Twenty minutes after leaving Maun, light aircraft touch down on an airstrip beside Eagle Island Lodge, where a helicopter waits on its pad. From a doorless helicopter, the Delta’s channels read like a map. Down on this island of ilala palms in the Okavango Delta, guests explore by vehicle and on foot, and by mokoro once the flood arrives.
From a doorless helicopter, the Delta’s channels read like a map.
Xaxaba was among the first sites in the Delta picked for photographic safaris. In 2015 the lodge was rebuilt almost entirely on raised timber platforms, and each tented room gained its own deck and plunge pool over the water.
Between about June and September the flood spreads through the lagoons around the island. Polers push mokoro through lily pads and papyrus in near silence. Out on the lagoons, powerboats head off for catch-and-release fishing and sunset cruises. Most evenings end at the Fish Eagle Bar, a small open-air hut in front of the main pavilion, near the fire pit.
Polers push mokoro through lily pads and papyrus in near silence.
Game drives range further across the floodplains as the water recedes, and guided walks pick out tracks, droppings and termite mounds. Back at camp, hippos grunt from the channels and fish eagles call overhead. The elusive Pel’s fishing owl is seen here from time to time.
Helicopter flights leave straight from the pad beside camp, and the scenic ones trace the Okavango Delta’s channels. At water level, the same channels narrow to lanes of papyrus barely wider than a mokoro. One flight sets down at a stable, so that experienced riders can carry on across the floodplains on horseback. Others head to Elephant Havens, an orphanage for rescued elephant calves, or out to the rock art of the Tsodilo Hills.
Some 1,350 tonnes of concrete rubble were hauled off the island before the rebuild, and none of it went back. In its place came timber and reclaimed gum poles under local thatch, with solar panels carrying most of the power load. The pavilion bends around old trees in curves taken from ant nests, and borrows its white, brown and yellow from the fish eagle. In the tents, copper headboards are punched with water lilies, a nod to Botswana’s mining, and light passes through the pattern. The mosquito nets are grey, not the usual white, so the bush stays visible after dark.
At water level, the same channels narrow to lanes of papyrus barely wider than a mokoro.
Nxhoga village shares the island, and visits are led by a guide who grew up in a village much like it. Guests learn SeTswana greetings and walk between huts of mud, reed and tin cans. Along the way they watch baskets being woven and hear how the community fishes and governs itself. Younger guests have their own way in. Children are welcome at Eagle Island Lodge from six, and have a programme of their own: they bake with the chefs in the open kitchen and learn bush skills from the guides, reading spoor and spotting birds.
Lunch often comes out of the wood-fired pizza oven, and dinner moves around. Most nights it is served in the pavilion, from menus that set local Setswana dishes beside international ones. Other evenings bring a braai around the campfire. On others, dinner is a picnic out in the bush, or a private table on a tent’s deck. After dark, staff walk guests back to their tents along the raised walkways, past the embers of the fire pit.
accommodation
Twelve tented rooms are raised on timber platforms under thatch, each with a deck over the lagoon, a plunge pool and loungers. Inside there is air conditioning and WiFi. The bathroom has a free-standing bath, twin basins and showers indoors and out. Each sleeps up to two adults.
activities
Game drives and guided walks are part of every stay. From about June to September the flood adds mokoro excursions, powerboat outings, sunset cruises and catch-and-release fishing. Helicopter trips reach Elephant Havens and the Tsodilo Hills, or pair a flight with a horseback ride.
conservation
Guests can fly to Elephant Havens, which cares for orphaned elephant calves. The lodge also organises rubbish removal and recycling lessons, and uses its helicopter for emergency flights to hospital in Maun.
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, since no road reaches Xaxaba Island: about twenty minutes from Maun to the Xaxaba airstrip, which sits a few minutes' drive from the tents. Most guests share a scheduled flight that may stop at one or two camps on the way. The same flights connect the lodge with Kasane and with the other Delta camps, so it fits anywhere on a Botswana route.
To fly on your own timings, we can book a private charter straight into the Xaxaba strip, usually in a Cessna Grand Caravan EX, which seats eleven and of which Mack Air alone flies twenty-two out of Maun. On any of these flights, bring soft-sided bags rather than hard suitcases, which the small cargo hold cannot take easily.
Both, though the water side follows the flood. Game drives and guided walks run all year with the lodge's guides and trackers, and you never walk alone. The floodplains and palm islands around Xaxaba hold elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hippo, lion and leopard, and African wild dog pass through now and then.
The mokoro trips through the lilies and papyrus, the powerboat outings with a sunset cruise, and catch-and-release fishing for African pike, tilapia and catfish all need high water, which usually fills the channels from about June to September. In the other months we build the stay around drives, walks and a visit to Nxhoga, the village on the same island, which is reached by vehicle once the water drops.
Three, all at extra cost and best booked with the rest of the trip. The first pairs a short scenic flight at first light with a guided horseback ride across the floodplains and palm islands, either a half day or a full day in the saddle. It is for confident, experienced riders only, with age and weight limits that we check for each guest when we book.
The other two go further afield. One flies to Elephant Havens, a charity near Maun that rescues orphaned elephant calves and raises them for release back into the wild, for time with the young elephants and their handlers. The other is an hour's flight to the Tsodilo Hills, a World Heritage Site in the Kalahari with more than 4,500 rock paintings, sacred to the San.
Yes, from the age of six. The lodge has its own programme for children: baking in the kitchen with the chefs, safari storytelling, fishing, learning bush skills and putting names to the local plants, so younger guests have something of their own between the drives and the boat trips.
Each of the twelve tented rooms is built for two, stands on a raised platform reached by steps, and has its own plunge pool on an open deck, so small children need an adult close by. It suits children old enough to enjoy long hours outdoors. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will work out the rooms and the activities with the lodge before anything is booked.
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 risk as low, and low risk is still not no risk. The American CDC lists the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among those where it recommends preventive medicine.
We are travel planners, not doctors, so we do not make medical recommendations. Whether to take them, and which kind, is a decision for you and your doctor or a travel clinic, with your travel dates to hand. In any month, long sleeves and repellent from late afternoon onwards keep bites down.
June to October, when the Kalahari around the Delta is dry and the game gathers on the islands and at permanent water. Around Xaxaba Island the flood usually fills the channels from about June to September, so those months give the full mix of drives, walks, mokoro and boat trips. October is the hottest month, often past 40 degrees, with the game at its most concentrated.
November to March is the green season, and it has a strong case of its own: migrant birds are breeding, young antelope are on the ground, storm skies make for dramatic photographs and the camps are at their quietest. The bush is thicker and the channels are low, so the days centre on drives and walks, and an extra night pays off.
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.
