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UNTAMED LANDS
A 12-night/13-day Adventurer Exploration
Tour Direction: Camp Kalahari to Zambia
Photograph by Michael Poliza
Serviced camping in private concession areas and exclusive campsites within the National Parks and a lodge overnight in Zambia.
Seasonality: This safari changes slightly between December 1 and May 31, adding a night in the Savute area and cutting a night in the Linyanti area to maximize the likelihood of viewing the zebra migration that typically takes place in this time period. If rains are poor, this migration may not occur at all.
ITINERARY
Day 1 & 2: Camp Kalahari, Makgadikgadi Pans
After arrival in Maun, we drive to Camp Kalahari, situated in a private concession on the edge of the great Makgadikgadi Pans in the Kalahari Desert. The saltpans are among the largest in the world, part of a super-lake fossilised aeons ago.
Surprisingly for such a harsh, lunar-like environment, life abounds, and brown hyaena, oryx and springbok are just a few of the desert-adapted species that can be seen. Activities include encounters with suricates (meerkats), one of the most endearing animals in the world. Experience phenomenal geology, quad biking, authentic San (bushman) cultural walks and fascinating Stone Age archaeological artefacts - or simply enjoy the wide-open spaces of this ancient lakebed.
Day 3 & 4: Nxai Pan, Nxai Pan National Park
After an early breakfast, we depart overland to our pre-erected private Adventurer campsite in the Nxai Pan National Park, stopping for lunch en route at the famous Baines Baobabs, which Thomas Baines painted on his exploratory expedition in the late 19th century.
These pans are fossilised, covered with short nutritious grasses and stunted acacia trees, creating wildlife-rich areas surrounded by vegetated dune savannahs. Extensive game drives explore the surrounding pans, with an excellent chance of seeing spectacular dry-season predator-and-prey interaction at the waterholes.
Day 5 & 6: Xigera Mokoro Trails, Okavango Delta
After arrival in Maun by road, we fly by light aircraft to the water-filled paradise of the private Xigera area, within the Moremi Game Reserve. Xigera is the ultimate Delta experience, with serene waters flowing through innumerable channels around remote islands and a profusion of plant and animal life.
There is no better way to experience the Okavango than to travel through it by mokoro, walking and camping out on a vegetated island - all essential elements of the Xigera Mokoro Trails experience. The experience is aimed at exposing the permanently flooded inner delta, in the serene waterways and on the islands of trees and bush. Our guest tents are smaller here than the rest of the safari, with a gauze main frame, thus enhancing the views. Key to the experience is mobility, therefore bedrolls are on the ground (and not on a stretcher) and a battery-powered lamp provides light.
Activities include mokoro and walking safaris, which enable up-close encounters with the excellent diversity of birdlife (including Pel's Fishing Owl), frogs and a myriad of game species, some specially adapted to water, such as the rare sitatunga and the familiar red lechwe. Walking activities vary in length and duration through the seasons, especially in the months when the Okavango is at peak flood where they become shorter (June, July and August) as more islands become flooded.
Day 7 & 8: Lechwe Island Camp, North-eastern Okavango Delta
Fly by light aircraft charter from Xigera Mokoro Trails directly to our next Adventurer campsite in the seasonally flooded northeastern corner of the Okavango Delta near the start of the Selinda Spillway. Lechwe Island Camp is located on a wooded island overlooking the floodplain.
Activities concentrate around the bushy and wooded islands, open plains and the flooded and dry channels surrounding the camp. In this area seasonal congregations of wildlife (especially in the late afternoons) make this a great experience on game drives, night drives and nature walks on the private concession.
Day 9: Savute Marsh, Chobe National Park
Departing early from camp, we travel north and east through the private concession and Chobe National Park, stopping en route for game sightings through parts of the area and lunch. This long but interesting drive gives the perfect introduction to the varying habitats of a dry and flat northern Botswana, from the geographically interesting Selinda Spillway (Great Rift Valley fault line) to the open savannah of the Savute Marsh with its granite hillocks.
We arrive at our Adventurer campsite in the mid-afternoon, in time for a short sunset game drive on the open and dry, scenic Savute Marsh.
Day 10 & 11: Linyanti Trails Camp, Linyanti Concession
We leave early, heading towards the Linyanti region. This can be an all-day game drive, with lunch en route at a shady place in the Savuti Channel. This game/transfer drive is specifically designed to gain an intimate view of the "Stolen River". If the guide believes the wildlife better in the vicinity of the trails camp as the permanent waters are there, we will head directly there and embark on an afternoon game drive to begin our search.
On our second day, we depart on an early morning activity in the northeastern corner of the Linyanti, enjoying a myriad of changing landscapes, from riverine to savannah habitat with sweeping views. Lunch is at an area, with a sweeping view of the Linyanti waterways. After a siesta in hammocks, there is the possibility of an afternoon canoe trip (if there are no hippo pods in the part of the river we canoe on), before returning to camp at dusk.
Day 12: Chobe River boat cruise & Shackleton Lodge, Zambia
After a short morning drive and breakfast, we depart by light aircraft to the northern Chobe region of Chobe National Park. This area is famous for its vast herds of elephants and other unique species such as the elusive puku and Chobe bushbuck that move to the river in the hottest hours of the day. Enjoy a lunch served during the boat cruise on the catamaran-style shaded boat.
We leave Botswana and enter Zambia by way of the Kazangula border, a point where the four countries of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe meet, to stay at the Natural Mystic Lodge, arriving in the late afternoon.
Shackleton Lodge is located outside Livingstone - the "Adventure Capital" of Zambia - 30km from the spectacular Victoria Falls, and 50km from the Kazangula border between Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Day 13: Guided tour of the Victoria Falls; transfer to Livingstone Airport
Enjoy a guided tour of the Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. At 1708 metres wide, it is the largest curtain of water in the world and drops more than 100 metres into the sheer Zambezi Gorge.
After the Victoria Falls visit we transfer directly to Livingstone Airport and bid farewell to the adventure.
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