TRAVEL: On safari in Botswana By Susan Henderson For You Magazine Published: 12:01 BST, 17 August 2024 | Updated: 12:01 BST, 17 August 2024 e-mail View comments Outline Botswana’s vast wildernesses make for exceptional big-game viewing and it’s home to the world’s largest elephant population. On the itinerary are three lodges, two Unesco World Heritage sites and dramatically different landscapes: Chobe National Park’s savannah in the north and the floodplains of the Okavango Delta to the west. Star line First check-in is at the Moorish-style Chobe Game Lodge by the Chobe River on the Namibia border.
This eco-certified grande dame of safari stops, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton honeymooned second time around in 1975, last year marked 50 years of five-star hospitality, and its 44 comfy-colonial rooms ooze old-school elegance. Fast food: lions hunt their next meal. Feline No lie-ins here.
Snuggled in blankets, guests set off by jeep in the dawn chill with one of the Chobe Angels – as the all-female team of guides here are known – at the wheel. Being the only lodge inside Chobe National Park means a handy head start on other visitors and our reward is a rare front-row view of a lion pride tearing into its cape buffalo breakfast. Next up: six lionesses stalking a buffalo herd and taking down a straggler in a cloud of dust.
In quick succession we tick off nervy impalas, treetop-nibbling giraffes and an endearing warthog family snuffling around, oblivious to its excited audience – all before 9am. Monkey line Tempting as it is to lounge at the lodge under the mahogany trees, we’re all here for the animal action so, fortified by a full English breakfast, it’s down to the jetty for the next safari, by river. Silent solar-powered boats allow for close-up inspection of baboons engrossed in grooming, while babies play-fight by the river’s edge under the gaze of hopeful crocodiles lurking in the reeds.
Downstream, paddling elephants and hippos snoozing in a mud pool are added to the day’s tally. Chalet life at Savute Safari Lodge Chat line Trade tales over a martini at the Bedouin-style cigar bar – all dark wood and swagged ceiling – or the rooftop cocktail lounge, which had to be enclosed after staff discovered a large baboon perched at the counter clutching a bottle of rum. Get in line Hop on a tiny plane and head southwest to luxuriate at Savute Safari Lodge, a cool, contemporary boutique destination with 11 chalets by a busy water hole.
Here the wildlife comes to you: sit around the firepit and catch the parade of animals taking turns to drink (there’s a submerged hide for land-level views). Venture further afield to spot endangered African wild dogs, spiral-horned kudu, ostriches and wildebeest roaming in the bush. A picnic-area pitstop brings black-faced vervet monkeys crowding round for a treat, though the only signs of a leopard, which tops my wish list, are tantalising tracks in the sand.
Water line It’s another short flight westward to the Okavango Delta – a Unesco World Heritage site – and Nxamaseri Island Lodge. The final leg is by motorboat through grassy wetlands and channels bordered by tall wispy papyrus. Thatched canvas-covered chalets, raised on stilts under the forest canopy, are a mashup of treehouse and tent.
With only nine cabins, spaced along an elevated boardwalk, there’s an intimate family feel here. Neighbours can be noisy, though, and chef’s menu rundown gets interrupted by heckling hippos. Tough crowd! Flight line Glide across floodplains studded with white and lilac waterlilies in a pole-powered traditional mokoro canoe, passing wading donkeys as herons take flight from the marshes.
This is paradise for bird lovers: a kaleidoscope of metallic blue starlings, kingfishers, lilac-breasted rollers, red-billed hornbills and green and yellow little bee-eaters. Incline Factor in a day trip to the Tsodilo Hills, another Unesco World Heritage site, with their treasure trove of around 4,000 ancient rock paintings – and be prepared for a climb. Horizon line Toasting the sunset in an epic setting is a daily ritual.
Capture an orange sky and black trees mirrored in the water like an inkblot, or a solitary bull elephant enjoying a dust bath, silhouetted against a low red sun, and watch the Instagram ‘likes’ roll in. Buy line From £3,890 for this six-night, three-lodge, all inclusive safari, including internal Botswana flights only; desertdelta.com.
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