Okavango Delta

Real wilderness feel

A very special and very beautiful place like nowhere else in Africa. It needs to de seen to be believed.

The Okavango Delta has it all.

Staying in Bed and Breakfast accommodation (lodges) with monkeys and elephants around, then up pop the hippos in the river, amazing. Found this the best way, as you get to pop into the towns and buy gifts from the locals.

You can't beat the excitement of a jeep safari followed by lazy days spent on the Okavango Delta. A gentle evening mokoro trip through the water lilies watching as the sun slowly descends turning the sky into a burnt orange and purple haze is mesmerising.

The Okavango River pours into northern Botswana from Namibia and Angola, then fingers into an immense sprawl of ephemeral marshland and forest containing one of the continent's most spectacular and diverse concentrations of wildlife. The geography is wondrously ambiguous -- deeply tropical at one turn, dryly wooded at the next.

Perhaps most startling of all the country's wildlife, if lacking the glamor of the larger mammals, are its birds, and the Okavango is the best place to see them. The country is held in high regard by birders worldwide, but the sheer volume of species in the Delta is overwhelming. Tent-side one morning, a scan of shallow riverfront resembled a field guide into which one of each endemic species had been dropped by an overanxious illustrator: storks, eagles, hornbills, vultures, and no fewer than a dozen of Botswana's prettiest creature (and also its national bird), the liliacbreasted roller. No less common here than a pigeon in Trafalgar Square, the roller is a brilliantly appointed avian with iridescent, powder blue wings.

Just a unique natural wonder of the world, period.

As for Moremi - the delta is exceptional! The heart of Botswanna!

The delta in May was quite full of water and the "bush vibe" was incredible. We would go for a 4 hour safari and not see a single other vehicle during that time. A ride in a mocorro is essential and a brilliant way to see the small details in the water such as frogs and (at a safe distance) hippos.

The diversity of animal life and the great accomodations make this perfect.