Botswana safaris are pretty wild

One week adventuring in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

When planning our first safari, I knew I wanted the most well-rounded experience. Botswana’s Okavango Delta was the perfect destination for its variety of wildlife, lush landscape, and few tourists. June – October is the high season for any safari and prices often more than double. Especially in Botswana, June marks the beginning of the wet season, and the flooding plains draw even more animals. If you can, go at the end of April or anytime in May (which is when we went). The experience is still outstanding, and you’ll save a ton of money. Be sure to check out the Photography page for more incredible shots from the trip.

Botswana Itinerary Overview

Days 1 – 3: Zarafa Camp

Days 4 – 7: Duba Plains Camp

If you’re wondering whether or not to book a safari through a tour company, the answer is yes! Especially if you’re planning on visiting more than one lodge or destination, it’s practically mandatory to use a knowledgeable, Africa-specialized tour operator who will put together a safari itinerary for you. We were gifted a Relais & Chateaux stay as a wedding gift, so we knew we wanted to stay in Botswana’s two Relais & Chateaux properties, both of which are managed by Great Plains Conservation. One of the unique things about Great Plains Conservation is that they are the only operator on the concession, so it’s all private wildlife sightings – no Land Cruiser traffic jams, which was really important to us. Since you can’t reserve directly through Great Plains Conservation, we worked with Allison Nolting at the Africa Adventure Company who made the entire booking process so easy.

Day 1: Arrive in Botswana / transit to Selinda Game Reserve

Fly to Maun, Botswana: We flew into Maun airport (MUB) from Cape Town, South Africa on Airlink, which is a regional airline based in Johannesburg. Upon arrival in Maun, we were greeted by the Great Plains Conservation local team, who helped us repack our bags (only soft duffel bags allowed on safari), stored our larger luggage, and guided us to our bush plane!

Fly to Selinda Game Reserve: We boarded our plane for the hour-long flight from Maun airport to the Selinda airfield. Fun fact: bush planes work a lot like Uber pool! The planes can stop at multiple fields to drop off other passengers before dropping you off. The scenery from the air was beautiful and it was surreal seeing prides of lions and herds of elephants from the window.

First game drive: When we landed at Selinda airfield, we were met by Obe, our guide who would be with us for the three days we were at Zarafa Camp. Obe was born and raised in Maun and had spent more than 20 years as a safari guide. As we would learn over the next few days, Obe was an incredible tracker and could find any animal on the reserve! We might be biased, but after meeting all of the other guides at Zarafa Camp, we realized we were extra lucky to be matched with Obe.

One thing we noticed right away was how defening the silence was. As soon as our plane took off and we were left alone on the airfield, it was so quiet that it almost hurt our ears – a far cry from downtown Philadelphia. Since we had a couple of hours before sunset, Obe decided to turn the drive from the airfield to the camp into a game drive. In the first hour alone, we saw so much wildlife! We were thrilled at our first impala sighting and couldn’t whip out a camera fast enough. Obe laughed at us and said impalas (specifically, red lechwe) were like the squirrels of the Okavango Delta – we would grow tired of seeing them by the end (definitely did not!).

Settle in at Zarafa Camp: Zarafa Camp is absolutely magical. From the second we arrived, the staff was incredibly warm and welcoming, the food was delicious, and our tent/cabin was bigger than our entire apartment (complete with private plunge pool and outdoor shower!). The camp is situated in a prime location within the Selinda Reserve, with stunning views of the Zibadianja Lagoon and plenty of visitors (the camp is open air, so elephants, lions, monkeys, etc. freely roam the grounds; the monkeys often prevented us from falling asleep as they’d scamper on the roof of our tent and throw fruit at each other). The fully stocked wine cellar full of South African wines didn’t hurt either :).

Days 2 – 3: Zarafa Camp

Our two full safari days at Zarafa Camp were structured similarly. We were woken up at 5:30 AM (with full coffee service delivered to our cabin…bless them) for our morning game drive. Obe would pick us up from our tent and escort us to the Camp’s main tent – we thought he was just being nice since it was dark out until we realized there were fresh lion tracks outside our tent one day! We would hit the drive around 6:30 AM when the wildlife was waking up and beginning to hunt. There’s nothing quite like enjoying breakfast while watching lion cubs play.

