Southern Africa: the Okavango, Victoria Falls, Hwange, Matobo and Kruger

Arrive in Johannesburg

OR Tambo Airport to a hotel in the northern suburbs, then the Apartheid Museum

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Johannesburg
• Environ 1 h de route

Soir

Fly into OR Tambo International Airport (JNB), where a driver meets you at arrivals for the drive of about 25 km to our hotel in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, chosen so you can walk to restaurants in the evening. If you land by about noon, your See Sight Tours guide takes the early arrivals to the Apartheid Museum at 2 pm, about 20 km south. It closes on Mondays, so on a Monday arrival we go instead to Constitution Hill, the old prison where Mandela and Gandhi were held. The museum sets out, in about two to three hours, the history behind the country you are about to cross: the pass laws, the 1976 Soweto uprising and Nelson Mandela's long road out of prison, told through photographs, film and the original documents; the entry is included. Guests who land later can rest instead. At about 6 pm the whole group meets for a briefing on the route, the flights, the four border crossings and the luggage rule: one soft bag of about 20 kg for the light aircraft tomorrow. Then we sit down together for a welcome dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at OR Tambo International Airport (JNB)
• Apartheid Museum with your guide, entry included, for guests who land by about noon (Constitution Hill instead on a Monday, when the museum is closed)
• Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

Fly to Maun and into the Delta

Johannesburg by air to Maun, then by light aircraft to a camp in the Okavango Delta

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Okavango Delta
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

An early breakfast, then the short drive to OR Tambo for the scheduled flight to Maun in Botswana, about an hour and 45 minutes. This one flight replaces the two days on the road through Serowe that the overland trucks drive. In Maun we clear immigration and walk across to the light aircraft for the hop into the Delta, 20 to 45 minutes depending on where the camp lies. From low altitude you see the shape of the place: channels and lagoons through the papyrus, islands ringed by palms, game trails worn between them. The Okavango River rises in Angola and spreads into the Kalahari instead of reaching the sea; the Delta joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2014. A camp vehicle meets the plane.

Après-midi

Lunch, a rest in your tent with its own bathroom, then in the late afternoon our first trip by mokoro, the Delta's poled canoe, two guests to a boat with a local poler.

Soir

Dinner at camp by the fire.

Compris

• Scheduled flight Johannesburg to Maun
• Light-aircraft flight from Maun to the camp airstrip
• Late-afternoon mokoro trip with a local poler
• Lunch and dinner at camp

On foot in the Delta

A full day at the camp in the Okavango Delta

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Okavango Delta
• En bateau

Matin

Coffee and a light breakfast by the fire before sunrise, then we cross by mokoro to one of the larger islands for a guided walk with a licensed camp guide and your poler, in the coolest and quietest hours.

Soir

On foot you notice what a vehicle drives past: last night's tracks in the sand, termite mounds taller than a person that slowly grow into new islands, red lechwe splashing off through the shallows. Your guide decides how close is safe, and the group walks in single file and talks quietly. We are back at camp by late morning for brunch, and the middle of the day is free: sleep, read on the deck or watch the lagoon from the shade. In the late afternoon we go out by mokoro again, on a longer trip towards a hippo pool, keeping the distance your poler judges safe, and come back as the light turns gold over the reeds. Dinner at camp, then the sounds of the Delta at night.

Compris

• Dawn guided walk on an island with a licensed guide and your poler
• Late-afternoon mokoro trip towards a hippo pool
• All meals at camp

Channels and lagoons by water

A second full day at the camp in the Okavango Delta

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Okavango Delta
• En bateau

Matin

A slower start, with a full breakfast at camp before we head out on the water. Depending on the flood and the camp's area, we go by mokoro or by motorboat into the wider channels and open lagoons, where hippos surface and crocodiles bask on the banks. The birdlife is at its best near water: African fish eagles calling from dead trees, malachite kingfishers on the reeds, jacanas stepping across the lily pads, herons and storks working the shallows. Your camp guide chooses the route for the water levels of the day.

Après-midi

Lunch at camp and a free afternoon follow; it is a good moment for a nap or a slow look through your photos, as tomorrow we fly north.

Soir

Late in the day we go out once more, on foot or by mokoro, to a place picked for the sunset, with a drink as the light fades over the floodplain. Dinner at camp, and a last night with the hippos calling in the dark around the tents.

