BOTSWANA
large sunhat obscuring the view through their zoom lens, or the hubbub of a neighbouring jeep scaring off a rare bird, is simply unacceptable. And this is one of the reasons why so many of them choose to safari in Botswana.
PRIVATE MOMENTS
Across Africa, safari areas can be divided into two broad types: national parks and private reserves. The former are open to any members of the public, and thus controlling visitor numbers is tricky. In the latter, only those permitted by the owners or operators have access, and this is usually limited to the guests staying in the lodges and camps within the boundaries. Visitor numbers will never exceed the number of beds, so overcrowding is virtually impossible. Rather than trying to pull in large numbers, Botswana has chosen a strategy of low-volume, high-spend safari tourism. Private concessions are particularly common here. It’s not just possible but easy to organise circuits of the country, hopping from private concession to private concession, and staying in some of the most luxurious camps and lodges in Africa in the process.
Wilderness Safaris, the operator of
Tubu Tree, is a major player, with 19 camps across the Linyanti Reserve, the Central Kalahari and – the jewel in Botswana’s crown – the Okavango Delta. It also operates Wilderness Air, the charter company that shuttles guests between camps, its small aircraft sometimes having to wait for game to vacate the dirt airstrips before they land.
FLYING VISITS
This is another factor that pushes up the price of Botswana safaris. Roads are poor and distances long, and – particularly in the waterlogged Delta – at some times of year camps are inaccessible by any other means than flight.
50 — aspire september 2015
But the extra dollars are all worth it. These flights are not irritating delays to the start of the trip, or annoying transfers that punctuate an itinerary. They’re part of the game-viewing experience, and a thrilling one at that. Taking off from Maun, the tiny airport
that provides a gateway to the Okavango Delta, we watch the landscape change, becoming wilder, flatter, wetter. Algae- covered swamps pitted with reeds start to resemble the rough, hairy hide of an elephant. The true scale reasserts itself when we spot a real elephant walking down
The sheer volume and variety of game makes Botswana a stand-out destination for safaris
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