Green Season Safari to Botswana - Jan - Mar 2023

Take game drives and night drives in custom built 4x4s to spot the unique desert wildlife that inhabit the pans, like the elusive brown hyena or Kalahari lion. Your experienced safari guide will help you discover a desert landscape, pulsating with life. Complete with bush picnics, morning coffees and chilled drinks.

Get up close and personal with our families of habituated meerkats. Head out from camp at sunrise, so that you are ready to tail these delightful omnivores as they set off in search of their breakfast. Walk amongst them (advised by your guide) and if you take a seat you might be lucky enough to be mistaken for a termite mound, where you'll be used as a look out point for predators.

Discover the secrets of the pans with the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen on a fascinating bush walk. See this ancient desert landscape through their eyes. These skilled hunter gatherers will show you how to survive, using their extraordinary tracking skills to uncover a smorgasbord of culinary delights... from bulbs, to scorpions, to berries. Spending time with them is a very rare privilege.

Saddle up to explore this wild, unspoilt area in the same way many of the earliest explorers, hunters

and missionaries did – on horseback! You’ll embark on an adventurous outride (for all level riders). This is an exhilarating way to spot wildlife, cantering along the crusty salt flats and following the animal

highways that bring life to the Makgadikgadi Pans.

This is pure desert adventure! Take an exhilarating quad bike across the salt-crusted pans (all pan activity is weather permitting and dependent on the dryness of the pans). You’ll feel total freedom as you trek across this vast and ancient landscape, discovering so much about the remnants of this once super lake.

Seasonal: April - October

Visit the site of the Fallen Baobab, one of the three largest and oldest trees in Africa and the camp site for Livingstone and Selous..

Witness the second largest migration in Africa. A stonking spectacle of black and white stripes

as approximately 30,000 zebra and wildebeest migrate across the Makgadikgadi Pans, followed closely by stalking predators, waiting for the rich pickings of tired hooves. This is a wildlife explosion and an experience not to be missed!

This really is an unforgettable experience. Enjoy a helicopter flight over the Makgadikgadi Pans, doors off (or on), to take in the vastness of this desert landscape. You’ll go in search of the zebra and flamingo migrations (if timed correctly), get dropped on an island of baobabs for lunch, do a bit of sunset sky surfing as you follow the palm tree linings and tell all your friends about it all when you get home.

If you are in need of some serious time out, then one of our spa treatments is your perfect escape. Our professional therapist will put you in seventh heaven. Book a back massage overlooking the Makgadikgadi Pans or enjoy a relaxing spa treatment from the privacy of your tent. Whichever you decide, you’ll walk away feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

Grab a fat bike and peddle around the Makgadikgadi Pans. This is a really fun activity for the whole family, and an ideal way to get some exercise. These bikes can easily cruise over the desert terrain, taking you along 4x4 tracks and around the crusty salt flats. Keep a look out for sightings of wildlife, while breathing in the beautiful scenery, alongside the desert silence.

The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are one of the most important breeding sites in southern Africa for

the lesser and greater flamingos. These flying flame birds, arrive in their millions during seasons of good rain, when millions of small shrimp and other crustaceans crack through the salty pan crust to spawn. The result, a pink extravaganza in the heat of the desert. You can also heli to Sua Pan to view the flamingos in Mar - Apr (scenic helicopter flight must be booked an an additional cost).

Credit: Natural Selection

Credit: Natural Selection

Credit: Natural Selection

Our guides are locals - this is a man of the swamp, born and raised in the area, and you will spend your days in his mokoro (pl. mekoro), gliding through the floodplains and channels

Our guides are locals - this is a man of the swamp, born and raised in the area, and you will spend your days walking under his guidance on some of the many islands in the area, taking in the magnificent scenery and light as well as the abundant game and bird-life of the Okavango.

Cultural interaction at an authentic baYei village

For guests staying a minimum of four nights, Delta Camp also offers privately guided overnight camping trails, for a minimum of two nights – although they recommend three or more to get the best out of this unique safari. The trails are amongst the most sought-after wilderness experiences in the world today, offering an opportunity to experience life in serenity and on its own terms in a way not easily achieved in the modern world. Fly Camp is set up by the guides, chef cooks all meals. Tent is a dome tent with mattress, linen, pillows and bush bathroom.

Game drives reveal the rich wildlife of the area, from predators to their prey. Diverse habitats characterised by acacia and mopane woodland in the east, and typical Okavango habitats in the west: palm-dotted floodplains, wooded islands, tranquil waterways and dry woodland – make this a wildlife experience few other locations can match. Key mammal species include giraffes, buffalos, lechwe, tsessebe, elephants, lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas, cheetahs, and African wild dogs.

Wilderness Chitabe’s guides – masters of their craft, many with over two decades of experience in this area – read the land like a well-worn map. They don’t just track predators; they anticipate their every move. They don’t just drive; they navigate the Delta’s tangled paths with instinct and precision. Every game drive, every golden-hour sighting is shaped by years of deep respect for the land and its wildlife. The game is relaxed, at ease in the presence of vehicles – an unspoken testament to the guides’ respect, patience, and years of ethical wildlife viewing.

Many of Wilderness Chitabe’s guides are enthusiastic photographers. They are trained not only to offer wildlife photography advice, but to interpret wildlife and put guests in the best position to make the most of their photographic safari.

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Afternoon to evening drives provide opportunities for you to see nocturnal mammals such as civets, genets, and bushbabies; as well as owls and perhaps leopard.

Every game drive, every golden-hour sighting is shaped by years of deep respect for the land and its wildlife. The game is relaxed, at ease in the presence of vehicles – an unspoken testament to the guides’ respect, patience, and years of ethical wildlife viewing.

Credit: Wilderness

Credit: Wilderness

Credit: Wilderness

Walking safaris with skilled guides offer you the exciting opportunity to come across wildlife on foot, as well as observing the small wonders you might miss when travelling by vehicle.

Credit: Wilderness

Credit: Wilderness

Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

The birdlife is excellent and varies throughout the year, depending on water levels and season. Species include African hawk-eagle, ground hornbill, scarlet-chested sunbird, red-billed hornbill, gabar goshawk and red-billed francolin.

Wilderness Chitabe is part of an internationally recognised IBA – Important Birding and Biodiversity Area – making birdwatching a very rewarding activity.

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness is committed to combating climate change by implementing various sustainable energy solutions. One of these is reducing dependence on fossil fuels, with the aim of being carbon neutral. Take a tour "back of house" to see the solar operation in action, and uncover more about our eco-friendly practices.

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness

Wilderness Chitabe Credit: Wilderness