WILDLIFE & WATERWAYS EXPLORATION SAFARI

On arrival at the Kasane Airport, you will be met by one of the guides from Wildlife Exploration Safaris and transfer you by road to Chobe National Park to our first camp site where we will spend our first accommodation. Today's journey takes us out of the ancient lake bed and Kalahari basin, through the teak forests that make up the north eastern part of Botswana. For a long part of the journey we will follow in the footsteps of famous missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone.

As your safari will start in Kasane, our northern safari capital.  You start by entering the contrasting Chobe region of the park. We spend the first two nights camping in a wilderness camp-site near the Chobe River, exploring the riverbanks and surrounding flood plains on game drives. On this part of the trip you will also enjoy a beautiful Chobe Boat Cruise. You will have early morning and late afternoon game drives conducted by your expert and experienced guidein ope-sided 4x4 safari vehicle to ensure maximum visibility of Chobe National Park ‘s spectacular scenary and abundant wildlife.

Chobe’s diverse wildlife roams in abudance. It is for instance home of the largest concentration of elephants in Africa. During dry season these large heards, as well as vast herds of buffalo, congregate on the fertile flood plains alon the Chobe River to drink bathe and play.

Spotted sightings in Chobe National Park; (The Park provides a unique water-based game viewing, such as the unforgettable sights of elephants herds swimming across the river, trunks raised - as well as bird watching, with more than 75 mammal species and 450  bird types. However, you will also encounter buffalos, zebras, impala, giraffes, tsessebe, roan, sable, Bat-eared foxes, waterbuck, puku and predators such as lions, leopards, cheetahs as well as the wild dogs).

We head further south en-route through Chobe National Park, where we spend the following three nights camping in a wilderness camp-site in the Savute region, exploring the desert-like landscape with game drives. Never has there been a better time to visit Savute! The water from the Savute Channel reached the marsh for the first time in 30 years in 2009 winding its way from the North. Savute has for the last 30 years been an extremely dry area and lately its claim to fame has been the lion and elephant interaction as they come for the few drops of water that remain in the waterholes. These dynamics have changed with the arrival of the water.

The Savute is characterised by the Savute Marsh, the Savute Channel and the surrounding Hills. During morning and late afternoon drives your guide will alternate between these areas. Anything can happen on the Savute Marsh and it’s best to get there early in the morning. Dominant features Savute are the Hills, one of which has a few perfectly preserved San Bushmen paintings which are easily accessible.

Savute has a very healthy population of leopard who live on these hills and the best time to see them is either at first or last light as they leave their stony refuge to hunt in the surrounding bush. In sharp contrast to the lush Chobe River Front is the seemingly endless desolate landscape of the Savute grasslands, famous for the dry marsh, sand ridge and volcanic hills, which are unique to this area. The marsh once contained the waters of the Makgadikgadi super-lake, and the most typical feature of the landscape is the abundance of dead trees – evidence of the erratic flow of the Savute Channel over the years.

Spotted sightings in Savute; (The area consists of large open game-filled plains, and is home to a variety of dry-land animals, including zebra, wildebeest, kudu, giraffe, wild dog, leopard, cheetah and lion).

Following an early breakfast we pack camp and continue our journey to Khwai, stopping for a picnic lunch en-route from Savute to Khwai Concession for another remarkable 3 nights. The Khwai River forms a boundary between the Moremi Game Reserve and the community area. We spend the next two nights camping at a camp-site in the community area, exploring the Khwai floodplains on game drives both during the day and at night.

Here, you will also enjoy a 2 ½ hour mokoro (dug-out canoe) trip exploring the water ways of Khwai which is the most eastern reach of the Okavango river system. As per the interest of the client, walking activity can be done whereby our expert guide led a walking safari. Walking in the bush with a professional guide is an exhilarating experience.

Exploring after dark with spotlights offers you a unique opportunity to experience some of the nocturnal animals that are rarely encountered during the day such as leopard, Aardwolf and porcupine and honey badger. It is important to note that night drives are not permitted within the National Parks and reserves. These activities are conducted outside the boundaries of the Moremi Game Reserve in the Khwai community area.

Spotted sightings in Khwai; ( Explore the ‘standard’ morning and afternoon game drives where you can see some of Africa’s best wildlife –such as, lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog, elephant, buffalo, hippo and giraffe).

Arrive from Khwai to Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, stopping for a picnic lunch en-route, and arriving at our camp-site in time for sun downers, where you will spend your last two nights.

We will explore the surrounding wilderness on game drives during the day. The Moremi Game Reserve forms part of the unique ecosystem called the Okavango Delta and Moremi covers up to one third of the Okavango. The total area of the Okavango covers up to 18 000 square kilometres of which the Moremi Game Reserve is 5000 square kilometres.

The Okavango is a unique ecosystem, an inland delta situated in the middle of the largest stretch of continuous sand in the world – the Kalahari basin. This wetland lies like an oasis in an otherwise inhospitable landscape. Where land and delta meet, a mosaic of pans, grasslands, forests and lagoons provide an extremely rich and diverse habitat in which a multitude of animals and birds flourish. This wetland is one of the natural wonders of the world, and is a fragile ecosystem that remains one of the world’s least spoilt and most beautiful wildernesses, and is home to various unique species. Moremi Game Reserve is situated in the eastern corner of the Okavango Delta. Moremi is one of the most beautiful and varied reserves found on the African continent with huge concentrations of wildlife and incredible scenery. The reserve consists of both swamped areas e.g. Xakanaxa, and dry-land areas e.g. Khwai.

Spotted sightings in Moremi; (It is home to nearly 500 species of bird from water birds to forest dwellers, and a vast array of other species of wildlife including Cape buffalo, Angolan giraffe, black rhinoceros, lion, elephant, hippopotamus, zebra, cheetah, hyena, jackal, impala, and red lechwe).