Trails Through Botswana safari

• Canoeing
• Big Five Game Viewing
• Okavango Delta

DAY 1 SELINDA RESERVE

Welcome to Africa! Your Botswana safari begins as you arrive in Maun, Botswana, where you will be met by your guide and assisted to your light aircraft for your flight to the Selinda Reserve and Selinda Camp, where you will enjoy your first night in Africa!

About Selinda Camp: There are few places on a northern Botswana safari as dynamic as the Selinda Reserve. A relaxed, yet luxurious tented safari camp, Selinda has established itself as one of the gems in the region. The shaded camp affords extraordinary views over the Selinda Reserve’s prolific floodplains and savannas. The extensive raised decks, surrounding both the main lounge and guest tents, allow you to enjoy a meal or a relaxing afternoon while still enjoying wildlife viewing. There is a hardly a moment in camp where there isn’t an animal in sight!
Accommodation Type & Location: Permanent Tented Camp located on the banks of the eastern Selinda Spillway in the 320,000 acre Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana
Guest Accommodations: Nine sturdy, canvas tents shaded with thatch roofing and raised on wooden decks. Each tent comes with a private verandah, lounge and en-suite bathroom facilities, with dual basin vanity, stone bath and antique shower
Activities: Activities on this Botswana safari include morning and afternoon game drives in open 4×4 vehicles, bush walks and boating activities (water levels permitting)
Wildlife: While on your Botswana safari at Selinda Camp, it is possible to see a tremendous diversity of species, from resident prides of lion to huge herds of elephant and packs of wild dog. It is also home to the ungulates, from the rare roan to the ubiquitous zebra. Nocturnal wildlife is prolific as well and there are frequent sightings of aardwolf and civet.

About the Selinda Reserve
There are few places on this northern Botswana safari as dynamic as the Selinda Reserve, which is centered on the famous Selinda Spillway, which weaves its way east, linking the far reaches of the Okavango Delta in the south with the Linyanti water systems in the east. The Selinda Reserve is west (upstream) from Savute Channel and Chobe, so it has all the advantages of both of those famous areas but with the tremendous advantage of exclusivity. It is a truly spectacular and unique landscape.  This Botswana safari is perfect for any adventurous traveler!

Overnight: Selinda Camp (B, L, D, Local Beverages & Laundry)

DAY 2 SELINDA RESERVE

Today your Botswana safari adventure begins! After breakfast, you will transfer with your guide to the starting point of the actual canoe trail. Once the guide has briefed you, the trail starts with a short late afternoon canoe experience before arriving at the evening’s first camp.

As there is a minimal distance to be covered on the first day of your Botswana safari, you will paddle until ready to stop, just before sunset, at a suitable site on the banks of the Spillway.

The dome-tented camp is erected and we enjoy a well-deserved sundowner around the campfire before dinner, followed by a good night’s sleep.

Overnight: Selinda Canoe Trail (B, L, D)

DAY 3 SELINDA RESERVE

After an early wake-up call, tea or coffee and light breakfast while the camp is being dismantled, you will head out on the canoes for a full day of paddling, with lunch en-route and the possibility of stretching your legs if you come across something worth investigating on foot. Tonight you will enjoy camp in another suitable location, gradually making your way down the Spillway.

Overnight: Selinda Canoe Trail (B, L, D)

DAY 4 SELINDA RESERVE

Start your next day of this Botswana safari with an early breakfast as camp is taken down, before continuing along the water course by canoe for another full-day excursion. Set up camp for the last night on your great adventure!

Overnight: Selinda Canoe Trail (B, L, D)

DAY 5 SELINDA RESERVE

Early this morning, you will head out after breakfast, aiming to finish at around your canoeing safari around 10:30am. Here you will be met by your driver guide and vehicle and will be transferred back to Selinda Camp for the evening.

Overnight: Selinda Camp (B, L, D, Local Beverages & Laundry)

DAYS 6, 7, 8 MAKGADIKGADI PANS

After your morning game drive and brunch, your Botswana safari continues as you transfer to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to Makgadikgadi Pans and Jack’s Camp, where you will enjoy your final three nights in Africa!

Accommodation Type & Location: Tented Camp located along the north-east side of the Makgadikgadi Pans.
Guest Accommodations: Ten green roomy and stylish canvas tents with en-suite bathrooms, including indoor. Outdoor showers, for those who want to feel the Kalahari breeze on their skin, have been fashioned in classical style and are set into a palm grove creating an oasis of civilization in what can be the harshest of stark environments. Persian rugs underfoot and cool cotton sheets form a striking contrast with the rugged wilderness viewed from the comfort of one’s own verandah.
Activities: Morning and afternoon game drives in traditional safari vehicles, nature walks, mokoro excursions & quad biking.
Wildlife: During the wet season the landscape transforms. Clouds of flamingo and other migratory birds descend from the heavens to decorate the watery grasslands. Herds of Zebra and wildebeest materialize, drawn by the lush grass and for several months, the desert is teeming with game and predators.

A safari to Jack’s Camp is also a complete desert experience focusing on species unique to the area such as aardvark, gemsbok and springbuck. It is the only place where guests are virtually guaranteed to see the rare and elusive brown hyena and be able to walk through the Kalahari with a gang of habituated but, wild meerkats!

About Makgadikgadi Pans
Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pans form an enormous flat landscape of salt pans and grasslands which forms part of the Kalahari Desert. May to November the area is dry and largely devoid of game but December to April the desert springs to life as rain showers bring fresh grass and huge herds of grazers and the predators that hunt them.

Overnight: Jack’s Camp (B, L, D, Local Beverages & Laundry)

DAY 9 YOUR JOURNEY ENDS

This morning your Botswana safari comes to an end as you transfer to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight back to Maun. On arrival in Maun, you will connect with your onward flight.