We returned to camp for a full lunch and afternoon free time. I spent the majority of the afternoon sitting by the plunge pool watching the elephants roam (sometimes mere feet from where I was sitting!). One afternoon, our tent was surrounded by an enormous herd of grazing elephants for so long that we were late to evening game drive!

One afternoon, Obe and the rest of the Zarafa staff took us out on the boat around the lagoon and we enjoyed lunch on the water. The animals definitely become curious about the boat so we made a few friends as we sat idle.

After lunch and free time, we would head off on an evening game drive around about 4:00 PM. This was another period of activity for animals, who tend to hunker down during the heat of the day. Just before sunset is an exciting time to follow them as they hunt for dinner (especially the poor red lechwe below!).

Day 4 – 7: Duba Plains Camp

Transit from Zarafa to Duba: On our last morning, Obe took us on a final game drive as we made our way to the airfield for our flight to Duba Plains, our second camp. It’s tradition that every guide (regardless of tour company) gets out of the Land Cruiser and waves enthusiastically both in greeting and in farewell as planes arrive and take off, so Obe waved us off as we started our 45-minute flight to Duba.

Settle in Duba Plains Camp: Our guide Rapz met us when we touched down in Duba Plains, and we made our way to the camp. Rapz had only been a safari guide for six years but he was incredibly knowledgeable (and quite literally saved our lives…more on that below). Zarafa Camp was incredible, but Duba Plains raised the bar even higher. From the second we walked through the main tent, we were met with wide-angle views onto the Okavango flood plains…and those views continued even from our bath tub.

Safaris at Duba Plains: Our safari days at Duba Plains were structured similarly to Zarafa: a 5:30 AM wakeup call, a morning game drive with breakfast in the bush, return to camp for lunch and free time, an afternoon game drive, and back to camp for an incredible multi-course dinner. Part of the appeal of the Duba Plains Camp, however, is the proximity to the water. At the beginning of the wet season, the delta swells up and the Land Cruisers plow through water that can sometimes splash through the doors – it was fun to get a little wet on the drives!

Walking safari (tldr; do at your own risk!): Like our lunch on the lagoon at Zarafa, Duba Plains also offered a fun additional excursion: a walking safari. Walking safaris are great opportunities to get out of the Land Cruiser and see insects, rodents, birds and flora that often go unnoticed from the car, and guides take great care choosing the safest part of the concession in which to do a walking safari. Our guide Rapz found an outstanding location for our walk – wide open plains with plenty of relaxed, grazing red lechwe (red lechwe are skittish and would run if any of the big 5 were around). He gave us an initial safety briefing and told us the most important thing to remember was to listen to him and NEVER run away.

We were 20 minutes into our walk – completely out of sight from our Land Cruiser – when we saw an elephant approaching. While it spotted us, elephants don’t have the best eye sight, and we were able to crouch behind some shrubs until it lost track of us. Rapz remarked how unusual it was to run into one of the big 5 in that part of the concession. Once he deemed it safe, we continued our walk. We strolled for another 10 minutes, and Rapz had just begun to point out some warthog burrows as we turned the corner around a short group of rocks. If running into one of the big 5 was unusual, then two is just unlucky.

Lions. 5 of them. A mere 50 feet from where we were standing.

Every cell in my body was screaming at me to run away as fast as I could, but Rapz was incredibly calm and said “We see the lions. The lions see us. The lions know we see them. So now we need to make ourselves as big and as loud as possible and back away slowly.” We then proceeded on the longest 30 minute walk of my life back to the Land Cruiser (and thankfully, we weren’t followed). Once we were back in the car, I knew I wanted to drive back to grab some photos of how I almost died (kidding, sort of…but see them below). We were so impressed by how cool and collected Rapz was in that situation, but he did admit later over dinner that he had never run into so many at once before. I’m glad I didn’t find that out in the moment.

From what I gather, most walking safaris are not as eventful as ours, and everyone else we spoke with had a great and non-life-threatening time. But like any activity in the bush, do it at your own risk!

So was it worth it? I would 100000% recommend a Botswana safari to anyone who is interested, and I would return to the country again because it was a truly spectacular experience. While our camps were world-class and a great splurge for our honeymoon, I would likely do a less luxurious experience next time (I mean, I suppose I don’t NEED a full coffee service wake-up…). Great Plains Conservation has series of explorer camps, which have fewer amenities but still offer the same great safari experience. In my opinion, it’s worth sacrificing luxury in exchange for more days in the wild.