This nine-night route links three private concessions in northern Botswana. It opens in the far northern Okavango Delta, where flooded grassland draws buffalo herds and the lion prides that follow them. It moves to a riverine island in Moremi Game Reserve, ringed by permanent channels that hold their water the year round. It ends on the Selinda Spillway, the ancient channel that connects the Okavango and Linyanti systems.
You travel between the three by light aircraft, each landing on a concession airstrip. Days move with the water: game drives across open floodplains, mokoro and boat trips through lily-covered lagoons, night drives and guided walking. Each camp is small and set on private ground, chosen for its position rather than its scale.
You begin on a private island in the far northern Okavango Delta, on the NG23 concession, where open floodplains rather than woodland fill the view. Buffalo herds here run into the thousands and the lion prides that follow them hunt in daylight in a way still uncommon by Okavango standards. Because this is a private concession, drives run long and uninterrupted, guides can leave the road, and spotlit night drives and walks along the channels are all possible; in flood season boating and mokoro open up the reed-lined waterways. Duba Plains is a vintage-styled tented camp shaded by ebony, fig and garcinia, raised above the flood with decks that look straight onto it.
A short flight brings you to a riverine island in the western Okavango, within a private concession in Moremi Game Reserve. Deep permanent channels ring the island the year round, so days unfold on the water: mokoro through lily-covered lagoons, boat trips on the larger channels, and long stretches watching hippos and red lechwe from a raised deck. Being a private concession, this stretch permits night drives and off-schedule hours the public reserve does not. Xigera Lodge runs on one principle, anything anytime, with suites on stilts beneath jackalberry, mangosteen and leadwood, and interiors holding commissioned work from more than eighty African artists.
You fly on to the private Selinda Reserve, which runs between the Okavango and the Linyanti and Kwando systems. Walking is the whole point here, led by armed and trained guides who read tracks, dung and birdsong at a pace that brings the smaller detail into focus; when the spillway runs deep enough, two-person Canadian-style canoes replace the walk on the way back to camp. Selinda is regarded as one of Botswana's finest stretches for predators, with lion, leopard, cheetah and a regularly sighted pack of painted dogs. Selinda Explorers Camp is a four-tent walking camp under African ebony and mopane on the spillway's edge, with campaign-style interiors and meals cooked over open fire.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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botswana
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Thirteen nights linking two sides of the Okavango Delta to the salt flats of the Makgadikgadi, by drive, mokoro, boat and on foot.
rated five stars by our clients
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.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.
