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chrispenfold
Visited:
March 2014
Reviewed: May 9, 2015
Okavango Serenity
We went to the Okavango Delta in February. We stayed in a riverside camp manned by Delta Rain. We were serenaded by the very friendly Delta Rain team when we arrived via jeep (after a 1/2 hour ride from Maun).
http://tinyurl.com/ovtxwz8
They then paddled us along the river to our camp in their mokoros. It was a tented camp, with real beds, mosquito nets & en-suite showers (rigged up in a tree branch & filled with hot water, heated on the fire). We cooked over an open fire and sang songs around the fire by night. During the day we explored the local bush on walking safari & rivers via mokoro, but apart from the odd Fish Eagle we saw very little wildlife - think that the rivers were high and we were just unlucky. Life out in the bush was great and really laid-back & relaxed. I would recommend it.
The last night we stayed at a hostel back in Maun and one of our friends (sleeping in a tent within the fenced compound) was robbed (laptop)and apparently it had happened before. So that was a bit of sad ending to an otherwise fantastic trip.
Beverly Houwing
US
Visited:
May 2014
Reviewed: May 11, 2015
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Exquisite location and teeming with birds and wildlife. One of the best places to visit.
@wittier
Visited:
March 2015
Reviewed: May 12, 2015
A remarkable place in Botswana
Okavango Delta (Botswana) offers amazing and varied vistas with incredible wildlife diversity for the avid photographer. The photos captured at Okavango Delta are second to none and favorable weather makes days very productive. The sights are highly memorable and a global treasure.
Rosita So Image
NL
Visited:
March 2015
Reviewed: May 14, 2015
Email Rosita So Image | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Exploring wonderful Okavango Delta
The next day we were taking a Mokoro (a dug-out canoe), we left early in the morning to explore the Okavango Delta. The mokoro can carry 2 people and a poler, usually a guide from a local campsite. The poler, stands in the stern and uses a long pole to propel through the shallow water. It is so peaceful and serene, and the water is so calm during the trip. The view is breathtakingly beautiful, especially during the
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sunrise. Okavango Delta is the home of more than 400 species of birds, large variety of wildlife and painted reed frogs.Another way to enjoy the aerial view of the delta is by taking a 45-minutes helicopter rise (a 206 or 210 Cessna) from Maun Airport, which cost about US$90.00. In order to be able to see different views, the helicopter sometimes flies at 45 degrees angle left or right, which could be nauseating and making you dizzy. Those uncomfortable feelings is a very small price to pay for the magnificent view from the sky, especially when you spot the animals- elephants, hippopotamus, buffaloes, among other things.
The weather in March was nice although sometimes a bit chilly at night, since it was almost the beginning of the Autumn. The roads mostly bumpy, e.g., it took about 6 hours to drive about 500 kilometers. One thing we noticed in Botswana was that we stopped at the police check points very often; for what purpose, we never knew. The immigration officer at the Kazungula (Botswana-Zimbabwe Border) was very friendly. He asked if we had a nice time and invited us back to visit different parts of the country. We left Botswana very happy that day-not only we saw so many animals (elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, birds, antelopes, etc), but also some countrysides, as well as met nice people.
Not to sound cliche, but you will never forget the experience and the excitement after taking these trips.
TravelingTulls
US
Visited:
September 2014
Reviewed: May 14, 2015
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Okavango Delta offers the truest safari experience - spectacular wildlife and unspoiled nature
All activities at camp revolve around the water. We were met by staffers at the airstrip who transferred us to a small launch to make our approach to camp. Twice daily game drives were in Land Rovers equipped for the watery terrain. We drove through areas with 3-4 feet of water. “Legs Up!” would shout our guide and we’d hold cameras, etc., above our heads.
The wildlife in the Okavango was extraordinary, with close encounters with leopards, hippos and elephants. And the abundance of birdlife is legendary. Afternoons
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at camp were spent watching crested barbets, weaver-birds, and other striking species from our deck.
