Countries: Botswana
Destinations: Chobe National Park , Savuti , Okavango Delta
Group Size: 2
Duration (days): 9
Number of Adults: 2
Number of Children: 0
A superb 8 night safari which includes the Chobe Waterfront, The Savuti and Okavango Delta.
Itinerary Outline
Day 1 : Chobe National Park
On arrival at the Kasane International Airport you will be met by a Chobe Game Lodge representative and transferred by open game drive vehicle to Chobe Game Lodge located inside the Chobe National Park.
Spend two nights at Chobe Game Lodge in a standard room on an all-inclusive basis.
Well known as one of the great safari destinations in Africa, Botswana offers some of the most beautiful, luxurious, and active safari experiences in Africa.
A Botswanan safari can never be long enough, and never experienced often enough. Although one of the flattest countries you will ever visit, Botswana is blessed with an incredible variety of landscapes and eco-systems.
It is the very flatness of Botswana which has created some of the world's most special wilderness areas, and exploring the Kalahari, Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi Salt Pans rewards you with memories for a lifetime.
Easily accessible from Johannesburg, and simply combined with Victoria Falls, Botswana needs to be on your safari list if you are planning a visit to Southern Africa.
As soon as you land in Maun or Kasane, you will know that you have arrived in a country which operates like nothing you have experienced before.
With the warthogs running through the streets of Kasane, and the hippos grunting in the Chobe River, your welcome to Botswana is one which tells you straight away you are in Africa's wilds.
Accessed easily via a 1.5 hour flight from Johannesburg, or a 1 hour drive from Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park is the most visited park on a Boswana safari itinerary.
With an enormous elephant population, as well as magnificent birdlife and a huge array of herbivores and aquatic animals, it is often hard to believe that Chobe National Park is for real.
The game viewing starts from the moment you land at Kasane Airport, or drive across the border from Zambia or Zimbabwe, with warthogs foraging in the streets, buffalo being habitual visitors to the town, and hippos lazing around in the river.
The only permanent game lodge situated on the banks of the Chobe River within the famous Chobe National Park, Chobe Game Lodge is Botswana’s premier venue for guests looking for a perfect base from which to explore the National Park and Chobe Riverfront. This five-star Lodge has full eco-grading by Botswana Tourism Board.
Day 2 : Chobe National Park
Today will be spent on your choice of morning and afternoon game drives in the national park or boat cruises along the Chobe River, allowing you a varied perspective on the wildlife.
Day 3 : Savuti
Depart Chobe Game Lodge and transfer by open game drive vehicle to the Kasane Airport in time for your light aircraft transfer to Savute Safari Lodge.
Spend 2 nights at Savute Safari Lodge in a standard chalet on an all-inclusive basis.
Situated about mid-way between the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta, Savuti is a harsh, arid landscape, which until recently, was only watered by the annual rains. These rains were the lifeblood of the Savute Marsh, which would then play host to huge herds of zebra, as they migrate from the north.
However, after about 30 years of dryness, the Savuti Channel has started to flow again, changing the dynamics of the area, and providing year round water access to the resident animals.
Stretching from the waterways of the Linyanti all the way to Savute Marsh, the winding waterways of the channel have pumped life into the western section of Chobe National Park for many thousands of generations. But this fickle and unpredictable channel has a fascinating history of flooding and drying up independently of good rainy seasons and flood levels elsewhere - a mystery that has intrigued geologists and other researchers for many years.
When David Livingstone discovered the Savute Channel in 1851 it was flowing. Thirty years later the channel had disappeared and the Savute Marsh had dried out, remaining this way for almost 80 years. It flowed again in the late 1950s, continuing until the early 1980s when it again receded, gaining the channel its reputation as ‘the river which flows in both directions.’
In 2009, after another extended hiatus, the channel began flowing again and by January 2010 had spilled into the Savute Marsh for the first time in three decades.
Savute has long been spoken of in awe by safari enthusiasts due to its wild reputation, and fierce concentration of predators.
Savute Safari Lodge is currently closed for a complete rebuild, and will re-open in June 2024.
The photos here are renders of what the camp will look like when complete.
With the waterhole in front of the lodge being such a focal point of the Savute experience, a lot of work has gone into making the main area and sunken hide one of the most thrilling places to be in Botswana. All guest rooms have views over the Savute Channel ensuring dramatic wildlife viewing.
The sophisticated, yet simple interior décor, blends elements of a traditional safari lodge with a clean, contemporary feel while the colour palate draws inspiration from the harsh and dramatic contrasts of the dry Savute region.
Our top tips:
- While Savute Safari Lodge is closed, we can offer alternative options in the Savute region within our affordable package rates. Please contact info@desertdelta.com for more information.
- Our rates and package deals remain the same. No increases.
- While Savute offers intense wildlife viewing in the dry season (June – October), we recommend Savute Safari Lodge for green season itineraries. The Savute Marsh sees large numbers of migrating zebras, and the region transforms into a wildlife and birding paradise.
- Savute Safari Lodge will be the first Desert & Delta lodge offering a luxurious outdoor shower in each room.
Day 5 : Okavango Delta
Catch your scheduled light aircraft transfer from Savute Safari Lodge to Xugana Island lodge.
Spend 2 nights at Xugana Island Lodge in a reed chalet on an all-inclusive basis.
The very word "Okavango" evokes a sense of adventure and exploration, and this is exactly what the Okavango Delta is about. Often called the Okavango Swamps, this intricate maze of waterways and sandy islands is an explorer's dream, and the destination should be on the wishlist of anyone looking for a unique travel experience.
The geology of the Delta is fascinating, with its creation being attributed to tectonic plate action from thousands of years ago causing the Kavango River to flow from Angola into the Kalahari Desert as opposed to the Atlantic Ocean.
So while the vegetation is lush, and the wildlife plentiful, the waterways are actually cutting through Kalahari Desert sand, and the entire delta is an enormous oasis.
Termites are credited with the creation of the many islands around which the water slowly flows, as their mounds, common features of the landscape, are responsible for the formation of sand and foliage around them.
There is a continuous scurry of life in the Delta, from the smallest of creatures to the largest of elephants, and every twist and turn of the channels brings some new form of life into view. The Okavango Delta is truly one of nature's greatest creations.
Xugana Lagoon is widely recognised as the most spectacular permanent water site in the entire Okavango Delta, which itself is Africa’s largest and most awe-inspiring oasis. The Okavango River rises in the highlands of Angola yet never reaches the sea; instead its immense waters empty over the sands of the Kalahari, where the great thirst of the desert is quenched in a wilderness of freshwater lagoons, channels and islands.
Day 6 : Okavango Delta
Today explore the waterways and floodplains by boat and mokoro, and the islands on guided walking safaris.
Day 7 : Okavango Delta
Catch your light aircraft transfer from Xugana Island Lodge to Camp Xakanaxa in the Moremi Game Reserve.
Spend 2 nights at Camp Xakanaxa in a standard tent on an all-inclusive basis.
The prime location of Camp Xakanaxa (pronounced Ka-ka-na-ka) on the banks of the Khwai River on the Xakanaxa Lagoon, in the heart of the Moremi Game Reserve, makes it one of the very few safari camps that offers guests an authentic, year-round Okavango Delta land and water safari experience.
The camp accommodates twenty-four guests in eleven spacious all-canvas, classic Meru-style luxury safari tents and one two bedroom family tent, each with en suite showers, hand basins and toilet facilities. Situated around the fringe of the lagoon, every tent has a private viewing deck with comfortable loungers. Camp Xakanaxa is one of the few camps in Botswana which still offers the essence of a classic tented camp.
