Jao Camp is raised on stilts into the canopy of a wooded island in Botswana’s north-western Okavango Delta, on a private reserve run by one Maun family. Out on the open plains, game drives follow lion and wild dog. When the flood is up, the island turns to the water, and mokoro and motorboats slip away through lily-covered channels.
Out on the open plains, game drives follow lion and wild dog.
David Kays comes from a family that has lived in Maun for more than a century. In 1998 he and Cathy Kays won the NG25 concession, and in July 1999 opened Jao as one of its first three camps. They still run the reserve with their son Martin, holding it to six camps across some 60,000 hectares on Moremi Game Reserve’s western boundary, none larger than eight rooms. Several have been rebuilt in recent years, one at a time.
In late 2018 Jao closed and was rebuilt from the ground up, reopening on 1 June 2019 with seven units on raised boardwalks. Steel, timber and glass lift the camp among the palms. Wildlife often passes close to camp, so guests are walked to their rooms after dark. The whole camp runs on solar power.
Wildlife often passes close to camp, so guests are walked to their rooms after dark.
Each of the five suites has a fireplace for winter nights and a deck with a plunge pool. Inside are a lounge and dressing room, a bath, and showers indoors and out. The two villas sleep up to four, each with its own guide, vehicle, chef and butler, so a family sets the length of every drive. A pool pavilion cantilevers out over the floodplain. There is also a gym and a two-room spa.
In this part of the Okavango Delta the water rises through the dry winter months, spreading across the plains around camp. As the flood comes up, boats carry guests to Hunda Island, the reserve’s largest dry landmass, for longer drives, sometimes with a picnic lunch in the bush. Closer to camp, herds of red lechwe wade the shallows. On the open ground lion, leopard, wild dog and spotted hyena hunt, while buffalo and cheetah range through the reserve as well.
Polers work the mokoro through the shallows, and because the canoes carry no engine, sitatunga in the papyrus can be approached quietly. Motorboats reach further, out along the deeper channels to lagoons where hippos surface and Nile crocodiles lie on the sandbanks. Birders come for Pel’s fishing owl, though the list runs on through slaty egret and wattled crane, black crake and malachite kingfisher. The fishing is catch-and-release, for tigerfish and bream, and runs only when the water allows.
After dark the reed frogs ping like tapped wine glasses, and the bull hippos bellow
Because the reserve is a private concession rather than a national park, drives can carry on after dark with spotlights, and private drives can be arranged. Guides also lead walks, reading spoor and pointing out the island plants and smaller creatures a vehicle rolls past. A short light-aircraft flight out of Maun reaches the Jao airstrip, followed by a brief drive to camp or, when the flood is high, a boat ride along the channels.
Between outings, life moves up into the main area, high in the trees, where fires are lit indoors and out. Beside a wine cellar of South African wines, the gallery holds a library, regional maps and articulated skeletons, a full giraffe among them. After dark the reed frogs ping like tapped wine glasses, and the bull hippos bellow. The bellowing carries up from the channels below the walkways, and dinner goes on beneath it, moved some nights to the open-air boma or served privately on a suite or villa deck.
accommodation
Seven units on raised boardwalks: five suites and two two-bedroom villas. Suites have a lounge, dressing room, bath, indoor and outdoor showers, heating and cooling, a fireplace and a deck with plunge pool. Villas sleep up to four in two en-suite rooms around a shared living area, with their own pool and fire deck.
activities
Morning, afternoon and night drives run inside a private concession. Private drives and guided walks are offered. When the flood is up, mokoro, motorboat and catch-and-release fishing trips run, and boats reach Hunda Island for longer drives, sometimes with a picnic lunch.
conservation
Across 60,000 hectares bordering Moremi Game Reserve, the Kays family protects the wetland and counts its wildlife from the air each year. The reserve sources goods and services locally where it can and supports education and conservation in nearby communities. Jao runs entirely on solar power.
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. International flights land at Maun, and a short hop in a small plane brings you down on the Jao airstrip, inside the reserve. The same shared flights work the circuit between the Delta camps, so Jao can just as easily be reached from the previous camp on your route. From the airstrip the camp is a short transfer by vehicle, or by boat when the flood is high.
For your own timings, we can arrange a private charter into the Jao airstrip, usually a Cessna Grand Caravan EX, an eleven-seat aircraft that makes up most of the Maun charter fleet. Whichever way you fly, pack in soft bags and keep it light, because space in the hold of a bush plane is tight.
One family. Through their own company, David and Cathy Kays, whose family has lived in Maun for more than a century, won the private concession in 1998 and opened Jao as one of its first three camps the following year. Their son Martin joined them in 2005 and now runs the reserve day to day, and the family sells and books its camps itself.
They have kept it small. Some 60,000 hectares on the western boundary of Moremi Game Reserve hold just six camps, the largest with eight rooms and the smallest with three. The family has rebuilt the camps one by one: Jao in 2019, the two Tubu camps in 2024 and Kwetsani in 2026.
Both, which is the main reason to choose it. Game drives run all year, by day and after dark, and guided walks set out on foot with a guide, so you never walk alone. Lion, leopard, wild dog and hyena follow the red lechwe across the floodplains, and sitatunga keep to the reeds.
The water side depends on the flood. When the channels fill, usually through the dry winter months, the camp adds mokoro trips through the reeds, motorboat outings, catch-and-release fishing and boat trips out to Hunda Island, the largest dry ground in the reserve. In the low-water months those are not on offer, so we check the levels for your dates before building them into the plan.
Yes, and the two villas are built for it. Each has two identical bedrooms for up to four people, its own living room, plunge pool and fire pit, and comes with a private guide, vehicle, chef and butler, so a family keeps its own hours and eats when the children are hungry rather than at the camp's set times.
The five suites each sleep two and suit older children sharing with parents or in a suite of their own. Every suite and villa has a plunge pool on an open deck above the water, so small children need an adult close by at all times. Tell us the ages when you enquire and we will plan the activities around each child.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates the northern half of Botswana, which takes in the whole Delta, as high risk for malaria from October to May and recommends antimalarial tablets then. From June to September it rates the risk as low, which is not the same as no risk. The CDC names the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among the places where it recommends preventive medicine.
We plan safaris; we are not doctors, and we make no medical recommendations. Whether you take tablets, and which ones, is your decision with your own doctor or a travel clinic, ideally with your travel dates to hand. Whatever the month, cover up and use repellent from the late afternoon on.
June to October. The Kalahari around the Delta dries out, the game draws in to permanent water and, in a twist of timing, the flood from the Angolan highlands arrives at the same time, so the channels are full just as the bush is at its driest. July to September is the standout for doing both drives and water trips, and October brings the tightest gatherings of game but can pass 40 degrees.
November to March is the green season, and it has a real case of its own: migrant birds arrive, young antelope are on the ground, the storm light is wonderful for photographers and the camps are at their quietest. Game spreads out in the thicker bush, so give it a night or two longer.
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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.