Iain in Pagham
GB
Visited:
March 2015
Reviewed: May 17, 2015
Email Iain in Pagham | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Getting back to Nature
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for everyone I would think, I thought I might lose weight - wrong so good and so much I put plenty on... Off on the trips we saw the usual suspects hippo, elephant, lion, giraffe, warthog (my favourite), zebra, Antelopes and a tortoise. Painted Reed Frogs when we went out canoeing and an Ostrich family with 8 youngsters. Bird life - well with the range of habitat there is a large number of species you can see. Carmine Bee-eaters, Crested Barbet, openbills and plenty of raptors. How much you see does depend on your guide as well as your knowedge, in particular who you are out for the day with - if you are with people uniterested in birds and only in chasing for wild dogs then you'll see much less bird or insect/butterfly life. We were lucky on our whole Safari in that only once were we in a group that wanted to chase, other times we were on our own and could take our time (saw more birds and animals that way). Another advantage of the wet season when the camps aren't so full. I've just looked back over my Flickr album of Okavango Delta and am amazed at what we saw.Just go - you won't be disappointed - we spent 3 nights in Kwara and so had the best part of three (two whole plus two half) days, I'm glad we didn't do any less.
michielbesseling
NL
Visited:
April 2015
Reviewed: May 25, 2015
Email michielbesseling | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
In april 2015 i enjoyed two night in a mobile bush camp in the Okavango Delta. Local people brought us with a mokoro, a small canoe with two guests and a poler, to our camp site in the delta. They had put up ten tents under the trees on a island in the delta. There were two bush toilets, two bush showers and a big party tent for breakfast, lunch and diner.
We did two bush walks with guides. Topgun, our main guide at the head of the line, then six tourists and a guide at the back of the line. Topgun told us a lot about wildlife in the delta. We had a close encounter with a herd of elephants. We saw lion foot prints. An lot of wildebeest and zebra.
The last night in the camp, the guides and polers performed for us. They danced and sang local songs. Camping in a mobile camp in the Okavango Delta is a wonderful experience!
Peter
GB
Visited:
March 2015
Reviewed: May 26, 2015
Email Peter | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Spectacular encounters with beautiful animals in unspoilt surroundings.
We stayed in two places in the Delta, Sango Safari Camp in the Kwai Concession and Pom Pom Camp.
Sango was our favourite stop of all the places we visited throughout Zambia and Botswana, with the staff being so friendly and the food out of this world, especially considering how isolated it is. The highlight here were the African Painted Dogs which we saw on three separate occasions at close quarters. We saw a large family of 20 resting under some bushes and then one night we were surrounded by them playing and frolicking. The most memorable, though, was a smaller family of six cornering
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a large spotted hyena and giving it a good seeing to before letting it go, bloodied and bowed but able to slink away to fight another day.Pom Pom was very different and because the water was low, it probably wasn't at its best. After saying that, however, we had some wonderful and very close encounters with lions and leopards, with a 1 year old leopard probably the most beautiful animal I have ever seen in my life. It was waiting for its mother to come back with food but in the meanwhile, entertained us with acrobatics in its tree. The birdlife was great but sporadic. We saw 2 Pels Fishing Owls and lots of water birds plus the usual variety of kingfishers , babblers, coucals etc but perhaps not quite the abundance that we saw in Chobe and around Victoria Falls.
I would definitely return to either camp as you do get the impression that things can change very quickly and new birds and animals are just around the corner.
A spectacular holiday in all respects.
James R Rye
GB
Visited:
April 2015
Reviewed: May 31, 2015
Email James R Rye | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Driving holiday in Botswana
An Okavango highlight was going on a river cruise where we saw many interesting birds such as fish eagles, Jesus birds, bee-eaters as well as reptiles including monitor lizards and crocodiles. At the time of year we went, there can be heavy rainfall, so we visited a world heritage site at Tsodilo Hills where we saw ancient cave paintings. The heavy rain meant that the road/track was very muddy and it was necessary to have a 4x4 in order to access the site.
This part of Botswana is certainly off the beaten track with hundreds of kilometers between
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food and fuel stops, so make sure you go prepared! Highly recommended. Check out some of my photos here:https://www.flickr.com/photos/76566612@N03/
gfin
CA
Visited:
May 2015
Reviewed: Jun 20, 2015
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent variety and quantity of wildlife.
We used lodges varying from primitive and rustic to 4-star class. A guided kayak trip out of Maun was based in ordinary 2-person tents. The Footsteps lodge was cabin-sized tents with plumbing, but the Little Kwara lodge was much better appointed. The food at both lodges was very good. The guided game drives produced many great close-up wildlife sightings and the guides were usually well trained and very friendly. Our weather in May was unusually cool, getting down to near freezing some nights. The days were comfortable, but the temps for dawn game drives required a jacket on top of a sweater. The clothes that we took were not quite warm enough for comfort in these conditions. The upside of the low temperatures was that we had no trouble at all with bugs.
Our favorite memories came from dawn and sunset game-tracking walks with the local native guide on our kayak trip north of Maun.
