8-Day Phenomenal Diverse Landscapes of Botswana Safari

When you arrive at Maun International Airport, your guide will meet you and take you by road to Planet Baobab in the Makgadikgadi Pans region. Planet Baobab is located near the settlement of Gweta, some 40 kilometers from the Pans, among 17 gigantic baobabs. You'll stay here for one night in funky, cool, and incredibly comfy thatched huts inspired by traditional Botswana villages, all organized in friendly clusters. After check-in, embark on an afternoon game drive that will take you deep into the Ntwetwe Pan, the biggest of the two Makgadikgadi Pans. You will have intimate contact with meerkats that are semi-accustomed to human presence. However, they are not domesticated but rather accustomed to our non-threatening presence. Keep a watch out for desert-adapted species like the bat-eared fox, springbok, kori bustard, and possibly even the majestic desert-adapted elephant and lion.

Accommodation: Planet Baobab

Following an early breakfast, we will travel west through Maun and then northeast to Mababe Depression. Here, you will encounter an undisturbed and unquestionably wild destination: dry-land habitats of lead-wood and camel-thorn woodlands and savannahs, as well as the Khwai River's riverbanks. The wildlife viewing opportunities here are superb, with over 100 bird species and 400 animals. We will camp at a private campground in the Mababe Depression and have game drives during the day and night to explore the river banks, Kalahari scrub, and mopane woods.

Accommodation: Budget camping

Today will be spent on early morning and afternoon game drives in search of the Mababe Depression's diverse animal population, which includes bull elephants and breeding herds. Lions, leopards, servals, and African wild cats are common predators in the area, although wild dogs and cheetahs are less common. Other animals found here include the tsessebe, blue wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, sable antelope, roan antelope, and impala. It is also not uncommon to see buffalo herds so large that they stretch as far as the horizon. You will also have the option to explore the Khwai River, which runs through Mababe, on a mokoro (dug-out canoe), allowing you to see how a variety of animals are drawn to the river bank to drink and feed on the rich grasses that grow there. The Mababe Depression is also a popular destination for birdwatchers.

Accommodation: Budget camping

You can continue to enjoy early morning and afternoon game drives. We will also embark on a night drive to enjoy a completely new type of safari. The Mababe Depression comes to life after nightfall, with nocturnal species rarely seen during the day. Keep an eye out for aardvarks, brown hyenas, bat-eared foxes, and African wild cats as the sun sets and the daytime critters retire for the night. Botswana's national parks and game reserves do not accept night drives. These activities take place outside the Moremi Game Reserve in the Mababe Depression.

Accommodation: Budget camping

After breakfast, we leave Mababe Depression and drive slowly via Khwai Concession to Moremi Game Reserve, stopping for a picnic lunch along the way. Settle in at your exclusive campsite in Xakanaxa, nestled in the heart of Moremi Game Reserve, and take in the breathtaking beauty of Moremi's wide-open floodplains, marshes, lagoons, papyrus-fringed canals, woodland, and Savannah. Because of the widely changing terrain, the diversity of fauna and birdlife is excellent. Elephants, buffalos, hippos, giraffes, Burchell's zebras, blue wildebeests, and different antelope species call Moremi home. We may also encounter lions, leopards, hyenas, African wild dogs, and even cheetahs.

Accommodation: Budget camping

You will continue to explore the game reserve, taking advantage of the excellent photographic chances available on game drives. In the heat of the day, go to camp to unwind and meditate on the adventures that await. In the late afternoon, we will go on a three-hour boat ride through the deep passages of the Xakanaxa lagoon. Water reeds (Phragmites australis), grasses, and aquatic plants border the waterways, filtering the water. The broad waterways attract African skimmer, saddle-billed stork, yellow-billed stork, intermediate egret, goliath heron, African fish eagle, slaty egret, and wattled crane. After exploring the bush, we return to the campsite to spend the evening by the campfire under a canopy of stars.

Accommodation: Budget camping

We'll leave camp immediately after breakfast and head to Dead Tree Island, where we hope to find the big cats. Dead Tree Island is located near Xakanaxa. The island was named after the skeletal mopane trees that surrounded the pan of open sea. The trees drowned and died as the creek shifted. Lions can be seen following the herds of buffalo and other game that frequent these areas. Dead Tree Island's lagoon is home to a huge concentration of hippos and a diverse range of aquatic birds.

Accommodation: Low-cost camping

Early in the morning, we will proceed to Maun International Airport to catch your next departure.