Experience incredible wildlife and rich cultural heritage along the pristine waterways of Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
The solar-powered boat quietly made its way along the serene waters of the Chobe River, flanked on one side by the craggy banks of Botswana’s Chobe National Park–thick with mopane and mahogany trees–and the marshes and fields of neighboring Namibia on the other. We heard the honks and grunts of hippos before seeing their bulging eyes peering above the watery surface. On sandy banks, baboon families engaged in antics, grooming, and feeding their young. Graceful kudu, forest antelopes with striking silvery stripes along their sides, stood stoically nearby. A Nile crocodile lay in wait, water rippling past its armor. The dark, chestnut brown bodies and snow-white chest and head of African fish eagles stood out against the backdrop of darkening clouds in the distance.
But where we were, the setting sun cast a warm glow; our ponchos swayed with the cool breeze, and the semicircle of a rainbow appeared over the width of the river, providing the perfect setting for our sundowner safari offered by Chobe Game Lodge, the only permanent riverfront property in the park. As the clouds drew closer, land mammals began a procession. Dozens of baboons, moms with babies on their backs, tails arched, took off with the kudu by their side, a vision evoking animals marching onto Noah’s Ark. This profusion of wildlife looked like CGI, but it was very much real and lucky safari goers to this nearly untouched corner of northern Botswana are treated to such incredible scenes and more.
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The word safari brings visions of khaki-clad tourists on open-sided or pop-top land cruisers, observing giraffes, elephants, and big cats in the savanna. However, this classic experience isn’t the only way to fully appreciate the magnificent and diverse fauna of the African continent.
A Home to Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Landlocked Botswana is a country of contrasts. The vast Kalahari Desert dominates nearly a third of the land, while the seasonally flooded grasslands, canals, and lagoons of the Okavango Delta and the Chobe River in the northern part provide habitat to large aggregations of animals. The area is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Tsodilo Hills, featuring the highest concentration of ancient rock art in the world, and the crown jewel of Okavango Delta, a prime water safari destination.
The Okavango Delta is a unique interior river delta system and the largest in the world, where the waters from two rivers— Cubango and Cuito—converge from the highlands of neighboring Angola. Together, they form the Okavango River in Botswana and cascade into the arid landmass, creating an expansive wetland wonder of 2,023,590 hectares with forested islands, viridescent floodplains, ink-colored lagoons, and meandering waterways.
“Think of it like your arm, with the forearm being the panhandle [the main channel of the Delta] and the fingers the tributaries and streams,” was a line I heard more than once during my trip.
The seasonal nature of the Delta—when it swells and floods the plains in the dry winter months of June through August— attracts animals in the thousands along with droves of insects and birds to the fertile habitat, creating one of the largest wildlife congregations on the continent. Water safari tourism in the Okavango Delta and the enchanting Chobe National Park drive the country’s economy and conservation.
A high percentage of travelers visiting this special place stay in and around protected areas, experiencing exceptional game viewing and birdwatching on motor boats, traditional mokoro (dugout canoe) rides, and overland drives. Despite the region’s popularity, it doesn’t attract as many safari goers as other popular destinations like the Serengeti, Kruger National Park, or the Masai Mara Game Reserve. You and your guide may often be the only human souls on the waterways amidst hippos, crocodiles, and elephants.
Water Safaris Bring You Closer to Wildlife
My eight-day, all-inclusive journey to this magical landscape began with a stay at the award-winning luxury Chobe Game Lodge on the northern boundary of Chobe National Park. The Ecotourism-Certified luxury five-star property, which opened in 1972, is part of the Desert & Delta Safaris collection. As the only riverfront lodge inside the park, it is ideally positioned to get an early start before vehicles and boats arrive from the park’s outskirts.
During the dry season, large herds of elephants amass alongside the river. However, this year-round destination offered plenty of sightings during my stay in April. Each day, my guide, Anolwe Gracious Mhapha, and I set out on electric game drives and solar boat safaris in the morning, followed by an afternoon game drive and then a sundowner cruise. And no single outing was the same.
If the first sunset cruise introduced me to the diversity and density of wildlife, the next few days demonstrated their true abundance. Herds of elephants, their young babies with their trunks raised in the air, crossed the brilliantly blue river to reach murky embankments to splash mud over their glistening bodies, an act of both repelling insects and offering protection against the sun. Towers of giraffes ambled through the lush vegetation along the shoreline, while African darter birds (called snakebirds) stood atop low branches and grassy areas, with their wings spread wide to dry.
Game drives along the river and through the mixed savanna of Zambezi teak, Kalahari apple trees, and acacias yielded sightings of lions, families of kudu, mobs of mongoose, and traffic jams of impalas and vervet monkeys. Scavengers like the Marabou stork and terrestrial birds of prey like Secretary Birds and the Kori Bustard—the largest flying bird in Africa and the national bird of Botswana— made special appearances. Back at the lodge, adorable “pumbas” (a.k.a. warthogs) dropped on their front knees to feast on the lawn grass while hippos foraged right underneath the raised boardwalks near the waterbed.
Chobe Game Lodge is known for its all-female guiding team, lovingly called “The Chobe Angels,” and is a testament to Desert & Delta’s commitment to equal opportunities and women’s empowerment. With its Zanzibarian and Moroccan-inspired common spaces, elegant air-conditioned river view rooms and suites with locally inspired decor, a swimming pool, a spa offering African treatments, a lounge and cigar bar with a library, and an expansive deck overlooking the river—Chobe Game Lodge remains a spot for celebrities, royals, and those looking for a premiere safari experience.
