Botswana Travel Guide

Amazing experience for my ten year old boy.

We did not know what to expect as this was our first time in Africa. We were met by our guide and began the drive out of Maun to our camp site, roughly three hours away. About ten minutes later, my son quipped "I think I just saw an elephant". Sure enough, we has passed an elephant grazing not two meters by the side of the road. We decided to count the number of elephants we saw but stopped after reaching over 150 on the second day!

The scenery is rather harsh, especially in October, but we saw hippos, zebras, giraffes, lions, hyenas, wild dogs, leopards,
and many different types of herbivores. About the only thing we did not see were cheetahs and water buffaloes.

The tents and camp beds were comfortable and we had our own private toilet and bucket shower attached to our tent. The tent was tidied every morning while we were out on a game drive, and again after our siesta while we were on our afternoon game drive.

Our guide and cook were excellent. Both were clearly passionate about their jobs and we were made to feel like family. We are vegetarians, but each meal was carefully planned, with adequate protein. Our cook used quite a lot of mock meat, which I know is not cheap. In fact, it is just as expensive as meat. We had freshly made bread each morning. At the beginning, there was no hot chocolate but it magically appeared after a couple of days because our guide made sure to pick it up while going back to Maun for another reason.

The highlight for us was to watch as a pride of lions set up a trap for an approaching herd of gnus. The lions blithely walked around our four-wheel drive as they fanned out to steer the herd into the path of the awaiting killers. We did not actually see the kill, but we were able to return quite quickly to see the lions devouring it. As my son said "That was awesome".

My son is 10 years old but at no time did he feel scared or nervous. Our guide made it easy for both of us to take some remarkable photos. I bought a 50-230 zoom lens just for this trip and such a zoom makes the difference as I could take "portraits" of the animals we saw.

A big thank you to Kingfisher Safaris for a memorable trip, which they facilitated even though we missed our original flights due to visa problems and had to delay everything by one week. My impression is that they deal only in quality and recommend them without reservation.

Blown away by Botswana

Booked a 10 day mobile Safari from Maun to Kasane.
First night was spent in Maun before a 3 day 2 night camping trip on the Okavango Delta. Fantastic experience to be poled through the reeds. Great walking safaris enjoyed. We then had one night back in Maun before embarking on the next leg - Moremi, Kwai, Savuti and Chobe NP
We were on a private trip - just my husband and I with a guide, camp chef and camp hand. Basic facilities added to the magical experience of being one with nature. The highlight had to be sitting with the Marsh Pride of Lions in Savuti at sunset - with no other game viewers present. Other top sights were the leopards in Kwai and the herds of buffalo and elephants at Chobe.
My top tip would be to take a buff to cover your face from the dust when travelling plus loads of moisturiser and lip balm!
We were amazed at the food our Chef rustled up on the open fire and enjoyed fantastic evenings at the campfire listening to music and learning more about Botswana.
Our trip was a budget experience - no air conditioning, no en suite etc as we were in tents on camp beds with bush toilet and shower! It was very hot and in the afternoons especially all you could do was sit in the shade but it was an amazing time - one that would be difficult to beat.

Is one of the few places where camping sites are in the wild, giving the unique expereince to be alone in nature; big carnivores are frequeently seen, among those wilddogs, leopards, and in the Kalahari Brown hyena; scenic beauty can vary from open savannah, to woodland, to desert, making the most varied country in Southern Africa; bush vibe is really incomparable, birding opportunities are many as the environment change, spanning from waterbirds to raptors, to desert specilities . A must for Wildlife fanatics, you are just on the stage, you meet all main actors of the big game of life and Death, big carnivores, bigfive, giraffes, more elusive species, wild dog, a real bonanza varying every day, changing any moment

too basic for my taste.

My guide and the staff at the camp were lovely and very accommodating. The highlight of the trip was visiting the local village where many of the staff live. It was primitive (no running water or electricity to the individual huts) but the women of the community was very cordial, everything was orderly and the children were quite happy. The Delta had the most amazing array of beautiful birds i’ve ever seen. It was fun to see elephants and rhinos peacefully roaming so close to the camp.
However, the accommodations were basically fixed, elevated tents. The cold running spicket and toilet were outside of the sleeping area. It had a gravity feed shower that was impossible to work, so I bathed under a faucet. There was no electricity in the tent! A small solar lamp and lantern were the only sources of lightly night.

