DAY 1: ELEPHANTS FOR AFRICA

You will arrive in Maun and transfer to Meno A Kwena, our hidden gem perched on a rocky clifftop overlooking the Boteti River with front-row seats to the comings and goings of the wildlife below.

A mere 90-minute drive from Maun, this classically styled camp was originally used by Southern Africa’s explorers and although we’ve added a few little touches here and there, it’s refreshingly simple and full of character.

The real treat at Meno, however is the connection with nature; from their lofty position, each tent looks down on a menagerie of animals below, from herds of majestic elephant, to dazzles of nomadic zebra – simply sit back, and take it all in. This is the perfect place to start your trip…

At Meno the safari never stops! Situated in an awesome location overlooking the Makgadikgadi National Park, Meno offers spectacular scenery and endless horizons.

Spend your first day enjoying a glittering roster of activities including guided walks with the San Bushmen learning about the traditional Botswana way and then a short game drive with a representative from Elephants For Africa, explaining first-hand about all the incredible work being done to mitigate human-wildlife conflict– today there is a plethora to see and do.

So sit back, enjoy and at the end of the day relax around the crackling firepit and let it all sink in.

DAY 2: ELEPHANTS FOR AFRICA

Wake up on your first morning to the spectacular views of the Boteti river below. From the comfort of your private veranda, grab your binos… We like to call this an ‘armchair safari’.

After a hearty breakfast, you will have the opportunity to go on a ‘Community Elephant Coexistence’ cultural tour where you’ll visit and speak to local farmers in Moreomaoto, to get a better understanding and insight into some of the challenges faced when living alongside elephants and how they are deterred with the help of Elephants For Africa. This is a vital partnership when it comes to protecting the elephants and the community. You will also get see some of the community outreach projects that we support.

After the Moreomaoto tour, you will head to the EFA research base to see some of the EFA research activities. Here you will grab a quick lunch before heading onto the Makgadikgadi National Park, and hopefully some close encounters with elephants.

After a wonderfully educational day, spend your evening swapping stories around the dinner table, taking in the nocturnal sounds and the beauty of the star-filled night-sky.

DAY 3: CONSERVATION AND COMMUNITY OVERVIEW

Day 3: Wake up, grab a coffee and enjoy your last moments at Meno a Kwena. After breakfast you will transfer back to Maun and hop onto a small plane, to continue your adventure into the Okavango Delta. You will be flying onto the Khwai Private Reserve in the northern reaches of the Okavango Delta, with a chance to appreciate the beauty of the Okavango Delta along the way.

Khwai Private Reserve has one of the most beautifully iconic landscapes in Botswana. It is 200,000 hectares (770 sq. miles) of pristine wilderness. Mopane woodlands give way to riverine forests and spectacular floodplains with pans (waterholes) and flooded grasslands that wind their way through the KPR from the Khwai River.

You will be staying at Little Sable Camp which offers an intimate and relaxed safari setting – the perfect place to be after an adventurous day on the go. With 8 traditional style tents on raised wooden platforms, each with a private viewing deck, en-suite bathroom and outdoor shower, you’ll love spending time here.

Tonight, a member of the conservation and community team will talk about how the lodge works hand-in-hand with the local community and how the KPR ranger team monitor wildlife and work closely with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) on anti-poaching. You will also learn about the important wild dog and predator-focused research program being undertaken by Wild Entrust’s Botswana Predator Conservation program, as well as Natural Selections support of this work.

Enjoy your first night leisurely sitting around the crackling firepit, cocktail in hand.

DAY 4: KHWAI COMMUNITY AND WILD ENTRUST

Wake up to a steaming hot cup of coffee and a light breakfast, before heading to the Khwai Village, where you will get to see first-hand the community work that is being done there, including a visit to the preschool to plant a tree. Your safari guide will also stop outside the Kgotla to explain its role in the community.

After a busy morning you’ll head back to camp for a restful few hours, to enjoy the stillness. If you are visiting between June and August, you will have an opportunity to visit the grass harvesting project en route. Cool down around the pool enjoying the perfect game viewing platform for photogenic opportunities, or laze in your tent.

This afternoon you will explore the amazing wildlife and scenery with a leisurely game drive, accompanied by a member of Wild Entrust’s Botswana Predator Conservation program who will share their expertise and stories from the field. They will be available at dinner for any more questions you may have.

DAY 5: KPR ANTI-POACHING

As the sun rises you will wake again to the beauty of the iconic Okavango Delta experiences. After a steaming hot cup of coffee and a light breakfast, you will be heading off. You’ll spend your day on a morning, afternoon and evening game drive looking for signature wildlife.

At some point on the trip you will learn more about the KPR anti-poaching team, and hopefully they are available to meet in the field.

Khwai has an excellent reputation for sightings of elusive species such as wild dogs, serval cats, honey badgers and you may even spot a pangolin. Jump on a mokoro and wind your way around the crystal-clear waterways, with abundant bird and plant life.

DAY 6: DUKE’S CAMP / DUKE’S EAST

After breakfast, you will leave Little Sable and head out to magical Duke’s Camp or Duke’s East, situated in the Northern Okavango Delta.

This area offers a diverse matrix of expansive floodplains, woodlands and waterways and is undoubtably one of the most famous wildlife-watching destinations in the world – and it lives up to every expectation. Once in camp, a tasty lunch will be served (if not too late), after which you can spend some time at the swimming pool pavilion with the peaceful lagoon laid out before you. Enjoy the exceptional birdlife, grunting hippos who wallow in the lagoon and the families of warthogs who have made this area their home. 

