There’s never a bad time to visit Sable Alley (really). There’s something different in every season but, most importantly, the wildlife is out-of-this-world excellent all year round. Resident hippo splash in the inland pools, elephant and buffalo herds are hard to miss, and you’re never more than a few whiskers away from a lion pride.

From May onwards the Okavango Delta floods. Seasonal channels emerge, perfect for paddling around on a mokoro canoe safari – you might just have to share them with a few antelope. In June to September, the Delta floods really get going, and the heightened water levels mean mokoro and motorboat safaris are possible all day, every day.

December to March brings the summer rains. The grasses grow, and on a single game drive you might not see as many animals; but every rain cloud has a silver lining, and there’s a good chance of encountering big cats stalking their prey, the thick bushes allowing them to hunt undetected. And don’t let the thought of rain put you off – downpours are short and sporadic, and a good, waterproof jacket will see you through pretty much anything the weather throws at you.

Seasonality

• Green season: 10 January – 31 March
• Shoulder season: 01 April – 31 May | 01 November – 19 December
• High season: 01 June – 30 June | 01 September – 31 October | 20 December – 09 January
• Peak season: 01 July – 31 August

• Morning, afternoon and evening game drives in the diverse landscapes of the 200,000 hectare Khwai Private Reserve.
• Pole through the tranquil waterways on a mokoro (dugout canoe) excursion or boat trip and marvel at the beauty of the area from a different perspective (water levels permitting).
• Try your hand at a spot of fishing (01 Mar – 31 Dec); fishing is not permitted from January to February due to breeding season).
• Lace up your boots and embark on a guided game walk along the banks of the Khwai River.
• Be part of the KPR Ranger Experience and spend time tracking predators, capturing data, patrolling and visiting conservation projects (if time allows). This activity is at an additional cost and proceeds from this experience go back into the conservation efforts in the concession.

Landscape

Formerly known as NG18, Khwai Private Reserve is 200,000 hectares of pristine wilderness. That’s three times the size of South Africa’s Sabi Sands – and 300 times more private! The reserve itself is within Botswana’s most talked about region, the Okavango Delta. It actually sits just to the north east of the Delta, adjacent to Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park, and the landscape is one of the most diverse we’ve come across. Think mopane clusters jostling for space with riverine forest, acacia woodland, seasonal waterholes and winding channels leading from the mighty Khwai River. We think you might quite like it.

We’ve chosen a rather lovely spot for Sable Alley, right on the banks of a wildlife-spotted lagoon. The water is home to up to 35 harrumphing hippo, and is a favourite drinking spot for elephant and buffalo. How’s that for game viewing without even leaving your room?

Wildlife

It’s no secret that Khwai was formerly a hunting concession. At Natural Selection, we’ve been working hard to transform the area into a safari destination of note, spending a a lot of our time tracking wildlife in the area and habituating the animals to our vehicles. Like other concessions in the Okavango region, we’ve witnessed how wildlife sightings swiftly turn around within two or three years of hunting stopping, and today you could go on a single game drive and see more than 50 different species. That’s how we know we’ve done a good job.

First up, the predators – and there are plenty of them in Khwai. Keep a lookout for leopard, lion, cheetah and wild dog, concealed from unsuspecting antelope in the grassy bushes. Then you’ll see hundred-strong herds of buffalo barrelling across the landscape, and enormous herds of elephants, trunks swinging and ears flapping. Lastly, keep a lookout for the smaller animals: impala drinking tentatively from pools, baboons shouting from trees, and sable and roan antelope, seemingly posing for your camera. The reserve is diverse even by Okavango terms and the birdlife here also reflects this. You can expect specials like longtoed lapwing, black and slaty egrets, wattle cranes – while the woodlands supper an entirely different suite of species.

Kevin and Shannon Lang have always believed that a safari should revolve around freedom and privacy; everyone should feel like they’re truly experiencing the bush, not just following other people around in search of a leopard. When the opportunity arose to develop photographic safaris in Khwai Private Reserve*, we knew they would be our perfect partners on the ground. Alongside the local communities living on the edges of the reserve and the Khwai Development Trust, they have been instrumental in making our dream of Khwai come alive.

And part of that dream is Sable Alley. In our crazy, modern world, space is one of the greatest luxuries – and that’s exactly what Sable is all about. Spacious, beautifully designed, and impeccably decorated, you’ll feel instantly at one with your surroundings. Stand on your (enormous!) deck and gaze over the antelope scattered across the plain; hop into the open-air shower and watch as the ellies do the same in the nearby waterhole; or settle down at the gin bar for a tasting or two, and listen as leopard bark into the night. It seems like it’s not only our guests that have been secretly impressed with the opening of Sable Alley either. Today, we’ve got big game coming from Chobe to the east, and Moremi to the south, and big cat sightings are beautiful and plentiful.

*This concession and its eco-tourism (non-consumptive) designation, relies on the sustainable use of areas in which eco-systems are intact and, in the process, provides important refuge to countless species and biodiversity under threat, important corridors for migration as well as buffers between wildlife and surrounding land uses. It wasn’t always like this, historically it was utilized for hunting. The conversion from hunting to ecotourism was made a success story by Natural Selection and the KPR management team. At Natural Selection, we recognize the important role that eco-tourism plays in the protection of wilderness areas, and therefore continue to promote and expand our conservation efforts.