Beautiful country and very bad people

This is a formal complaint concerning the service provided by Waterlime Mobile Safaris during my trip "6 Days of Moremi Game Reserve" which took place between 29.August - 3 September (programme provided by the organiser of the safari).
The service performed by Waterlime Mobile Safaris employees selected by Ms Mosa: Frank and Katee was below proper standards and did not meet my expectations at all.
The most serious was that they: Katee and Frank lied to us telling that we cannot reach Xakanaka because the road was flooded by the Okavango, and without our consent they changed the programme of the 4th day of the trip and drove us to the south end of Moremi, 1.5 h from Maun.
Other offences in service include:
I. Waterlime Mobile Safaris guide/driver Frank:
1. Offered me to spend nights with me in my tent (“either me or Katee can sleep with you”) which I consider as personal offence. He never apologized for this.
2. As our guide, he never informed us about daily plans and never gave us any information about the area or animals we saw on the way and -in fact- was very bad at tracking them. I personally learnt more during 1 hour mokoro safari from a contracted guide than during the whole trip from our guide Frank
3. Instead of driving along the paths for vehicles in the National Park, Frank drove across the bush chasing animals, including a female elephant with a baby causing stress to me and the animals
4. Repeatedly refused me to use his telephone to call either Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris or my Botswanan friend from Maun when I needed contact, consultation and support (I offered to pay for the calls). Since our mobiles did not work at all we were totally dependent on their good will and cooperation. It did not take place.
5. Was arrogant and aggressive towards us. For example:
-When I asked if we were going to the camp because it was getting late, his reaction was: “who do you think you are to tell me what to do”
-Almost always he did not answer any questions and did what he wanted to do. Even in situations when me and my companions were asking him eg. to stop the car.
II. Waterlime Mobile Safaris guide/cook Katee:
6. During two last days of the trip, he did not provide us with proper food. On day 5 of the trip, for breakfast we got rice and a slice of beef, no lunch at all, and in the evening spaghetti with potatoes, onion and carrots. On the last day of the trip we only got black coffee for breakfast.
7. He refused to give us fresh water and insisted that we drink the plastic smelling water which was bought 6 days ago. He also refused to make fire on the last night saying that he had no more money left for buying wood. I had to give them some money to buy us water and/or wood.

When communicating with Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris they never spoke English so we did not know what they were telling to Ms Mosa and could not react.

My request sent to Ms Mosa from Waterlime Mobile Safaris to compensate financially such bad service was never answered.
Sincerely yours, Danuta

Fabulous!

What a beautiful, friendly, extraordinary place. We had very cold mornings but hot days. Xakanaxa Tented Camp was beautiful and very friendly with a lovely deck overlooking the river and a fire pit for evening get together to chat over the days sightings.TS was a fabulous guide - very knowledgable and keen to show us all the wildlife from elephant to beautiful birds. Having a sundowner whilst elephant were wandering past at the end of a hot dusty game drive is something very special. Khwai Tented Camp was small and intimate and as it was in the concession we were able to have night game drives and a wonderful Mokoro trip. We saw 2 leopards on the hunt and were able to follow them off-road. Chobe lodge is more like an hotel so much bigger and less intimate. The food was amazing. The wildlife is concentrated around the river and there were amazing sightings of elephant, beautiful sunsets and we had a brief sight of a pack of wild dogs. We asked to do full morning game drivers rather that split the morning into game and river safaris which gave us more time out though by about 11 am most of the game is seeking shade from the heat. So many fabulous memories of a beautiful country.

Botswana with Gifts of The Kalahari

A trip to the heart of the bush, made unforgettable by our guide Lucky who, tireless and very expert of places, has accompanied us in this exciting adventure. Thanks also to the Master chef Smooth, to Sugar and Jacob and to the whole team Gifts of the Kalahari. A perfect organization. Colors, scents, and sounds of Botswana will remain in our memories.
Gifts of The Kalahari is super!!!

The trip of a lifetime

Tony and Vincent are incredible and very knowledgeable guides who went out of their way to ensure that we enjoyed every minute of our safari

A once in a lifetime experience of game drives and camping in the bush

As someone who had never been on a safari before, I wasn't really too sure what to expect when I booked this safari in Chobe national park so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be an experience that will stay with me forever. The safari guests consisted of myself and just one other tourist where we were treated to our own campsite with private tents. The team consisted of three staff who managed the campsite, cooked and one of which also provided an extra pair of eyes on the game drives. The staff prepared 3-meals a day of excellent food, usually including some kind of exotic meat in the evenings. The game drives also consisted of the main tour guide (Jane) and her daughter who also came along on the tour (as a one-off). The abundance of wildlife in Chobe was one thing that really amazed me and on game drives there was rarely a 5-minute window where no wildlife was seen at all and over the course of the entire tour we saw just about every animal I could have asked to see there (elephants, lions, leopards, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, zebras...only excluding the elusive Hyena's). The tour guide had around 30 years of experience and so her and her daughter offered a wealth of knowledge and were able to answer any questions we had. Chobe national park itself was an incredible place with the backdrop of the Chobe river offering some of the most incredible sunrises/sunsets I have ever seen and is not too busy like I have heard other national parks in Africa can get (e.g. Kruger) so when we were observing wildlife we were, more often that not, the only vehicle around. To summarise, anyone looking for a safari tour that is small, with private camping and abundant wildlife then this will be ideal for you.

Once in a lifetime camping experience

Super safe place to travel to and totally worth it for how up close and personal you can get with the animals and out in the bush