Khwai Private Reserve Anti-Poaching
We equip rangers in Khwai Private Reserve with tools and training to effectively protect wildlife. They patrol, collect data, manage invasive species, and protect trees.
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There’s no denying that Sable Alley is spacious, sophisticated and really quite stylish. A piece of light, bright and beautiful luxury amid the game-rich floodplains of Khwai Private Reserve. Not only is the reserve one of Botswana’s best kept secrets, but the camp is located on the banks of a lily-covered lagoon, home to snorting hippo and a favourite drinking spot for elephant and buffalo. Sit back and simply take it all in, the wildlife is out-of-this-world all year round. But as tempting as it is to stay in camp, venture out you should, for Khwai offers an exclusive safari experience where you can enjoy water-based game viewing in mokoros or by boat, walking safaris and traditional game drives, all done in total privacy and safari style.
The Khwai Private Reserve is a venture with the Khwai Village and your visit has a positive impact on conservation initiatives here. Through multiple community-based projects, ranging from pre-school support to a cultural village, we are helping to support and uplift the local community.
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.
Sable alley is accessible from Maun (and Kasane and any other camps in northern Botswana). Direct flights are available to Maun from Cape Town and Johannesburg. Fly to Maun and then switch to a light aircraft to fly to our airstrip in the Khwai Reserve. Road transfers from Maun and self-drive options are available – please contact us for details.
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.
There’s no denying that Sable is spacious, sophisticated and really quite stylish. Each canvas-walled suite is a huge 55 square metres, and comes complete with mini-indoor seating area, writing desk, double bed, and some seriously Afro-chic décor. Slide open the screen doors at the front for uninterrupted views of the lagoon, or take a seat on the veranda for a closer inspection. At the back, you’ll find two basins, and indoor shower and a flush loo. And if you fancy washing off the dust from the day in the great outdoors, no problem – there’s an outdoor shower with a view too.
Just like the bedrooms, the communal areas are designed around the spectacular vistas. Watch the happenings at the lagoon from the bar, G&T in hand, from the outdoor fire pit, or from a squashy sofa in the lounge. At night, dinner is served either in the indoor dining area, or alfresco on the deck, accompanied by twinkling stars and the rumblings and grumblings of the wildlife. We’ve also added a swimming pool and sun deck, both unique spots from which to watch the hippo pods emerge from the lagoon, or simply for some chill-out time in the heat of the day.
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.
Get access to a range of experiences that can be enjoyed during your stay
When you visit, you will be directly supporting the following Natural Selection conservation initatives:
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.