Botswana Luxury Green Season Special. Diversity of Botswana Wildlife Safari. Offered December 2012 through March 2013

Transcription

1 Botswana Luxury Green Season Special Diversity of Botswana Wildlife Safari Offered December 2012 through March W. 59th Ave, Golden, CO

2 Itinerary Day 01 Arrive Maun, Botswana. Met and assisted to your bush flight to Little Kwara Camp Day 02 Little Kwara Camp Day 03 Little Kwara Camp Day 04 Following morning activity bush flight to Duba Plains Camp Day 05 Duba Plains Camp Day 06 Duba Plains Camp Day 07 Following morning activity bush flight to Selinda Camp Day 08 Selinda Camp Day 09 Selinda Camp Day 10 Selinda Camp Day 11 Following morning activity and brunch bush flight to Maun in time to connect with your onward flight home or a custom extension. Cost is $8,175 per person sharing, Single Supplement $2,715 (Price is valid December 1 st through March 31 st except during December 20 through January 10 th holiday period when a supplement is applied) *This includes all internal flights between safari camps, accommodation, meals, drinks, laundry, park/concession fees and activities. Not Included Out of Pocket Costs to Consider International flights to and from Maun, Botswana.

3 Tips In Botswana I recommend $20 per day per person, $10 to your guide, $5 to the tracker, and $5 to the staff. Travel Insurance The camps require that you have comprehensive travel insurance with medical coverage. We sell Travel Guard and can assist with a policy or you are welcome to secure your own. Health Precautions We recommend a visit to a travel clinic. You will need antimalarial medications and possibly some shots depending on your medical history. Note: Subject to availability. This is a pay by check or bank wire discounted price. We can process credit cards but costs are 4% higher for all credit charges.

4 Introduction to Botswana Northern Botswana spanning from the Okavango Delta to Chobe National Park is considered to be one of the premier safari destinations. Low density tourism is the hallmark of Botswana safaris allowing you to explore magical locations without hordes of other tourists as occurs in some other famed safari areas. The standard of guiding is very high, critical to having a phenomenal experience. Due to the remote and wild nature of the area you will have short flights between locations, an incredibly scenic way to change camps as you take in the scenery below and can often spot wildlife and this ensures your entire safari is quality time with no long wasteful driving transfers from one point to the next. This safari is custom designed to provide you with a vintage exploration of the Okavango Delta the Selinda/Linyanti region. You will have astounding wildlife viewing in some of Botswana s most wildlife rich areas while enjoying luxury safari accommodation. The locations and activities are diverse to ensure the full wilderness safari experience. This safari is custom designed to take advantage of the best opportunities during the Green Season to observe the diverse wildlife in extremely rich habitat areas. All three of these camps are in exclusive private concession areas, which allows for off-road and night drives; unlike safaris conducted in National Parks such as Moremi Game Reserve or Chobe National Park, as they must adhere to park rules. You also will get to experience the Okavango Delta from the water with the mokoro (traditional dugout canoe), power boat and by foot with bush walks. The private concessions have a small number of guests traversing extremely large areas ensuring exclusive game viewing without the interference of hordes of other vehicles. The ability to go off-road creates opportunities for incredibly close viewing of predators and greatly increases the chances of finding animals with tracking. These areas are beautiful with great variety of habitats and species, you will likely see between 30 and 35 different mammal species along with a spectacular array of birds.

5 Little Kwara Camp, Okavango Delta -- 3 Nights Little Kwara Camp is located within one of the largest (almost half a million acres) private concession areas in all of Botswana, and it is also one of the richest for wildlife. The area is very diverse including permanent waters of the Okavango Delta, wide open plains, mopane woodlands, and palm islands. Kwara is part of the legendary Kwando Camps, known for their hard core dedication for game viewing. Kwara concession is particularly rich in predators and this area has been one of the most productive for cheetah, leopard, and lion sightings. For a couple years now a coalition of three cheetah brothers have been frequently sighted, and there is an amazing coalition of seven male lions associated with the seven sisters pride.

