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The Okavango Delta is not only extremely beautiful and peaceful, but also home to a large variety of animal and bird species. The best time to visit the Okavango Delta for game viewing is in the winter months, when the water levels are at its highest. The summer months attract a large variety of bird species and is a wonderful experience with less mammals, as they migrate north to larger quantities of water.
We start the day with a breakfast, before heading into the Okavango Delta with 4x4 open-sided game viewing vehicles which will take us all the way into the park to the edge of the water channels. Here we meet the local guides (polers), and we transfer all the equipment and our personal belongings into mokoros (traditional dug out canoes), which we use to glide down the water channels deeper into the Delta.
Camping in the Okavango Delta is an amazing experience in its own. There are no campsites in the concession that we visit, which means that we do free or bush camping. There will be no fences, no running water, no showers, no buildings and no electricity. We camp in the wild with only what we take with us. We enjoy a light lunch after setting up camp. It is normally very warm by this time of the day (especially in the summer), which means that we will have to cool off. The Okavango Delta offers fantastic natural swim pools in the smaller rivers, with white sand and crystal clear water.
Every day we will do early morning and late afternoon game walks, searching for as many different animal species as possible. The guides will explain more about all the animals, their tracks, the vegetation and the Delta during these walks. You may have the opportunity to get close (safety first) to the wildlife of the Delta.
After dinners you can relax around a campfire, while listening to the nocturnal animals calling out in the night. We often hear elephants rumbling, lions roaring and jackals and hyenas crying out in the night.
You start your last morning in the Okavango delta with a cup of coffee before doing your final game walk. After the walk you will enjoy a quick breakfast, break down camp, and then return with the mokoros to the place where the 4x4 vehicles will meet you.
Your guide will prepare a light lunch on return to camp in Maun. This afternoon you have the opportunity to do an optional one hour game flight over the Okavango Delta. This is another fantastic experience. It is amazing how much distance the small planes cover in an hour, and how much wildlife you see from the skies during the flight. Remember to take your camera, as you can take good photos during a flight.
Accommodation - Days 3 & 4: Free bush camping
Accommodation - Day 5: Camping with the option to upgrade to bedded accommodation.
Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Day 6: Nata (Botswana)
After breakfast we head to Nata or Elephant Sands (depending on availability and the guide). The afternoon is spent at own leisure.
Accommodation: Camping with the option to upgrade to bedded accommodation.
Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Day 7: Hartbeespoort (South Africa)
We depart early morning driving further south crossing the border into South Africa where we stay the night at a backpackers lodge in the valley below the Magaliesberg mountains, just outside Hartbeespoort town. Your guide will stop en-route for breakfast and lunch (own cost).
Included meals: No meals included
Day 8: Panoramic route - Blyde river canyon (South Africa)
The tour departs early morning from Hartbeespoort. We will stop en-route for breakfast (own cost), after which we continue to Nelspruit (if there are clients to pick up) or alternatively through Dullstroom and Lydenburg to Graskop where we stop for lunch (own cost). After lunch we drive through the panoramic route in the northern Drakensberg mountains, where we stop at God's Window, Bourke Luck Potholes and the third largest canyon in the world - the Blyde River Canyon, where we stop at the Three Rondawels view point.
Accommodation (Camping): Camping at a private lodge
Accommodation (Bedded): Private lodge
Included meals: Dinner
Day 9: Kruger National Park (South Africa)
A very short drive takes us to Orpen gate which is the most central gate to Kruger national park, where we arrive as the gates open. Kruger is home to 147 mammal (including the Big 5), 114 reptile and 502 bird species. You will be transferred to open sided 4 x 4 game viewing vehicles (on arrival at the park) in which we will do game drives. Kruger national park is the same size as Israel, Wales or Netherlands and contains different vegetation types, that attracts different animals to different areas of the park. Therefore we spend as much time on game drives as possible, so that we give ourselves a better chance of seeing different animal and bird species. We concentrate the game drives around the central region of the park, where we have a better chance of seeing the big cats and a large variety of animals.
Breakfast and lunch will be prepared by your guide and enjoyed at one of the many picnic sites inside Kruger national park. The guides will also stop at various view points and hides inside the park.
At sunset you will start with a 3 hour night drive, done in a Kruger national park open sided game viewing vehicle with a Kruger guide.
Accommodation (Camping): Camping inside Kruger national park
Accommodation (Bedded): Private lodge
Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Day 10: Return to Johannesburg & Pretoria (South Africa)
This is our final morning in Kruger national park. This morning you have the opportunity of doing an optional game walk inside Kruger national park with two Kruger park armed guides. Game walks is not about seeing the animals, as you are guaranteed to see much more animals and much closer on a game drive than on a game walk. Game walks are about the smaller things normally not seen from the vehicles.
The clients who are not doing a game walk, will head out on a final short game drive (done in a closed vehicle), searching for the animals not yet seen or photographed.
We then head for a private lodge just outside Kruger national park, where we will enjoy a home cooked breakfast. From here we drive to Johannesburg, Pretoria and Nelspruit where the guide / driver will drop you at any backpackers hostel, hotel, guest house or the airport in Johannesburg.
Included meals: Breakfast
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