April to October is the dry season, but don’t be fooled by the warm daytime temperatures – it can get chilly in the evening. That’s exactly why each Skybed is equipped with cosy blankets and duvets as fat as a stack of pancakes. At this time of year, the wildlife congregates at the Skybeds waterhole. Herds cluster together, predators lurk in the wings, and you can almost feel the heightened tension over the last drops of H20.

As the end of the season approaches and November begins, rain becomes more of a likelihood but it certainly doesn’t rain all night and is more a spectacular event than a hindrance! The giants of the wildlife world start to take the limelight now and large numbers of hippo, elephant and buffalo explore the surroundings.

Seasonality

• Shoulder season: 01 April – 31 May
• High season: 01 June – 30 June | 01 September – 31 October
• Peak season: 01 July – 31 August
• Closed: 1st November – 31st March

• Visit the underground hide, en-route to the Skybeds for some spectacular up-close photographic opportunities.
• Embark on guided bush walks and view the landscape and the wildlife from a different perspective (on request).
• Enjoy an icy G&T overlooking the waterhole and watch the sun plummet below the horizon. Followed by dinner under the starlit sky.
• Watch the elephants all night long visiting the waterhole from your lofty perch.
• Stargaze the night away as you lie tucked up in bed, atop your double-story raised platform.

Landscape

Skybeds is situated alongside a busy waterhole within the 200,000 hectare Khwai Private Reserve concession. This is our precious reserve in the Khwai area of the Okavango Delta, and as the name suggests, it’s private, giving our guests that most indulgent of African luxuries – space.

The reserve is at the north east corner of the Delta, and boasts a glorious diversity of land and waterscape, with a variety of ecosystems playing host to an array of wildlife. From seasonal waterholes and permanent channels to mopane woodland and riverine forests – it’s all here.

Wildlife

We’ve turned the idea of a traditional camp on its head at Skybeds, so we thought we might as well flip the notion of a traditional safari too. Usually, the camp is for resting, but at Skybeds, your bedroom takes centre stage in the wildlife-viewing department. Keep your eyes peeled for kudu and roan antelope roaming beneath your tree-house, predators patrolling the water’s edge and long-lashed giraffe peeping into the bedroom.

Game drives mostly focus on the resident predators, and our team of fabulous guides understand exactly where the furry icons claim their territory. Lion prides prowl with precision, leopard hide in the boughs of the trees, and packs of wild dog and scatterings of hyena are a regular part of the program. And in Khwai, it’s not just predator versus prey, but predators fighting amongst themselves too. Exciting stuff.

We also recommend that you pop out on an evening drive. The beauty of being in a private reserve is the ability to do what we want (within reason!), and one of those things is game viewing under the cover of darkness. These drives increase your chances of seeing big cats on the move, and reveal some of the more elusive nocturnal species too. And next on the list is a walking safari. You’ll follow herds of red lechwe and waterbuck, and come eye-to-eye with kudu and eland – the perfect complement to your view from the treehouse.

Skybeds are a childhood dream come true for many of us at Natural Selection. We wanted a camp that stood high above the ground, where nothing would disturb our views, but where plenty of gruntings and snortings would disturb our sleep! We came up with the idea of multi-storey sleeping platforms – something that had never been done before – and set about building them around a plentiful waterhole in the heart of Khwai Private Reserve*. We decided that too many platforms would detract from the intimacy of the experience, so we stuck to just three. And there you have it: Skybeds – a place to be at one with the wild; count a billion stars above your head as you drift off to sleep; and watch as elephant emerge through the pastel haze of the sunset to drink from the water mere metres below your bed…

*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.