The route runs across Zimbabwe and Botswana over 15 nights. It opens at Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi drops into the Batoka Gorge, then moves to the walking country of northern Hwange and the granite hills of Matobo, where rhino are tracked on foot. Crossing into Botswana, it reaches the salt pans of the Makgadikgadi at Nxai Pan, two stays in the Okavango Delta, and ends on the Chobe escarpment above the river.
You travel by light aircraft and road between camps, with game drives, walking safaris and, where the water allows, mokoro and boating. Days follow the wildlife on private concessions that permit night drives and off-road tracking. The accommodation runs from the closest hotel to the falls to thatched chalets and tented camps set on waterholes, lagoons and rivers, each small and led by resident guides.
You arrive at Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi drops into the Batoka Gorge along a curtain of falling water nearly 1.7 kilometres across; from August to October the flow is lower and the views of the individual cataracts are sharpest. Footpaths thread the rim rainforest to a run of viewpoints, and above the falls the river runs calm for cruises past hippos and crocodiles. The closest hotel to the falls on the Zimbabwean side, Ilala Lodge sits an eight-minute walk from the rainforest gate, its lawns bordering the national park where warthogs graze and elephants walk in to feed. It keeps its own Ra-Ikane cruise boats.
From Victoria Falls you move into northern Hwange, to a private concession where the safari is led on foot. Days follow the wildlife rather than the clock, tracking game and sitting with it, and night drives, forbidden inside the national park, run here. From July to October hundreds of elephants gather at the waterhole in front of camp, joined by buffalo, kudu and zebra, with a resident lion pride, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, roan and sable across the area. A mopane-log hide sits at the water's edge. Camp Hwange keeps eight thatched chalets and stays deliberately plain, the work of Zimbabwean guide Dave Carson.
A drive south of Bulawayo brings you into the Matobo Hills, granite whalebacks and balancing boulders worn from a two-billion-year-old batholith. Mornings go to tracking black and white rhino on foot, at walking pace, alongside armed guides in the Whovi game area; afternoons turn to San rock art on private ground, and night drives run on the estate, where leopards hunt the granite ridges. Set on a granite whaleback with boulders forming the walls of the lounge, Big Cave Camp has ten thatched chalets across the rock. Cyril Waddy bought the estate in 1947 and his family runs it still.
Crossing into Botswana, you reach Nxai Pan, part of the Makgadikgadi system, where a single pumped waterhole pulls wildlife in year-round. Giraffe gather at sunset with springbok, gemsbok and wildebeest, and a resident pride of lionesses and black-maned males works the water's edge, much of it seen from a chalet deck. Between November and April summer rain greens the fossil lake bed and thousands of zebra and blue wildebeest move in to graze and calve. Kwando Nxai Pan Camp is the only permanent lodge inside the park, nine thatched chalets facing the water, opened in 2009.
On into the Okavango Delta, to the Khwai Private Reserve on its north-eastern edge, where permanent water keeps the wildlife close. A resident pod of around thirty hippos holds the lily-covered lagoon in front of camp, and elephants, buffalo and lechwe work its edges. Private-concession status permits night drives, walking and off-road driving, so a leopard or serval can be followed rather than lost, and when the Delta fills mokoro and boating open the channels. Sable Alley is a contemporary tented camp on the lagoon, one of only a handful of camps in the 200,000-hectare reserve.
You stay in the Delta, moving to the Xudum River in the southwest, where the annual flood from the Angolan highlands sets the terms of the day. Outside park rules, guides leave the road, run night drives and walk out on foot; lion, leopard and wild dog hunt this ground, and elephant, red lechwe and hippo move through across the year. From July to December a heronry fills the flooded trees, and Pel's fishing owl turns up here often. Rebuilt in early 2025, Kanana holds five-star status, its open-sided lounge raised around an ancient fig tree above the floodplain.
The last stage moves north to the Chobe Forest Reserve, on a rocky escarpment above the river and the Caprivi floodplains. From May to October elephants come down to the water in large numbers, with buffalo, giraffe, kudu and impala, and sable and roan along the margins. Because the concession lies outside the national park, you walk in the morning and drive after dark; the signature outing is a full day of morning drive, riverbank picnic and an afternoon on the water among hippos and swimming elephants. Ngoma Safari Lodge has eight suites along the ridge, each with a plunge pool, opened in 2011 with the Chobe Enclave Conservation Trust.
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.
01 of 11
botswana
Thirteen nights linking two sides of the Okavango Delta to the salt flats of the Makgadikgadi, by drive, mokoro, boat and on foot.
01 of 11
botswana
Nine nights across three private northern Botswana concessions, from the Okavango floodplains to the Selinda Spillway.
01 of 39
botswana
Cross Botswana's wild north from Victoria Falls to the Okavango, tracking wild dog and leopard with a private mobile camp.
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.