A Wild and Exclusive Island Escape
A quick drive to the Kasane airport and a bush plane ride on Desert & Delta’s own flight service, Safari Air, to a remote airstrip, brought me to my next camp in the Delta’s Panhandle, a long stretch of a permanent Okavango River channel spanning 43 miles before it fans out. There, surrounded by water on all sides during the wet season, is an exclusive property called Nxamaseri Island Lodge, the latest addition to the Desert & Delta portfolio and a unique destination that can only be experienced on the water via motor boats and mokoros.
Under the shade of wild date palms and massive Jackalberry trees, the charming lodge’s raised platform and thatched roof blended in with the environment, only revealing itself upon our approach. Though unassuming, its charm lies in the African regional artwork on the walls and wooden carvings of the local fauna in the communal space, and nine comfortable, well-curated double and family chalets.
Along the main channel and its tributaries lined by tall papyrus reeds, invigorating early morning and evening boat rides provide scenes of date palm-fringed islands where crocodiles sunbathe on outcroppings and hippos glide near floating islands created by interwoven underwater vegetation.
The slim, human-powered mokoros slice through thick reeds, passing lily pads, offering unmatched birdwatching, with highlights such as the comb-crested jacana, nicknamed Jesus Christ bird for its seeming ability to walk on water (or rather the floating water lily leaves) and yellow-green white-fronted bee-eaters fluttering from one reed to another. It’s common to find saddle-billed storks, egrets, slaty egrets, woodland and pied kingfishers, and reedy cormorants on mokoro rides. Those coming here for fly fishing are treated to day-long motor boat excursions, with plenty of opportunities for reflection and a chance to catch and release bream and tigerfish.
Given this stand-alone island’s remote and exclusive location and being the only guest at the time, I was surrounded by a ubiquity of wildlife, not just on water safari rides. Raucous vervet monkeys swung from the hanging branches along the path to my cabana; curious otters poked their heads up, and crocodiles drifted past the entrance next to the boardwalk steps during fireside drinks on the outdoor deck under the starry moonlight. I was awakened each morning by the grunts and splashes of rotund hippos right underneath my elevated balcony, reminding me I was truly in the middle of a pristine wilderness.
The island lodge is primarily run by those from the nearby Nxamaseri village, and guides from the Bantu and Bushman groups bring their generations-long wisdom and connection to the water and land, and a majority female-run kitchen cooks up locally-inspired dishes. Many communities along the panhandle still depend on the river for their livelihoods, and now, with tourism bringing in economic opportunities, they are eager to share their knowledge and culture.
Journey to the Past at an Outdoor Ancient Art Gallery
Nxamesari isn’t just a riverine wonderland, it’s also one of the closest lodges to Botswana’s first UNESCO site of cultural significance: Tsodilo Hills. These sacred, historically significant mountains, often referred to as the Mountains of Gods for their connection to ancestral spirits to the indigenous people, have been believed to have been inhabited for the past 100,000 years. The four main hills–Male, Female, Child, and North hill–feature more than 4,500 ancient rock paintings spread over 200 sites, made by the Khoisan Bushmen and Bantu people that hunted, gathered, and settled here thousands of years ago.
Located 21 miles from the lodge, a full-day excursion with a delicious gourmet packed lunch–via helicopter from Helicopter Horizons and by a four-wheeler on the way back–took me to the highest point in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari. An easy, ground-level path on the Rhino Trail flanked by vegetation, punctuated by impressive baobab trees, curved along the side of the massive quartzite rock formations, where a Bantu guide from a nearby village narrated the history and meaning of the site’s most significant paintings.
Though weathered, the dense collection of artworks on exposed cliffs and rock faces depicted hunting scenes, megafauna silhouettes, the region’s antelopes, and cattle, rituals, and celebrations. A small museum onsite had exhibits about this sacred place in more detail.
Go to Where the Land and Water Meet
Covering about a quarter of the delta on the eastern side is Moremi Game Reserve, another near-pristine protected land in the Okavango Delta, home to the Big Five and hundreds of bird species. It became a reserve in 1963, the first of its kind in the Delta, when the BaTawana people of Ngamiland, concerned about the decline of wildlife, boldly initiated to protect it. Named after Chief Moremi III and his wife, the picturesque reserve, covering around 1,900 square miles, encompasses perennial and seasonal floodplains, a patchwork of lagoons, waterways, grasslands, and Mopane and leadwood forests.
The reserve, now run by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, is popular with self-drive campers and offers accommodations at three properties within its boundaries, two of which are operated by Desert & Delta Safaris–Camp Moremi and Camp Xakanaxa. Situated along the Xakanaxa lagoon on the Khwai River, these bush camps provide visitors with both land and water safaris. The recently rebuilt solar-powered Camp Moremi, where I stayed, offered a quintessential luxury tented safari experience, with spacious modern thatched accommodations with living and sleeping areas and bathrooms, all with wall-length glass walls and immersive private decks facing the surrounding forest.
Seasonal flooding leaves much of the dirt roads bumpy, making a boat safari optimal for wildlife viewing. The last day of any safari vacation is bittersweet, but my final sunset cruise of the trip is enchanting, much like the one I started with. Zooming past water lilies and reed beds, our motorboat stopped at the sight of an elderly elephant sitting in the cool water among the lily pads, swatting his giant ears. His foraging made him oblivious to us as we inched closer. The elephant lifted his trunk, his tusks dripping water, and gave us a lasting spectacle silhouetted against the blue sky, a sight I am sure will never be matched.
When to Go
The best time to visit the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park is between June and October, but the permanent channels and prolific resident wildlife make these two year-round safari destinations. With fewer vehicles and boats, March and April make up the shoulder season.
Getting There
Northern Botswana is best accessed by regional flights from Johannesburg in South Africa. The city of Maun is best suited for safaris in Moremi Game Reserve, while Kasane is the getaway to Chobe National Park. Bush planes via Safari Air connect guests from different Desert and Delta camps.