Traveled in March 2022.
From start to finish our Botswana safari experience was legendary! On arrival in Maun, our welcoming driver had us sorted and on our way quickly. This set the stage as we were received so warmly by everyone during our entire safari!
While the camping conditions are a bit more rustic at Nxai Pan, the camp team made up for it with the great guiding by Ken, fabulous meals and attentive service by the entire camp. Proper bush luxury. We came specifically for the zebra migration, and did it ever deliver! One comes to Nxai for the herds of general game and we were so incredibly blessed with hundreds of zebra, local herds of elephants, large flocks of ostrich and loads upon loads of baby everything. Seems many of the herding animals come to drop their babies at Nxai because of it’s safe, large areas of grassy terrain and low number of predators.
Our arrival at Khwai Leadwood was a completely different style of safari. Leaving behind the golden grasslands of the Kalahari, the Delta promises a unique experience found nowhere else in Southern Africa. Our fantastic guide Sinka set out to deliver on my leopard viewing drought. Sure enough, we happened upon a young female leopard contemplating life at the edge of a small pool one afternoon. Lion sightings included baby kittens, with eyes still closed would growl at each other while trying to nurse from their mother. But really, the highlight for us at Khwai was the mokoro activity; being poled by the incredibly knowledgeable BB, we could relax into the lily pads looking for frogs and birds, and the occasional elephant coming down for a drink off the canal. We loved the mokoro so much we did it twice!
We stayed exclusively at the African Bush Camp (ABC) properties and would do so again. The teams are so personable and attentive, and their camps are top notch in luxury. The daily afternoon safari sun downers were an overall highlight and all the ABC guides are exceptional in their knowledge of the bush. The greatest travesty of the entire safari was that we had to leave.
A huge thank you is due to Karen, who helped curate our adventure. Karen was saintly in her patience of our various questions and changes while organizing this safari. She actively would follow up with the lodges to answer our insanely detailed questions and she provided us with options to help us best determine what was right for us. In the end, we came away with a safari that well exceeded our expectations and provided memories for a lifetime!
