One of Botswana’s best-kept secrets is out: the Okavango’s ‘green season†in the rainy summer months is simply spectacular. As the delta’s floodplains and waterways fill up with fresh water and lush greenery, the area explodes with new life. Breeding herds of elephant with tiny calves, wobbly legged baby giraffe and boisterous zebra foals are enough to turn even the most cynical heart to mush. (Of course, it also creates somewhat of a smorgasbord for the predators that inevitably enjoy the fruits of this abundance.)
Most camps are accessible only by air, and the adventure begins as soon as visitors board the tiny six-seater Cessna, which swoops low to reveal an incredible panorama of swamps and channels, mopani bushveld and grasslands.
Right up against the border of the Caprivi Strip, Duma Tau camp nestles on the edge of the Linyanti swamp, shaded by luxuriant mangosteen trees. Built on elevated wooden walkways, overlooking a lagoon teeming with pods of hippo, it soon becomes apparent that this is no Disneyesque game park: after a lavish three course dinner, guests are escorted from the open-sided dining room to their tents by a guide and warned not to step outside until the morning (the tents have en suite bathrooms, in case you have a weak bladder and were wondering).
Guides return to wake guests at 5am, and clear the path to ensure that there are no animals lurking. (Each tent is equipped with an air-horn to be blown only in the event of a medical emergency, in which case guides and camp managers will come running, ready to rescue guests from any ravening predators.) On my first night, I had a hippo bellowing and munching away at the vegetation under my tent, and the next night I was convinced there was a leopard on the walkway outside my tent (I stayed firmly rooted under my mosquito net, barely daring to breathe).
Each group of guests is assigned a guide for their stay, who takes them on game drives, shares their encyclopaedic knowledge of the bush and tells them tales at meal times. Ronald Masule, our young guide at Duma Tau, led us effortlessly from lions at a kill to huge herds of elephant, but also focused on the smaller attractions: from the black egret — which stalks the shallow waters and dramatically flicks its wings forward like Dracula swirling his cape to create a pool of shade allowing it to pounce on fish — to the tiny terrapins sloshing around in muddy puddles along the track.
Having always been somewhat dismissive of ‘twitchers†I found myself becoming a bit of a bird-nerd, going into raptures about lilac-breasted rollers, malachite kingfishers and the beautiful carmine bee-eaters, which soared alongside our vehicle, feasting on the insects flushed out of the grass by its wheels. The bird life is astonishingly varied, from squacco herons, to wattled cranes, ground hornbills and lappet-faced vultures.
Chitabe camp in the south-east of the Okavango delta is in a slightly drier area of acacia and mopane. The giraffe at Chitabe are particularly abundant and our guide, Phinley Mwampole, took us to them so unerringly and so often that we started to tease him about radioing them to arrange a rendezvous whenever he had guests.
The undoubted highlight of the trip was the Little Vumbura camp, in the north of the Okavango delta, which is only accessible by water. Situated on an island in the permanent swamp, the camp is surrounded by water lilies, floating papyrus banks and melapo floodplains through which red lechwe antelope splash. The newly refurbished camp is an oasis of coolness, in cream and blue canvas, with beds gorgeously canopied in swathes of mosquito net and each tent having a private shady porch with a daybed for a midday nap.
An early morning mokoro trip reveals the true beauty of the delta, as the mekoro are poled silently and surprisingly swiftly through crystal water the colour of strong tea. Pygmy geese feast on the flowers of the day lilies, which have just opened, and on the night lilies still untouched by the rays of the sun.
What makes Little Vumbura truly special are its people, many of whom are from surrounding villages, which are members of Okavango Community Trust that works with Wilderness Safaris to ensure local communities benefit from eco-tourism. From ‘Pro†the hilarious barman — who literally had us falling off our chairs with his anecdotes — to Lawrence and Unoziba of the management team, who made us feel as if we’d personally been invited into their homes (and not in a phoney American ‘have a nice day†way) — we could not have had a more gracious welcome. When — despite knowing better — I failed to drink enough water and got dehydrated, trainee manager Kay Modirwagale held my hand and laid cool cloths on my forehead.
We were thrilled to be assigned the legendary guide ‘Madala K†Bosigo, who tracked everything from a nocturnal leopard with a baby kudu kill in a tree to a languid cheetah napping on a termite mound and minuscule long-reed frogs (about the size of my little fingernail). And after another guest discovered a baboon spider in her shower (inducing a fit of arachnophobia in yours truly), Madala K humoured me by checking my tent for eight-legged horrors before I went to bed each night.
Botswana has been careful to market itself as a low environmental impact destination, focusing on fewer, higher-paying visitors. The result is that most South Africans have found it a somewhat unaffordable destination and have also been missing out on a marvel on our doorstep. Special green-season offers for residents of the region look set to change that. While foreign visitors may flock to Botswana in the arid winter months when the game congregate in even larger numbers as water sources dry up, I prefer seeing them enjoying abundance.
Nicole Johnston visited Botswana courtesy of Wilderness Safaris
The lowdown
Getting there:
Air Botswana operates daily services into Maun from Johannesburg.
Reservations:
Johannesburg Tel: 011 390 3070
Gaborone Tel: +267 390 5500
Website: www.airbotswana.co.bw
Rates:
Wilderness Safaris is offering a Green Season special for Southern African residents valid to March 15 2008:
- Three nights Maun-Okavango-Maun package — prices from R6Â 359 per person sharing; and
- Three nights Maun-Linyanti-Maun package — prices from R7Â 159 per person sharing.
Includes: Accommodation on a full board basis including all game viewing activities, park fees and Maun Airport departure tax of R70 per person.
Excludes: Flights to/from Maun, drinks, items of a personal nature.
Validity: Please note that this special is for Southern African residents only, requires minimum two guests travelling together for the package rates to apply and is applicable only for the following camps: Chitabe (Okavango), Chitabe Trails (Okavango), Duma Tau (Linyanti), Jacana (Okavango), Kwetsani (Okavango), Little Vumbura (Okavango), Savuti (Linyanti), Seba (Okavango), Tubu Tree (Okavango) and Xigera (Okavango). The package includes a three night stay at one camp in either Okavango or Linyanti. Contact Wilderness Safaris on 011Â 807Â 1800 or email [email protected] to make a reservation. Visit www.wilderness-safaris.com for further information.