The Gomoti river runs through the south-eastern corner of the Okavango Delta, across a private concession, NG32, run in partnership with six Bayei villages. Permanent channels give way here to acacia and mopane woodland, so the wildlife works water and dry ground alike. The floodplain is smaller than the Delta’s headline lagoons, and its position is the point.
Permanent channels give way here to acacia and mopane woodland.
Lions, leopards, cheetah and wild dog move across a mosaic of floodplain, riverine forest and islands, crossing freely between the concession and neighbouring Moremi Game Reserve. The country is the predator-rich ground of Chitabe and Sandibe. The Gomoti’s channels rise and fall with the season, so the game moves with the water and the drives follow it.
Fewer vehicles work this ground than the Delta’s headline waters, and sightings come unhurried, some of them close enough to watch from the tents. The concession is private land, not national park, so guides can leave the road to follow wild dog, run night drives after dinner, and walk you out on foot with an armed guide. Moremi’s regulations would permit none of it.
When the annual flood fills the channels, the mokoro come out.
Ten canvas tents stand raised on wooden decks among riverine forest, under the gomoti trees, the water figs that give the camp its name and shade its verandas. When the annual flood fills the channels, the mokoro come out, and motorised boat trips with them. In lower-flood years both depend on levels, and may need a short drive to a launch point.
Andrew and Rhona Currell ran the camp in its early years, and the style they arrived at is classic tented safari with a modern edge. Light cream canvas rises on decking, the wardrobes and chairs are teak, and the earthy tones are drawn from the water and land of the Delta. Solar power runs the camp, and paraffin lamps are lit at dusk. It opened in April 2017 under Machaba Safaris, the first camp built under the Botswana Tourism Organisation’s tourism land bank initiative, within the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust concession.
Mornings start with a drive across floodplains that hold their mist until the sun burns it off. A single night drive here has turned up aardvark, leopard and lion in one outing. Between drives the day loosens its grip: impala graze near the main area, a lioness has been seen walking through camp at midday, and hippo and elephant cross the plain in front of the tents while fish eagles call from the river. Little of it needs to be sought out, and much of it simply arrives while you are sitting still with a book.
A single night drive here has turned up aardvark, leopard and lion in one outing.
Evenings begin at the campfire beyond the deck, paraffin lamps throwing a soft glow, before dinner served under canvas or outside beneath the stars. The kitchen calls its food bushfare, a mixture of Botswana cooking and home-style dishes from Batswana chefs, and it runs to kudu potjie, beef medallions, peppered mackerel and rooibos panna cotta. In the heat of the day a pool and loungers look over the floodplain, and a spa therapist brings massages and facials to the tents.
Light aircraft come in from Maun to a nearby airstrip, and a game drive of around forty-five minutes brings you to camp, wildlife often in view long before you arrive. Two family tents, each with two bedrooms, make the place workable for multi-generational groups, and no more than twenty-four guests are in residence at a time, so it never loses the sense of being small. Most of the staff come from the six Bayei villages the concession supports, and the operation funds training, education and drinking-water provision.
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accommodation
Ten canvas tents raised on wooden decks house up to 24 guests: eight luxury tents with double or twin beds, and two family tents with two bedrooms each. All but two tents overlook the river. Interiors combine teak furniture and cream canvas; en-suite bathrooms have twin basins, a flush toilet, and both indoor and outdoor showers.
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activities
Gomoti Plains lies in a private concession rather than Moremi Game Reserve, so guiding includes morning, afternoon and night game drives with off-road driving, plus guided walking safaris with armed guides. Mokoro and motorised boat trips run when water levels allow. Catch-and-release fishing for tilapia and bream, and birding across floodplain and forest, round out the activity list.
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conservation
The concession, NG32, is held by the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust and supports six Bayei villages, with most of the camp's staff drawn from them. The operation funds training, education and drinking-water provision in these communities. Rhino were released into the wider area in 2017, but the poaching surge that followed saw the Delta's rhino dehorned and moved to guarded sanctuaries, so the concession's conservation weight now rests on that community partnership.
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
Light aircraft from Maun land at the Qorokwe airstrip after roughly twenty minutes in the air, and coming south from Kasane the flight runs about an hour. A game drive carries you in from there. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, straight onto the same strip and timed to your international connections.
Soft bags only in the light aircraft, twenty kilograms a person including whatever you carry on.
Yes. The south-eastern Delta shares northern Botswana's malaria season, strongest from October to May when the rains stand in the channels, and antimalarial tablets are the standing recommendation of both the UK's official travel health advice and the CDC for this part of the country. Risk drops through the dry winter without reaching zero.
A travel clinic or your doctor should have the final word close to travel, and the usual precautions carry the rest: repellent, long sleeves at dusk, and the nets over the beds.
At any age, which is rarer in the Delta than you might think. Children of five and under stay free, though a family with under-sixes books a private vehicle, and six to elevens travel at a child rate. The two family tents each hold two bedrooms, so nobody ends up negotiating over camp beds.
The water draws its own line, with mokoro trips starting at twelve, and the walking safaris carry a minimum age of their own, so tell us exactly who is coming and we will set out which days suit whom.
Land is the constant and water is the seasonal guest. The drives, the night drives and the walks run every month of the year, while the mokoro and the boat wait on the annual flood, which reaches this corner of the Delta in the middle months of the year and recedes again as summer builds.
If gliding through the reeds is a must-have rather than a nice-to-have, tell us before we set dates. We will check the water outlook for your window and, if needed, pair the camp with a permanent-water island elsewhere in the Delta so the mokoro is guaranteed.
Accommodation, all meals, drinks short of the premium imported list, the activity programme, laundry and the transfers between airstrip and camp are all in the rate. Outside it sit a nightly conservation levy, tips and a handful of optional extras, in-tent spa treatments among them.
We fold the levy into your quote from the first draft, and if a private vehicle makes sense for your party we price that up front too.
Three nights sits well. The concession rewards repetition, because the same floodplain reads differently at dawn, at midday and under a spotlight, and a third day makes space for the unhurried sightings this quieter corner produces.
The camp also earns its keep as the first or last stop of a route, only twenty minutes from Maun by air, so it opens or closes an itinerary without eating a travel day. Tell us the wish list and we will balance the route around it.
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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.
