Three timber towers rise five metres above the Khwai Private Reserve, each with an open double bed on the top deck. There are no walls and no roof. Only mosquito netting stands between the bed and the Botswana sky. Elephants pass beneath the stilts on their way to the waterhole below, and a dome tent with two single beds waits on the platform if rain moves in.
Three timber towers rise five metres above the Khwai Private Reserve
Skybeds cannot be booked on its own. A night or two is added to a stay at one of the reserve’s camps, among them Tuludi, Sable Alley, Little Sable and Elephant Pan. Guests come across in the late afternoon, often by way of a sunken hide at a second waterhole, arriving in time for sundowners. Morning brings coffee by the fire and a walk for those who want it before the drive back. The sleep-out runs April to October.
The waterhole in front of the platforms is heard more than watched. Bare game trails radiate from the pan like spokes of a wheel, and after dark the traffic on them announces itself: the low rumble of elephants, splashing, hippo grunting, hyenas calling from a den nearby. Lion, buffalo, giraffe and, on occasion, wild dog use the water through the dry months, most of it reaching guests as sound.
Bare game trails radiate from the pan like spokes of a wheel.
Dinner is cooked over coals and eaten at a long table on the dining deck or beside the fire, sundowners first, plates passed around. Beds are turned down with white cotton, thick feather duvets and hot water bottles, which earn their place in June and July when the warmth drops away fast after dark. There is no power on the platforms, so cameras and phones charge at the dining deck.
The towers went up in 2016, the idea of four of Natural Selection’s founders. Among them was Colin Bell, who co-founded Wilderness Safaris in 1983, alongside Dave van Smeerdijk, Dr Jennifer Lalley and James Ramsay. Each tower is timber and canvas, a staircase off the ground giving on to an enclosed bathroom on the first level with flush loo, basin and shower, a dressing area above it, and the open bed on top under the stars.
Khwai Private Reserve covers 200,000 hectares in the northeast corner of the Okavango Delta, a joint venture between the Khwai community, the Khwai Development Trust, private partners Kevin and Shannon Lang, and the camp operator. It was a hunting concession before the switch to photographic tourism. Because this is private land and not national park, the guiding is freer: vehicles can go out after dark and guides can walk with guests, neither of which is permitted in the neighbouring Moremi Game Reserve.
Animals at the waterhole often show up first as reflections on the water.
Elephants come in past the towers through the night, and the mosquito net is the only thing between the bed and the sound of them, so sleep is not guaranteed. The bathroom sits a level below the bed, which means a climb down in the dark if it is needed. Around ten steps reach the first level and more take you to the top deck, so the platforms suit nobody unsteady on their feet or uneasy with heights, and step-free access is not possible. Hot water for the shower comes on request or first thing in the morning, not necessarily on demand.
Couples make up most of the guest list, and a group of six can take all three towers for exclusive use, the whole camp to themselves. The minimum age is generally set in the mid-teens, dropping to 12 when a family books the whole camp, and children are never left on the platforms unsupervised. The best of it comes in the last light before dinner. Animals at the waterhole often show up first as reflections on the water. Helicopter flights over the Delta can be arranged from the reserve’s camps.
accommodation
Three freestanding timber platforms sleep a maximum of six. Each rises three storeys: an enclosed bathroom with flush loo, basin and shower on the first level, a dressing area above, and an open deck on top holding a double bed under mosquito netting, white cotton and a feather duvet. Hot water bottles come at bedtime.
activities
Game drives to and from the platforms, with a stop at a sunken hide set at eye level with a second waterhole. Night drives and guided walks are both permitted on Khwai Private Reserve as private land, unlike in the neighbouring Moremi Game Reserve. Sundowners on the dining deck, stargazing from the open bed, and a walk before breakfast. Helicopter flights from the camps.
conservation
Rangers on Khwai Private Reserve run wildlife monitoring patrols, collecting data and clearing invasive plants. The Khwai Village grass harvesting project supports local harvesters through the three-month season, and the Coaching Conservation programme works with village children. Giraffe research continues across the wider reserve.
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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No, and that is the first thing to know. Skybeds is not a camp with a reception and a kitchen of its own to check into for a week. It is three sleeping platforms above a waterhole, and a night or two here is added to a stay at one of the other camps in the Khwai Private Reserve.
So the booking runs the other way round from the usual: we hold your camp first, then add the Skybeds night to it. Getting there is by light aircraft from Maun into the reserve's airstrip and then by road, the same as for the camp you are staying at. The platforms are open from April to the end of October and closed for the rest of the year, so the dates decide themselves.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, classes 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, then as low risk for the rest of the year, when it advises awareness of the risk and avoiding bites. The CDC names the Okavango and Ngamiland districts among the parts of the country for which it recommends prescription medicine to prevent malaria.
We plan safaris rather than give medical advice, so the decision belongs with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, and it is worth a check close to departure. This one matters more here than at most places, because you are sleeping in the open with mosquito netting rather than walls between you and the night. Cover up properly at dusk, use repellent before dinner rather than after it, and let the netting do the rest.
From sixteen, and that is a firm line rather than a guideline: the beds are on open platforms five metres up, with no walls and no roof.
There is one exception. If a family books and pays for all three platforms exclusively, children of twelve to fifteen are allowed, provided each one shares a platform with an adult. Below twelve, no. If you are travelling with younger children, the camp you are staying at in the reserve is the place for them and the Skybeds night is one for the adults another time.
No wifi, and that is deliberate. You can charge a camera or a phone at the main platform over dinner, and that is the extent of it. Whatever you want to read or listen to needs downloading before you leave the camp you came from.
If the weather turns there is a dome tent with two single beds on the platform, so a night here is not lost to rain, and the bathroom with its shower sits on the second level below the bed. Elephants pass beneath the stilts on their way to the waterhole, which is the point of the place, so a torch and an early night are more use than a screen.
The platforms open in April and close at the end of October, and the later months are the better ones. Through September and October the waterhole below is one of the few places left holding water, so the traffic beneath the beds is at its heaviest, and October afternoons run into the middle thirties with warm nights, which is far more comfortable for sleeping in the open than midwinter.
June and July are the coldest, with mornings near eight degrees and colder still on an open deck five metres up, so if that is when you are coming, take a warm hat, gloves and proper layers rather than a jumper. Whatever the month, take a head torch, insect repellent, and only what you need for one night, because everything goes up the stairs with you.
One, or two at most, and always alongside a proper stay in the reserve. A single night is the classic: dinner by the fire, an early climb up, the waterhole working below you, and breakfast before the day's game drive from your camp. Two nights suits a photographer who wants the same light twice.
The practical shape we would build is three or four nights at one of the reserve's camps with a Skybeds night dropped into the middle of it, so the day either side is a normal safari day and the night in the open is the thing you remember. Because the platforms are exclusive to your party once booked, they also suit two couples travelling together rather better than they suit a crowd.
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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.
