a raised boardwalk. Its pool, lounge and dining area look over its own lediba, a small lagoon within a Delta channel that draws animals in to drink, so a family or a small group can have the place almost to themselves.
What the two share is the ground and the way the days run: game drives morning and afternoon, the afternoon drive carrying on after dark for owls, genets and bushbabies, guided bush walks, birding, and picnics out in the bush. Evenings end around the boma or the firepit, and meals are shaped around the group's own tastes, with Botswana dishes and cooking over the coals.
Yes, it is built for them. Two of its five tents are family units, each with two bedrooms side by side sharing an en-suite bathroom, so parents sleep next to the children rather than across camp. With only five tents in camp, a family soon feels the pool, the meals and the timings are its own.
For younger children we would build a private vehicle and guide into the stay, so drives leave when the family is ready and come back when the youngest has had enough. Rules on ages for some activities can change, so tell us the children's ages when you enquire and we will confirm what each of them can join before anything is booked.
Because of where it sits. The Gomoti and Santantadibe channels meet around it, half its northern boundary runs along Moremi Game Reserve, and in between lies a mix of floodplain, woodland and island, more than 22,000 hectares of it, that holds prey all year. Wild dog, lion, leopard and cheetah all hunt the concession, and sightings run through every season, though no sighting is ever certain.
It is also research ground. Wild Entrust Africa, which began in 1989 as the Botswana Wild Dog Research Project and now studies all of the Delta's large carnivores, has worked across this part of the Delta for decades, and stays at the camp help fund its work.
June to October, and for a land camp like Chitabe Lediba the height of the flood matters less than it does on the water. As the land around the Delta dries out, game gathers on the permanent water and the thinning bush makes predators easier to find, with July to September the standout months. June to August bring cold dawns, so warm layers matter in an open vehicle, and October is the hottest month, often above forty degrees. April, May and November are good shoulder months with fewer visitors.
The green season from December to March is harder going for big game, with animals spread out and the grass long, but it has a real case. Migrant birds are in full voice, young antelope are on the ground, storm skies make for dramatic photographs, and the camps are quiet and better priced.
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.
