Day One: Jo'burg Outlying Areas
After a long flight, spend the remainder of the day getting acquainted with the sights and sounds of Africa. Preferred accommodations would be one of our favorite guest houses in the area with a beautiful garden, bar, lounge, pool, and secluded room. Your guide will either take you to a local restaurant or cook up a traditional South African Braai (BBQ) per request. |
Day Two: Kruger National Park
Take a short flight or a leisurely drive across Mpumalanga province to the park. The ride will take you past the largest natural deposit of gold in the world and through the highveld and lowveld ecosystems of northern South Africa. |
| Kruger has plenty of tourist infrastructure with restaurants, shops and facilities. Most people stay in rest camps with a variety of comfort levels, from bare tent sites to luxurious bush camps and hotels. |
Day Three: Kruger National Park
Head out and search for the big guys. In Kruger you can hike wilderness trails with experienced armed guides or crank out an awesome Land Rover safari. The park boasts over 140 mammal, 500 bird, and 110 reptile species. Of all parks in the world, Kruger offers the best guarantee to see the "big five", lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, rhino as well as cheetah, giraffe, hippo, and gazelle species. |
Day Four: Kruger National Park & Botswana
If flying to Maun, take a morning game drive after breakfast and then fly out. Otherwise the next few days will take you through a magical drive through Botswana. We will break the drive to Botswana by stopping for lunch in Ellisras, the heart of the bushveld. This is the rugged land of Voortrekkers, the pioneers who were the first to butt heads with the Zulus. After lunch, we will cross the border into Botswana and stay in Serowe, home to the last king of Botswana. |
Day Five: Khama II Rhino Sanctuary & Khama III Museum
The sanctuary is out of the way of most tourist routes and hosts the majority of Botswana's remaining rhino. Plenty of other animals roam the park. Informative game drives by the park rangers are also a must. This park is very inexpensive. |
Day Six: Drive Through Botswana's Rugged Interior
This day will be dedicated to driving through Botswana to Maun. A new road has been built that cuts driving time to one day, as opposed to 3. We will drive though landscapes reminiscent of the lunar landscapes, the so called pans. Plenty of wildlife lives side by side with domestic animals. Don't be surprised if a herd cattle, wildebeest and a few ostriches block the road at times. |
| Arrive on the border of your ultimate destination, the Okavango Delta. Spend the night at the awesome (recommended) tented Audi Camp (or higher-end lodgings). They have a great traveler's common area, bar, and restaurant. There is even a resident African Gray at the bar to chat with if all the expatriates, traveler's and other don't have anything interesting to say. |
Day Seven: Okavango Delta
Enjoy a hearty continental or English breakfast and take the most breathtaking 45 minute flight of your life! The flight over the delta is beyond description. The delta is a desert flooded 365 days a year. There is almost no organic matter in the soil (it's only sand) and the water maintains all the nutrients needed for thousands of species of plants and animals. As the delta is very shallow, it is like a liquid grassland supporting huge herds of herbivores and their predators. It takes months by traditional boat to navigate from the source to Maun, 45 minutes by plane, and 4 months for drop of water to enter the source and exit where the swamp simply dries up as it does not empty into an ocean, river or lake. |
| While in the delta, we will take a dugout canoe safari among the small islands. Your guide will arrange all camping and food necessities. If you prefer a more catered delta safari, many private lodges dot the delta and provide exemplary accommodations as well as private tours of the delta on their own allotted acreage. |
Day Eight: Okavango Delta
It is generally required to have a local to pole you around in their canoe. The Okavango Polers Trust will be our source of local guides. They will take us on day time walks on the small islands to track elephant, baboon, eland, and zebra. In the mokoro (canoe) we will stalk hippos and observe the plethora of bird life including many large birds of prey. The guides will point out all there is to know about the delta, including edible plant species like marula fruit (Amarula Cream Liquor) and papyri. |
| Upon request, local Serongan (the ethnic group native to the delta) women will prepare a traditional meal eaten by delta natives. It is truly a different experience to sit around the fire and watch as she cooks stews in large cast iron pots over open fires. She will cook in front of you, next to our campsite along the water. If you are lucky, you may hear elephant families foraging in the night as you fall asleep. |
Day Nine: Okavango Delta
Wrap up the canoe safari in the delta and catch your flight back to Maun. Spend the rest of the day discussing the biotic odyssey of the delta and possibly begin the drive back to Jo'burg. If flying out of Maun to Jo'burg, two more days in the delta on a game drive in Chobe or Moremi Natl. Park are possible. |
Day Ten: Trans-Kalahari Highway
The drive through the frontier land of Botswana is very interesting. On the way, you will check out the cowboy way of Botswana and catch a glimpses of frontier town life on the edge of the kalahari desert that resemble the all but gone frontier towns of the West. We may stop 3/4 of the way before reaching Jo'burg and spend a last night in Botswana. |
Day Eleven: Outlying Area of Jo'burg
Arrive early in Jo'burg or wake up there and hit the crafts malls, artisan galleries or whatever else you would like to do before leaving. One option is to go on a day tour of SoWeTo (Southwest Township), the historical epicenter of apartheid oppression which is now a burgeoning success story and miracle. Visit Nelson Mandela's house and other famous sites in the town that is home to over 5 million black South Africans. We have our own contact who provides excellent tours of the city. |
Day Twelve: Last Day Biotic Odyssey
Spend the last day relaxing and discussing your impressions of the biotic whirlwind experience over drinks at a local café. If you flight is later in the day, there may be time for more souvenirs shopping or other last minute activities. |
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| For prices, take a look at our pricing page. If you would like a quote for this trip, please email us. |