6 Little Kwara Camp is able to offer a great diversity of activities including power boating, mokoro (dug out canoe) trips, walks and game drives. September through December is prime time for a boat cruise to Godikwe Lagoon where you can stand on the upper deck eye to eye with thousands of nesting birds.

7 Little Kwara Camp is situated in a treed forest grove on the edge of the permanent waters of the Okavango Delta. This camp opened in 2007 and is an intimate five-tent camp. The tents are spacious, and are elevated on wooden decks each with its own private veranda. Each tent has ensuite facilities comprising bathroom with a bath tub and an inside/outside shower.

8 Duba Plains Camp, Okavango Delta 3 Nights Duba Plains is Africa at its most basic, but also at its most dramatic! Duba Plains is simply the best place to go if you want to try and watch a hunt and kill occur. This area is renowned for lion and buffalo interaction, so this is big hunter and very dangerous and capable prey that often battles back resulting in an epic event. Lions at Duba Plains mostly hunt during the day and typically anywhere from 5 to 15 kills are witnessed on game drives each month, with many, many more hunting interactions occurring to achieve that number of successful kills. Watching the enormous and courageous Duba Plains buffalo bulls defend the herd can be as awe inspiring as a successful kill. Duba Plains lacks a lot of the mammal diversity seen in other areas so the focus here is to find lions or the large buffalo herd and wait until they interact, thus virtually every drive centers on observing the two species and watching the action. Aardwolves, spotted hyenas, elephant breeding herds, warthogs, and red lechwe are some of the other species that frequent the area. Duba Plains is also very rich in birdlife. Duba Plains is also one of the best places to experience the Okavango Delta as its incredibly scenic and with permanent water has become an excellent place to explore the Delta by boat and mokoro.

9 The Duba concession (known as Kwedi Reserve) is in one of the most remote areas of the Okavango Delta and it is one of the largest private areas with 30,000 hectares reserved for just the single camp. The Duba concession consists of vast open plains with small palm islands of thick vegetation as well as beautiful channels of water. The channels can restrict where the vehicle can go and some portions of the Duba Plains have not been reached in recent years.

10 Accommodation at Duba Plains consists of just six roomy tents with an en-suite bathroom, an outside shower, and a veranda overlooking a gorgeous floodplain. The thatch-roofed lounge, dining room and bar areas are raised on platforms along with a small swimming pool. Duba Plains is one of the smaller camps around - there is definitely an intimate feel here and it has been consistently one of the best managed camps in Botswana. The camp atmosphere, remote setting, and dynamic predator action at Duba Plains make this one of my most highly recommended camps in all of Africa.

11 Selinda Camp, Linyanti Marshes 4 Nights Selinda Camp is located in the 300,000 acre Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana and is built on a wooded island on the banks of the Selinda Spillway close to where the Linyanti, Savuti and Kwando Rivers come together. The views of the open flood plains and savanna are astounding and wildlife is a constant feature of the camp.

12 The Selinda Reserve is well known for its outstanding predator viewing as the open plains are especially good for observing the highly endangered African wild dog and cheetah. Lions and leopard are also seen with frequency and there is a good variety of antelope species including spectacular sable and roan antelope. Giraffe and elephants are regular fixtures. Selinda Camp offers game drives throughout the day - focusing primarily on early morning and afternoon/early evening game drives but guests can travel out at midday to enjoy a siesta at one of the game viewing hides that are mostly located overlooking water. Short or full morning walks can be arranged and boating is also on offer as is fly-fishing (but guests must bring their own fly rods). It is also possible to arrange a sleepout on an elevated platform with just a mattress and mosquito net for an unbelievable wilderness experience but you will be hard pressed to give up a night in your tent.

13 This camp is owned and was rebuilt in 2007 by famed wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert. They have created one of Botswana s most luxurious tented camps featuring nine well-appointed tents with expansive views and large bathroom areas. The common areas include an art gallery, plunge pool, chilled wine cellar, and two meal areas that are under thatch and under the stars. Splendid meals are featured and this is a camp where refinement meets the wild.

14