A later afternoon into evening game drive will take you exploring the pristine private concession home to a rich array of wildlife including healthy populations of lion, leopard, cheetah, and elephant. Time and water level permitting, mokoro and boating activities are also available. 

After an adventuresome day, spend the evening enjoying delicious cuisine and then retiring to your canvas safari suite, replete with king size four-posters and feather-filled pillows to fall face first into after your exhilarating day. 

DAY 7: ELEPHANT EXPRESS, LIFE WITH ELEPHANT TOUR AND CLAWS

Up with the dawn, you will greet the beauty of this extraordinary landscape coffee and rusk in hand. Today you have an early start, travelling by helicopter to nearby Eretsha to see some of the projects in the area.

First you will visit the Communal Herding for Livestock and Wildlife Protection (CLAWS) project where a representative will take you out to visit the cattle kraal or the herd of cattle in the bush. You will get to see the work being done by CLAWS and how it is related to the community, lion conservation and improving rangelands.

Thereafter you will be taken on a Life with Elephants Tour, where you will learn about the community’s traditional way of life and what it is like to live in close proximity to elephants. This will include visiting the Elephant Express Programme – a partnership between the Okavango Community Trust, the Ecoexist Trust and Duke’s Camp. There are two Elephant Express buses transporting young community members to school, and older members to the clinic, ensuring they don’t need to walk along the dangerous ‘elephant highways’. You will get to learn more about the Elephant Express Programme.

Spend your last night enjoying front-row seats to the Okavango Delta as you get to watch the wildlife comings and goings near the lagoon. And as the sun sets and the moon rises, you’ll feel relaxed and inspired by all the enlightening safari experiences you have had the incredible opportunity to see and do.

DAY 8: ONWARD BOUND

Wake up and enjoy a relaxed morning, and one more scrummy breakfast before you bid farewell to Duke’s Camp or Duke’s East. Today you will head back to Maun, and continue to your onward destination.

To download this itinerary please click HERE.

Murray McCallum

Born in South Africa, Murray’s background is in Environmental Consulting and Project Management, which tally neatly with his long-standing interest in the interplay between environmental matters, community and conservation. Murray’s formal education comprises an honours in Environmental Science and an undergraduate in Environmental Science and Anthropology. His thesis tackled community resource management and the pressure of poaching and impoverishment. In the field, Murray has managed lodges in Botswana and Zambia, and once kayaked 300 kilometres across the Savuti Channel and Selinda Spillway with Track of Giants – an initiative bringing attention to elephant conservation corridors and the importance of trans frontier park conservation. Murray now works in our Cape Town office as our Sustainability Advisor, and provides conservation and community support for the Natural Selection Trust and Foundation.

MENO A KWENA

PROJECT 1: ELEPHANTS FOR AFRICA (EFA)
Elephants for Africa is situated on the north western edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. This conservation project is dedicated to enhancing human-wildlife coexistence in rural farming communities, which we believe is crucial to protect both the elephant and the communities in this wildlife area. The project focuses on mitigating human-wildlife conflict primarily through community workshopping and installing elephant proof fencing.

LITTLE SABLE

PROJECT 2 & 3: WILD DOG RESEARCH AND ANTI-POACHING
Natural Selection supports Wild Entrust’s Botswana Predator Conservation (BPC) programme. Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPC) run the Wild Dog Research Camp which sits in the Moremi Game Reserve, on the southeastern edge of the Okavango Delta. It is the most well-established research centre in the Okavango and has conducted over 30 years of research on wild dog packs, as well as members of the large carnivore guild, the lions, leopards and spotted hyenas. The various projects supported by this centre are dispersed across the Okavango landscape, in and around the Khwai Private Reserve. At Khwai Private Reserve you will also get to meet the anti-poaching team. A group of dedicated rangers that perform crucial tasks within and outside the concession, including de-snaring sweeps, tracking and surveillance.

PROJECT 4: KHWAI COMMUNITY / VILLAGE
The Khwai community and village is situated on the eastern edge of the Khwai Private Reserve. It is here that we dedicate a lot of time and effort to implementing multiple community outreach initiatives in and around the settlement of Khwai village. This veritably reflects our goal of continuously improving the livelihoods of communities living alongside wildlife. And like it is for us, your visit and interaction with the community, will truly be an insightful and humbling experience.

DUKE’S CAMP / DUKE’S EAST

PROJECT 5: ELEPHANT EXPRESS
The Elephant Express project is situated on the north eastern edge of the Okavango and is a wonderful solution to a complex human-wildlife conflict issue, made possible through a partnership between Okavango Community Trust, Ecoexist Trust and Duke’s Camp/Duke’s East. The project transports vulnerable members of the community – children, elderly and the disabled – to school and clinics through dangerous elephant corridors. The Elephant Express helps to minimise human-wildlife conflict by reducing the likelihood of dangerous confrontations so elephants and people can co-exist more easily.

PROJECT 6: COMMUNAL HERDING FOR LIVESTOCK & WILDLIFE PROTECTION (CLAWS)
CLAWS has been set up in the north eastern edge of the Okavango Delta to support human-wildlife conflict (HWC) mitigation. This communal herding programme safeguards cattle, creates employment, reduces retaliatory killing of lions, and restores overgrazed landscapes. Here you will see first-hand how by facilitating a return to traditional herding practices, whereby a herder accompanies livestock, lion-livestock interactions are reduced and the perceived conflict between lions and farmers is alleviated. This initiative combines different herds, to reduce the costs of herding per household and achieves two incredible goals: it reduces retaliatory killing of lions, and it improves the grazing land for livestock herders through rotational grazing.