Botswana Holidays

Chobe Game Lodge offers riverboat safaris as well as 4×4 game drives and, as the only camp located inside Chobe National Park, there is the chance to see wildlife before anyone else arrives. Game drives will take you deep into the national park, which is home to the largest population of elephants in Africa. On the riverboat safaris, you will glide silently along the Chobe. You will stop for sundowners in a big open area where animals come to drink.

Morning game drives set off at around 5.30am, stopping for coffee and biscuits in the bush halfway through, and in the afternoon you will leave at 3.30pm before returning to the lodge for sundowners. You will go deep into the national park, which is home to the largest population of elephants in Africa – around 120,000. You may see large herds of elephants as well as lions, buffaloes, wildebeest, giraffes, antelopes and, if you’re lucky, the occasional leopard lazing in the trees. Lechwe flats is a favourite game viewing area with guests and the landscapes are amazing too; you can see the beautiful Chobe River with views across to Namibia as you cross the dry, dusty plains.

On the riverboat safaris, you will head out in the afternoon in small pontoons, which are all electric and solar-powered. Glide silently along the Chobe, heading west away from the other boats, so that you are usually the only boat in the area. You may spot crocodiles and hippos in the water as well as elephants and other animals on the riverbank. There are lots of birds too, including fish eagles hunting from the river. After a couple of hours, you will stop for sundowners in a big open area beside the river, where animals come to drink. Watch the sun set over the river, which is always spectacular – all deep reds and oranges, reflecting on the water below.

Everyone knows about the Great Migration in the Serengeti, but not many people talk about Botswana’s migration. But every year, thousands of zebra and wildebeest make their way from the wetlands of the north to the pans to seek fresh grass, marking the second-biggest zebra migration in Africa.

Leroo La Tau is based right in front of the Boteti River, so you will get to see all this wildlife grazing outside the lodge from around May to November, as well as the predators that follow. When the water is high enough,  motorised boat trips on the Boteti River are offered so you can witness all of the action. See zebras and elephants coming to drink, as well as other game such as impalas, kudus and giraffes. Being on the river gives you a unique perspective of the area.

The main activity here revolves around game drives. Enjoy morning and afternoon drives in Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, which sits just across the river and attracts lots of wildlife. You may see lions, elephants, giraffes, hyenas, bushbucks, kudus and more roaming the grassland and scrubland – sometimes you might even spot a leopard or cheetah. On the afternoon trips, you will stop for snacks and sundowners as the sun sets over the Boteti River, painting the sky and river red.

In prehistoric times, the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan was one of the biggest inland lakes in the world – it’s now a huge collection of salt flats, covering more than 6,000 square miles in total. It looks like the moon, and you get the sense it just stretches on forever. A very special experience is to sleep out on the pans. The best thing about this experience is the silence of it all – there’s nobody else for miles around, and you get a real sense of the vastness of these sprawling pans.

Leroo La Tau have been offering daytrips here for a while, taking guests to the Nxai Pans, located around a four-hour drive from the lodge. A very special experience is to sleep out on the pans. The experience is offered free for anyone staying three nights or more in the dry season (July to the end of October) and you will be taken out in groups of up to six, although it can also be booked privately.

The sleep out is located around a five to six-hour drive from the lodge, so you will leave straight after breakfast, stopping for lunch on the way and arriving late afternoon. For an extra charge, 30-minute helicopter transfers are also available, which take guests over the pans to see these vast, glittering landscapes from above. On arrival, there are bedrolls laid out and a toilet – and then it’s just a huge stretch of white. A traditional bush dinner is prepared and served round an open fire with drinks as you watch the sun set over the pans. Then, when it gets dark, the stars come out. There’s no light pollution here so it feels like being in a real-life planetarium.

In the morning, you will be served a continental breakfast before making the journey back across the pans to the lodge, sharing stories from the experience. It does get cold, so bring plenty of layers.

At Leroo La Tau there is a big emphasis on supporting the local community which guests get a chance to see it in action. On the last day of your stay, on the way to the airstrip, you can be taken to the village of Khumaga, where most of the staff live. You will be warmly welcomed by the local residents and this experience offers a completely different side to the rest of your holiday, leaving you feeling culturally enriched and more knowledgeable about the region and its people.

The local primary school, which they began working with in 2008 is supported in a number of ways. It’s one of the initiatives funded by Desert & Delta Safaris – guests booking the Community and Conservation package contribute towards these projects.

There is a tour around the village to see some of the houses. Stop in a local shop and see the clinic – you might find yourself speaking to the shop owner or a nurse, hearing stories from the people that call the village home.

The Moremi Game Reserve is known for its different ecosystems. The landscapes change from deep waterways and floodplains to open savannah and forests which attracts a huge range of wildlife.

You may see lions, buffaloes, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras and impalas. If you’re lucky you might spot a cheetah or a leopard. The highlight for many, though, is seeing the endangered wild dog – they’re exceptional hunters and you often see large packs together. The area is also home to the rare lechwe and sitatunga antelopes as well as big herds of elephants.

Game drives will take you to see all this, visiting different spots like Douglas Island, Maya Pan and Dead Tree Island, which is named for its landscape of barren mopane trees, which drowned when the channel changed. At Paradise Pools you may see antelopes drink around the watering holes next to swamps filled with reeds. These islands offer amazing flora and fauna and are popular grazing areas for a variety of animals and birdlife.

As well as game drives, you can join motorboat tours on the lagoons and channels, with chances to spot hippos, crocodiles and lots of colourful birdlife – especially in the spring and summer, when migrant birds are breeding. Fish eagles, crested cranes and the sacred ibis are among the birds that call this area home, and you will get a different perspective when you see it all from the water. Sundowners in the bush as the sun sets is a memory that will stay with you.

Among the lagoons, channels, woodlands and islands of the Okavango Delta, you will be blessed with some of the most incredible wildlife-spotting in Botswana. There are several different ways to experience the region. Among the most popular activities are the walking safaris where being on foot gives you a completely different perspective.

Motorboats take guests to one of the islands to embark on a hike with an armed ranger. As you cruise along the river you might spot hippos, crocodiles or occasionally the rare sitatunga antelope. The morning light on the papyrus plants and water lilies is always beautiful.

Once on the island, you follow the guide in single-file, stopping to see wildlife while learning about the medicinal properties of the plants. It's a good opportunity to see the smaller things that might have been overlooked on a game drive, like the foam nest frog, which produces a fascinating nest in the tree. You can learn so much from even a pile of dung; you can see what the baboons have been scratching at and what the dung beetles have been busy at.

Seeing big game on foot is always special too – it might be an elephant, a buffalo, a giraffe or even a lion. Occasionally you might be lucky enough to see a full pride. Being on foot gives you a completely different perspective of the size of these animals.

The highlight of the delta for many is heading out on a mokoro trip – you’re ‘poled’ through the shallow waterways in a traditional wooden canoe, gliding through reeds and waterlilies as you pass elephants, hippos, crocodiles, fish eagle birds and other wildlife. It’s a really peaceful way to see the channels. Watching the sun set over the water is one of the favourite sights in the delta.