Remarkable Africa - Botswana Luxury x 2

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 meerkats. Leaving camp as the sun begins to rise you will accompany these inquisitive members of the mongoose family as they set off in search of their breakfast. Walk amongst them (you're not allowed to touch or feed them) 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

A visit to the Fallen Baobab - one of the three largest and oldest trees in Africa and reputedly the campsite of 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.

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.

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.

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).

Game drives via open 4x4 vehicles, accommodating a maximum of four per vehicle and allowing each guest a "window" seat. Seeing the high concentrations of plains game and predators – including the big cats – is the order of the day at Wilderness Mombo.

Our guides are the vital link between you and the intricacies of the natural world. They love sharing their knowledge, and do so with passion and humour, making your whole journey seamless and interpretive from start to finish.

* Please note that as the camp is located within the Moremi Game Reserve, night drives are not possible at Wilderness Mombo.

Experience a delicious, freshly-made brunch enjoyed out in the bush after an action-packed game drive. Wilderness Mombo's cuisine has always remained relevant to its surroundings, using locally-sourced ingredients prepared with great care and respect, offering guests an authentic yet refreshing and stylish gourmet experience deep in the remote Okavango Delta.

Enjoy being pampered by one of our expert massage therapists in the comfort of your suite or private deck. Or visit the spa, one of the best me-time journeys in which to relax, restore and revitalise.

To keep up with your daily fitness routine, exercise within unbeatable bush views from our gym or pool overlooking the picturesque floodplain.

Take a tour behind the scenes to see how our operational teams maintain a light footprint, offering guests the ultimate in sustainable luxury whilst remaining rooted in an authentic bush-camp offering.

Safari drives (day & night) take place in some of Botswana’s best adapted vehicles. Duba Plain’s Toyota Land Cruisers are uniquely designed to traverse the floodplains. These are, of course, open-sided, canopied and customised for photographers (raised roofs, photographic bars, multi-plug inverters). Seating only four to six guests on each vehicle, the Cruisers are fully stocked with drinks and snacks. Each suite has a professional camera and lenses as a package for guests to use or try out. Images are downloaded and presented for them to take away at no additional charge.

While the focus remains on the most comfortable times of day (early to mid-morning and late afternoon to evening) for drives, it is very common in Duba Plains to spend full days out in the field, having brunch delivered to the vehicles because the wildlife is so good and our focus is on finding and spending time with these extraordinary experiences.

Our schedule is flexible and guests are encouraged to create their own itinerary according to their interests. Very often, our safaris will continue into the night in search of nocturnal species. Great Plains guides are also keen trackers and birders and guests are encouraged to experience everything the camp has to offer.

Another huge benefit of staying within the conservancies is the ability to appreciate the stunning landscape on foot, peacefully, without the noise of engines. Usually early morning or evening is the best time, as the middle of the day is too hot to venture out of the shade. Wear good walking shoes, a hat, and neutral coloured clothing so as not to alarm the wildlife, and take binoculars. Your guide will have water for you. Walks are led by licensed guides with firearm training.

Zipping through the Okavango Delta's network of waterways is an invigorating way to get a sense of the scope of this huge wetland. You’ll undoubtedly have wonderful birding and maybe even some hippo, buffalo and elephant sightings. (Boating is a seasonal activity, typically between May and October but varies seasonally).

This is a great activity during mid-day siesta. Make sure you’re with a guide. During January and February there is a moratorium on fishing. Catch-and-release fishing only.

Duba Plains Camp offers a full syllabus of bush craft skills for our young explorers. This is a complimentary program that follows in the footsteps of National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert. An extensive pack will be provided to eager children on arrival, so they can learn about animal calls, how to track wildlife, and other facts and figures about the wild. At the end of a child’s stay, he/she will become a Young Explorer and Conservation Ambassador - ready to go out and tell the world about what they have learned and what they too can do to help protect this beautiful environment.

Each Duba Plains guest suite comes with a pair of high-quality binoculars for guest use as well as a professional camera set, including a camera body and lenses. Photos will be downloaded to a memory stick on guest’s departure. Photographic tuition through the Great Plains Wild Studio can be arranged for guests (at an additional cost and booked in advance). Tuition can be either on company cameras or own guest’s personal cameras.

Enjoy an aerial viewing experience with great scenery across the northern part of the Okavango Delta. Add a 15-minute champagne stop on palm island en route. Must be booked in advance and is subject to extra cost and availability.

Explore the Okavango Delta's permanent water channels by mokoro (when water levels allow). This is truly a refreshing yet peaceful experience allowing for wildlife and bird viewing from a unique perspective.

Viewing wildlife on a game drive is a thrilling experience. The varied woodland habitats and ancient floodplains along the Linyanti fault line make the Linyanti an essential part of any Botswana itinerary. Some of our guests have described it as utterly breathtaking. A safari to Africa is worthy of being on every travellers' must see destination.

Catch sight of nocturnal creatures on a night drive along the channel. An intriguing opportunity for you to see animals that you may never have heard of and are more unique, such as genets, civets, and bush babies. The other exciting element of night drives is the chance of seeing cats at their most active.

On request, nature walks with skilled, armed guides are wonderful ways of getting close to nature and observing the smaller things you miss when travelling by vehicle.

There are two hides in the vicinity of Kings Pool from which to view and photograph animals and birds. One is located at the western end of camp and the other is an original underground hide, with the water at eye level making for a unique camera-friendly perspective

End the day with sundowners, relaxing on the elegant, colonial-style Queen Silvia barge floating down the Linyanti River. While the camp and its lagoon take their name from King Gustaf of Sweden who honeymooned here in the mid 1900s, the name of the barge romantically commemorates his wife. The newlyweds fell in love with the beauty of Botswana – a feeling that was mutual as the country fell in love with them too, and Botswana fondly named Queen Silvia the Dancing Queen!

* Water levels permitting.

Fishing with a limited supply of basic equipment is on offer on a catch and release basis.

* Note that fishing is seasonal as it is prohibited by Botswana law in January and February due to breeding purposes.

Birding is outstanding at Wilderness King's Pool, with the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve an internationally recognised Important Bird Area (IBA), particularly for birds of prey like Dickinson's kestrel and water birds, from fish eagles to herons, and African skimmers. In the summer months, southern carmine bee-eaters nest near camp. Keep your binoculars close at hand!

Massages are available for you to enjoy in the privacy of your tent. A range of beauty treatments created to restore your body’s natural balance and soothe away your stresses.