Botswana has people returning time and time again, this is because this varied country’s luxury safaris are completely different depending on the time of year you travel. In July and August the Okavango Delta floods, and in February and March the Kalahari comes alive with wild flowers and antelope. Luxury Botswana safaris have long been famed for their abundant wildlife and remote camps. Botswana’s policy of high income low impact means that no matter where you stay you are unlikely to see other tourists, but are likely to encounter some of Africa’s most extraordinary wildlife sights. No matter when you travel you can guarantee Botswana will offer up something unique, we outline our favourite unique experiences in Botswana below:
1. Meet the habituated meerkats at Jack’s Camp, San Camp or Camp Kalahari:
These tiny little families live in tight knit groups with very human characteristics. To sit with these meerkat groups in the morning or evening is one of Africa’s top wildlife experiences. They play and forage around you, a fascinating sight to see, especially as their own interaction with each other can be anything from hilarious to incredibly endearing or moving. The meerkats take it in turns to be on ‘sentry duty’ and if you are nearby they think nothing of climbing slowly onto your head to make sure they have the best vantage point of the surrounding bush. One of the guides employed to study one of the meerkat groups was rumoured to have missed his wife giving birth to their fourth child, in favour of remaining with the meerkat dominant female who was about to have her first litter – such is his dedication!
2. Have lunch IN the Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta water channels are crystal clear and your private safari will take you on a boat into some of the most remote channels. Your expert guide will pick a suitable spot where you can get off the boat and into the water, chairs will have been set up in the shallows and you can enjoy a wonderfully leisurely lunch with your feet being cooled by the warm water of this incredible Delta.
3. Sleep on an island in the Delta
Your boat safari might well produce another surprise. As you watch the sun go down over the glasslike pools of the Delta, only broken by the ripples of hippo pods nearby, you will be driven onwards and will come across a lantern lit island – here your fly camp will have been set up with comfortable mattresses and mosquito nets, complete with a throne toilet set out in the bush and gourmet food cooked over a campfire.
4. Go on a bushmen initiation hunt
The San Bushmen are the oldest traditional tribe in Africa – when in the Makgadikgadi region you can meet these amazing people, all of whom are friendly and charismatic. The experience is an authentic one and to watch them track game, or forage is fascinating – taking you right back to the early days of man. They are the best trackers in the world. You can join the young Bushmen on an Initiation Hunt – this is not for the faint hearted and requires grueling stamina but is certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
5. Ride an elephant through the Delta
Not only is Abu Camp (in the Okavango Delta) one of the most luxurious camps in Botswana, but for a long time they have had a habituated group of elephants, which either accompany you, or take you on safari. To see the bush through their eyes is to see real Africa and to walk with these gentle giants through pristine wilderness is nothing short of life changing.
Botswana is not just a wildlife-viewing destination, there is so much more to the vast expanses of protected wilderness.
