Romantic Botswana's Delta & Selinda

Your safari beings on arrival in Maun, the gateway to Botswana’s northern wilderness. A scenic 45-minute flight transfers you from Maun to Selinda’s airfield provides a superb aerial introduction to the wilderness. You guide meets you on arrival, taking you on a game drive to Selinda Camp. This exclusive and authentic safari camp on the banks of the Selinda spillway offers only nine lavish guest tents built on raised decks under cool thatch canopies. Your private verandah offers panoramic views across the palm-studded floodplains – a quintessential delta vista. Your suite’s open-air bathroom is flooded with natural light and features a charming stone bath with a view, of course!

The reserve is famous for its large herds of elephant and buffalo, as well as predators like leopard and wild dog. The seasonal spillway meandering through the landscape is a magnet for wildlife, providing the only reliable surface water outside the annual summers rains. Traditional 4x4 games drives offer close encounters with the herds and allow you to venture deep into the reserve. Guided nature walks provide a more intimate perspective on this untamed landscape, as do the serene mokoro (dug-out canoe) trips. A skilled poler steers your canoe along the delta’s papyrus-lined waterways, allowing you to soak up the cool, freshness and get close to the reserve’s superb birdlife. Game viewing from the water provides a unique perspective –elephant often drink and wallow in the shallows ignoring your presence a safe distance away on the water.

Your day begins early on safari, when wildlife is still active and game viewing is at its best. You set out with your guide after a light breakfast to explore on a game drive. You may come across breakfasting antelope or meet a pack wild dogs trotting back to their den after a successful night’s hunting. You return to camp for a welcome brunch in the thatched-roof, open-air dining room – the perfect conclusion to a thrilling morning. The heat of the day is given over to siesta – relax and recharge in your private living room or enjoy a glass of wine on your verandah. After a delectable high tea, you are refreshed and ready for your afternoon excursion – a guided nature walk or mokoro trip, perhaps. A late afternoon walk introduces you to the secret language of spoor and scat, insects and plants.

However you spend the afternoon, the breathtaking African sunset is best admired over convivial sundowners around the communal campfire. Selinda is known for its excellent cuisine and a sumptuous three-course, candlelit dinner awaits. Bring your day to a perfect end with a nightcap on the Star Deck, or a thrilling night drive, seeking out creatures like porcupine, springhare and leopard in the beam of your guide’s spotlight.

After breakfast, a helicopter transfer whisks you across the Selinda to the heart of the Okavango Delta. Your home for the next three nights is Duba Plains; an intimate tented camp set on a far-flung island in a private reserve deep in the delta. Accessible only by air, this exclusive camp is surrounded by game-rich savannah floodplains, which are seasonally inundated with water.

Duba Plains offers only six, spacious Meru-style tents, each raised on a wooden deck and sheltering under a thick canopy of mature jackalberry trees. Settle in to your light and airy suite with its high ceiling and picture-framing windows. Relax on your private deck, where a plunge pool offers a refreshing respite from the heat of the day and the outdoor shower offers spectacular views. There are spacious family units and the guides offer a Young Explorers Club with programmes for children 12 years and older. For utter relaxation book a massage with the in-house therapist, set on the water’s edge where you can soak up the pure tranquillity of nature.

Duba Plains are home to large herds of buffalo, and where healthy breeding populations thrive, you find Africa’s apex predator: lion. Duba’s resident lion prides are often active during the day giving guests plenty of opportunity to witness the thrill and drama of predator-and-prey interactions on game drives. For a more gentle, intimate portrait of the delta, take a guided nature walk or mokoro trip along its meandering waterways. Unlike many camps with structured activities, Duba’s guests are encouraged to tailor-make their own schedules.

Take a picnic out for a full day of game viewing, or simply take your time photographing and observing the abundant bird life. Or search patiently for one of the delta’s magnificent rare species, like red lechwe or the elusive sitatunga antelope. The guides are very accommodating, packing picnics meals to eat in the wilderness and shaping your expeditions around your specific interests. The service is warm and friendly, and the guides are passionate about sharing this wilderness with you.

After breakfast, a light aircraft whisks you back over palm-dotted floodplains to Maun for your journey home. Your stay at two of the finest camps in northern Botswana has left your with memories for a lifetime: a vast herd of fearsome buffalo, and the tawny shadows of a lioness stalking them, the haunting cry of a fish eagle and the soft scent of wild sage on the evening air, the joy of glimpsing a rare sitatunga melting into the reeds, and the thrill of a helicopter flip over the sparkling waterways of the Okavango Delta.