The Okavango Immersion

Nights

10

Party

2–4 guests

Countries

Botswana

From

US$ 32,500 per person, based on four guests sharing, including private aircraftExcludes international flights to and from Africa.

Best season

May–Oct

Ten nights in the Okavango Delta, in three camps that sit in very different water. Mombo is on Chief's Island, where the floodplains pull in the game and the predators follow it. Xigera is deep in the permanent channels, and the lodge itself is built around a collection of African art and design. Jao has its own island in the north of the Delta, with papyrus and open lagoon right up to the deck. The aircraft moves you between them in minutes. At every camp the vehicle and the guide are yours alone, so you leave before first light, come back when you have had enough, and nobody else pulls up at the sighting.

Highlights

• The low pass over the Mombo strip
• Predators on Chief's Island
• The Delta by helicopter
• Mokoro at dawn
• The art at Xigera
• Jao's lagoons

1. Day 1–4

   Johannesburg → Wilderness Mombo, Chief's Island (4 nights)

   You land in Johannesburg on your international flight and go straight across to the Embraer Phenom 300 for the hop to Maun, where the Pilatus PC-12 is waiting. Coming into Mombo, the pilot drops low over the strip first to move the impala off, and quite often elephant. So your first sighting happens before the wheels are down. Then four nights on Chief's Island. Drive long in the morning and again in the afternoon with your own guide, and spend the hot middle of the day on the deck, because the animals come down to drink in front of it anyway.

2. Day 5–7

   Mombo → Xigera Safari Lodge (3 nights)

   A Cessna Caravan takes you the short hop into the permanent water of the inner Delta. Xigera's suites are raised above the floodplain among the channels. One afternoon the team who put the collection together walk you through it and explain the commission programme, which brings work from artists and craftspeople all over Africa into the lodge. Mornings are for the water and the islands, by boat or by vehicle depending on how high the flood is.

3. Day 8–10

   Xigera → Wilderness Jao (3 nights)

   This leg is by helicopter, and you fly it low on purpose. From up there the Delta makes sense: the channels, the palm islands, the paths the hippo have cut through the reeds, the herds out on the floodplains. You come down at Jao on its private island in the north. Here you are closest to the water. Your guide poles you out by mokoro through the papyrus at dawn, and the evenings are on the deck with the lagoon in front of you.

4. Day 11

   Jao → departure

   The PC-12 flies you from the Jao strip to Maun, and the Phenom 300 gets you to Johannesburg in good time for the evening international flights. If you would rather not rush the last morning, your Journey Architect can book a final night in Johannesburg instead.

Flown by turboprop, light and super-light jet and helicopter. How we choose the aircraft