6 Nights in the Delta, 5 Nights at Jacks incl a KUBU expedition

(6 nights in the Delta)

Day 1
On arrival, you will be met by your Zoologist/Biologist Guide and private vehicle at Maun airport and transferred by road into the Moremi Game Reserve.

Once in the Moremi, a slow meander/game drive to familiarise yourselves with the area and then into your first camp in good time to shower and unpack before sundowners and dinner.

Uncharted Africa Safari Co. vehicles are top-of-the-range Toyota Land cruisers. They are extremely comfortable, with multiple thoughtful details that make them perfect for game viewing such as roof-top seats, leather bean bags for photography and ponchos to keep one warm on sunrise game drives.

Camp will be comprised of large tents equipped in a luxurious fashion unequalled on any other mobile safari. Real beds, down pillows, pure cotton sheets, Persian rugs, bone-handled silver cutlery, damask table linen and teak and brass and classically-styled campaign kit combine comfort with style.  The only concessions to roughing it are the bucket showers and bush loos,  which are private and en suite.

Day  2
Breakfast in the first light of day and head out in the safari cars for your introduction to some of the animals of the dry floodplain environment looking for zebra, wildebeest, impala and predators such as wild dog and cheetah.

Return to camp for lunch and a siesta.

Head out for sundowners after consuming an embarrassingly large spread of tea and cakes. Park at the edge of a lagoon and watch herds of elephants and a myriad of birds coming down to drink whilst the sun sets and you are given an informal talk on the geological history of the area.

Return to camp for a sumptuous dinner.

Uncharted Africa Safari Co. is renowned throughout the industry for menus that emphasise fresh tastes and originality. Three course meals under the stars include such offerings as fresh tomato and basil soup, ostrich piccata, roast Botswana beef, delectable orange tarts and impossibly rich, but light, chocolate puddings.

Teas are indulgent affairs with treats like triple layer, banana caramel cake, tangy lemon curd biscuits and the best brownies in the bush! All bread is baked daily in a trunk oven on the coals of an open fire, and full cooked English breakfasts are on offer every morning.

Day 3
After a hearty breakfast, head out for the whole day to explore the wider area around your first camp. Search out the creatures and plants typical of the ecosystem and explore the interrelationships of species and the systems in which they live. Seek out the elusive predators such as lion, cheetah and leopard and observe and interpret their behaviour.

Picnic and siesta under a shady mangosteen, and return to camp for dinner - tired, but happy.

Day 4
After breakfast, take a slow drive to the lagoon's edge and board a boat to explore the waters of the Delta. The deep open lagoons provide a wonderful contrast in habitat after the dry forest areas and floodplains of your first camp. Putt along the maze of channels, stopping to admire rare birds and the diversity of aquatic life. Spot small crocodiles basking in the sun on sparkling white sandbanks and hippos jousting for territories with spectacular splashes and clashes of jaws and some serious dental equipment. Learn about the ecology of the waters and look at all the important components of the ecosystem.

Have a picnic lunch on a sandy bank in the river and cool off at a safe swimming spot.

Arrive at your private, twinkling, lantern-lit camp on an island, deep in the delta - just after sunset to shower and relax around the fire before dinner under the stars. Sleep in a mosquito net tent and luxuriate in the freedom of a night in the open, surrounded by nature at her very best.

Day 5
Rise early and after a short walk around the island, hop back into your boat for a meander through the waterways, absorbing the tranquillity of the lagoons and narrow, papyrus-fringed, hippo trails and immersing yourself completely in the incredible spectacles that the Delta has to offer.

Search out hippo and bathing elephants to understand the importance of the Okavango to these enormous creatures. Marvel at the majesty of elephants from only a few yards away as they wash and feed on the roots of aquatic plants. Drift back to the vehicles. Picnic and siesta in the arms of a giant shady baobab. Spend the afternoon seeking out hyena dens and, as the day cools down, watch for hunting cats.

Head on to your third and final camp (which has been moved to a completely different habitat during your island stay) for a refreshing shower and delectable dinner.

Day 6
All day predator hunt. Spend the last day indulging yourself completely in seeking out your favourite species. Leopard spotting, lion tracking, cheetah chasing and dog discovering. If you want to watch lions mating for two hours or prefer to watch bee eaters hawking insects on the wing then so be it. Return to camp for your last night in this incredible Eden.

Day 7
Say your farewells to the camp and transfer out of the Delta...

(5 nights at Jacks Camp)

Day 1
Arrive at Jack’s Camp, surely one of the most romantic camps on earth... The camp is pitched on a low grassland knoll amongst an oasis of dignified desert palms and Kalahari acacia. After the rains, when the sea of summer grasses are still high and feathery, the camp is all but invisible until seconds before your arrival!

The camp’s hub is a romantic canvas pavillion of low spires and finials, with a fluttering valance beneath its eaves and could be the site for a medieval jousting tourney, were it not a deciduous green. Three poles support the main chamber where everyone meets for meals at a long communal dining table.

