13 - DAY EXPLORE NORTHERN OKAVANGO CAMPING TRIP

We pick you up from O R Tambo International Airport and take you to the Lodge/Hotel that you had booked. We have a small briefing about the tour.

We pick you up from your Lodge/hotel and leave the cement jungle of Johannesburg behind and to the North West close to the Border of Botswana. We go on our first sunset game drive. Based in the North West province, Thabana Safari Lodge is only a short journey away.
The scenic view of the Dwarsberg mountains and the valley below us offers great photographic opportunities and affords nature lovers the chance to explore the African bush on foot or open game viewing vehicles, accompanied by professional guides.

We enter Botswana just after Breakfast and near Kang at Kalahari Rest camp. We relax around the swimming pool before dinner. Kalahari Rest offers tourists all the comforts and amenities of home whilst experiencing the beauty of Botswana. 

We continue our journey to Ghanzi where we book in at Tautona Lodge.  We go and meet the Bushmans and learn about their culture. Accompany a small band of Bushman, with an interpreter, as they go about a number of their traditional activities: The San/Bushman men's hunting, tracking, and trapping skills are fascinating and offer some clues as to how they were able to survive and unlock the secrets of the Kalahari Desert. The San/Bushman women will gather an astounding array of edible foods, medicinal roots, and other surprises. This intimate knowledge of survival in a harsh but natural environment, which has been lost to us, remains a reminder of all humankind's evolution.

Today we leaving Ghanzi to Maun. Maun is a town on the Thamalakane River in northern Botswana. It's the jumping-off point for the vast inland Okavango Delta, which becomes a lush wildlife habitat during the seasonal floods. In the delta, safari camps dot the Moremi Game Reserve, which is home to hippos, lions, and rhinos. In the town, the Nhabe Museum features local art, plus history and cultural exhibits about the surrounding Ngamiland region.

We go into the Okavango Delta for a hike on Chiefs Island where we have a picnic lunch. The largest island in the Okavango Delta, Chief’s Island, is situated in the prestigious Mombo concession of the renowned Moremi Game Reserve. You’ll find the fascinating Big Five and many other wild animals on Chief’s Island. The predators on this island are particularly well known. High concentrations of top prey species, such as buffalo, impala, wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, tsessebe, and warthog, are drawn to its expansive floodplains and variety of habitats. 

We left our camping site and into Moremi Game Reserve. Moremi Game Reserve is in northern Botswana, in the Okavango Delta, which becomes a lush animal habitat during seasonal floods. Dugout canoes are used to navigate past birdlife, hippos, and crocodiles on waterways like the Xakanaxa Lagoon. On land, wildlife includes lions, leopards, and rhinos. Safari camps are common, with several dotted around large Chief's Island and the forested Mopane Tongue Peninsula. 

We explore Moremi and see if we can spot the Bic 5. A 100 years after explorer David Livingstone called this land a ‘country full of rivers’, the environment and wildlife in the Moremi area were under threat. It is because of the bold, local Batawana people that this area was proclaimed Moremi Game Reserve in 1963, making Moremi the oldest and first protected reserve of the Okavango Delta. As a sign of gratitude, the reserve is named after Batawana tribe members, Chief Moremi III and his wife. Now, the Moremi Game Reserve is one of the most diverse reserves with surprises everywhere, even for the most seasoned Africa-travelers.

We start leaving Moremi just after breakfast and make our way back to Maun. If we back around Lunch time there will be time for some Optional activities like flying over the delta, visiting some museums, or doing game viewing on horseback.

We said goodbye to Maun and continued our trip to the south where we booked in at Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a community-based wildlife project in Botswana, located about 25 kilometers outside of Serowe. It covers approximately 8,585 hectares of Kalahari sandveld and is home to white and black rhinos as well as over 30 other mammal species and more than 230 species of birds. We go on a sunset Game drive with rangers of the Park.

Today we are up early and continue to the border to enter South Africa. After the border, we have some lunch at Buffalo Thorn Safari Lodge and Stay the Night.

We have breakfast before we leave for Johannesburg where we say our goodbyes, and our tour ends.