Ten green, roomy and stylish canvas tents with en-suite bathrooms, indoor and outdoor showers (for those who want to feel the Kalahari breeze on their skin) have been fashioned in classical 1940’s style creating an oasis of civilization in what can be the harshest of stark environments.

Persian rugs underfoot, cool cotton sheets and mahogany and brass campaign-style kit from the family safari stores form a striking contrast with the rugged wilderness viewed from the comfort of one’s own verandah. After tea, drive into the grasslands aglow with golden evening light. Stop to watch the sun set and listen to an explanation of how the Makgadikgadi pans, the remnants of the world’s largest ever superlake, were formed.

Return to camp for a lavish dinner in the elegant mess tent, a designated national museum of Botswana.

Day 2
Set off in the morning to visit some of the Kalahari’s sexiest meerkats. (‘Suricate’ to science-minded people and ‘Timon’ to Lion King fans.) Get up close and personal with these captivating creatures.

On chilly mornings, you might well find a meerkat snuggling up to you for warmth. Or, in the absence of atermite mound or tree, using your head as a sentry lookout post...

By spending quality time with these incredibly social, superbly adapted animals, you will be able to see how they interact with each other and their environment.

You also get the chance to see the desert through the eyes of a meerkat - which, despite the fact that it’s only a foot off the ground, is a pretty spectacular vantage point, and definitely one of the most special and memorable game experiences you will encounter in Botswana.

After a picnic breakfast, visit a remote cattle-post to learn about the traditional culture of the Botswana people.

Close by is the famous Chapman’s Baobab (Also known as the Seven Sisters) which is acknowledged to be the largest tree in Africa, and was the campsite of early explorers like Livingstone and Selous when they pioneered the area.

This gives you an opportunity to gain a fascinating insight into the history of the early explorers.

Return to camp for a rest and refreshing lunch.

After another decadent tea, head off to see one of Africa’s rarest carnivores - the brown hyena. Due to a PhD research programme on this cleverly adapted desert species, the cubs are habituated and allow us to observe their social behaviour without disturbance.

Return to camp and a candlelit dinner.

Day 3
After an early breakfast, wrap a kikoi around your head in the style of Jack Bousfield and set off on the quad bikes across Ntwetwe Pan for Kubu Island.

The journey to and from Kubu is completely extraordinary.  A convoy, driving Indian-fashion ensures low-impact trespass and that you leave as little behind as possible as you barrel across the vast lunar expanses of scorched white earth.  As the day heats up, mirages swim and eddy.  Topiaried bay trees appear to hang above shimmering lakes - actually families of ostriches.

Flocks of swallows fly in ragged formation in bas-relief on the parched earth, and lie perfectly preserved in salt where they fall to earth with exhaustion.  Elephant tracks walk in a circle and then enigmatically disappear,  past the skulls of zebra, the bleached remainders of a previous migration.

Lose contact with time, space and direction. Travel without perceptively moving. Open the throttle and close your eyes and travel, knowing there is nothing to crash into until you fall off the edge of the earth.

Break the journey and your astral reveries for a picnic lunch on the moon!

As the sun begins to drop, squint at a smudge on the horizon - Kubu island. This is what you have come to see. A granite extrusion island studded with baobabs, one of the most graphically beautiful spots in Botswana and rich with intriguing detail, such as walling, trade and Bushmen beads brought here to barter in pursuit of the salt that ices the surrounding pans. Filigreed with baobab trees like fat, red ballet dancers bigger than buses, older than Christ.

The place has been the holiest secret of the Kalahari Bushmen for longer than anyone knows, a place of power and ritual.

The Staff have set up camp; a cauldron of water bubbles for the shower suspended from a tree. The dining table is set and the drinks tray, with Beefeater, and Georgian fobs on bottle labels, stands waiting. Your bedrolls replete with hot water bottles and ticking comforters have been arranged on the high places in a five gazillion star bedroom.

30 000 flamingo fledge there when water is good and although nests are abandoned during the dry season, the acres of strangely shaped mud mounds are an eerie and strangely compelling sight.

Unhatched eggs remain in some of the thousands of empty nests while many chicks are left to die if they hatch too late to be able to join the long march across the Pans that the young flamingo undertake in search of water. Their remains lie on the pan surface almost petrified by the salt.

Day 5
Depart from Kubu once more setting off across the Pans on the quad bikes, ending your desert adventure with a night of comfort back at Jack’s Camp.

Day 6
Spend the morning before you leave walking with Zu/’hoasi Bushmen trackers.

Uncharted Africa has pioneered and passionately supported cultural tourism in Botswana since the company’s inception 13 years ago.

It has long been our belief that it is a vitally important tool in terms of preserving this unique, but sadly fast vanishing, culture.

We have been working closely with the Zu/’hoasi people of the Western Kalahari for many years and are privileged to have a small group of these extraordinary men to guide our guests on a morning’s walking safari.

Offering a window into the past, the Bushmen teach us how they have survived in this harshest of environments, using ancient knowledge of plants, animal behaviour and survival skills.

Return to camp for a quick lunch and depart from the desert, incredulous but, satisfied!

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