Compris

• Morning boat or mokoro trip into the channels and lagoons
• Sunset outing on foot or by mokoro
• All meals at camp

To Kasane and the Chobe River

Okavango Delta by light aircraft to Kasane, then a boat on the Chobe River

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Kasane
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

Coffee on the deck, breakfast, and then the camp vehicle takes us to the airstrip for the flight north-east to Kasane, roughly an hour to an hour and a half in the air, sometimes with a short stop at another airstrip. Below, the water gives way to dry woodland and then to the green line of the Chobe River. A vehicle meets us at Kasane Airport for the short drive to our lodge near the river.

Après-midi

After lunch and a rest, we board a boat for the afternoon on the Chobe River inside Chobe National Park, Botswana's first national park. From the water, the riverbank is the show: elephants come down in family herds to drink, swim and cross to the islands, buffalo and hippos graze the floodplain, and crocodiles lie on the sandbanks. We stay out until the sun goes down over the Namibian bank.

Soir

Kasane is one of three one-night stops on the trip, with Johannesburg and Shingwedzi, so dinner is at the lodge and bags stay packed.

Compris

• Light-aircraft flight from the Delta to Kasane
• Afternoon boat cruise on the Chobe River in Chobe National Park, park fees included
• Lunch and dinner at the lodge

Chobe at dawn, then Victoria Falls

Chobe riverfront game drive, then Kasane through the Kazungula border to Victoria Falls

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Victoria Falls
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

Coffee before sunrise, because the park and its animals are at their best at first light, then two open 4x4s, at most six guests in each, take us to the Sedudu gate of Chobe National Park as it opens. The first hours are the best on land: the air is cold from May to August, so bring a fleece and a hat, the cats may still be moving, and the riverfront track is quiet before the day visitors. We follow the floodplain west with stops wherever the animals are: elephant and buffalo herds, giraffe, sable in the woodland and the puku, an antelope found in Botswana mainly along this river. Back at the lodge by about 10 am for a full breakfast, then we drive about 80 km to Victoria Falls, an hour and a half on the road plus the border. At the Kazungula border we leave Botswana and enter Zimbabwe, where you buy your visa in US dollars cash if you do not already hold one; allow up to an hour.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Victoria Falls town, then we check in for two nights.

Soir

The evening is yours.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in Chobe National Park in an open 4x4, park fees included
• Transfer from Kasane to Victoria Falls through the Kazungula border with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Victoria Falls town

Victoria Falls at opening

The Victoria Falls Rainforest, a free middle of the day, then the upper Zambezi

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Victoria Falls
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

We are back by late morning, and the middle of the day is yours: a helicopter flight, the bridge tour, lunch in town, or the pool.

Soir

In the late afternoon we board a boat on the upper Zambezi for a sunset cruise above the Falls.

Compris

• Guided walk of the Victoria Falls Rainforest at opening, entry included
• Zambezi sunset cruise, national park fee included

Activités en option

• Helicopter flight over the Falls (priced at booking)
• Victoria Falls Bridge tour
• White-water rafting on the Zambezi below the Falls, in season

Painted dogs and Hwange

Victoria Falls to Painted Dog Conservation at Dete, then Hwange National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Hwange
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

A free morning for a last look at the Falls or the craft market, then we leave at about 10 am on the road south-east, about 190 km and three hours through mopane woodland to the edge of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe's largest, at roughly 14,600 square kilometres. Just before the park we stop at the visitor centre of Painted Dog Conservation near Dete, which works to protect the African wild dog, one of the continent's most endangered carnivores; its staff explain the anti-poaching patrols, the snare removal and the rehabilitation pens.

Après-midi

Lunch is at our lodge near Main Camp, where we stay two nights. In the late afternoon we set out on the first game drive in an open 4x4 with a licensed guide, heading for the pans. Through the dry months the park's waterholes, many of them pumped, draw elephant herds in from the Kalahari sand, along with buffalo, sable and the lions that follow them.

Soir

Dinner at the lodge.

Compris

• Visit to Painted Dog Conservation near Dete
• Afternoon game drive in Hwange National Park in an open 4x4, park fees included
• Lunch and dinner at the lodge

A full day in Hwange

Game drives in Hwange National Park from the Main Camp area

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Hwange

Matin

We leave at first light in the open 4x4s, at most six guests in each, for the longest drive of the stay. The Main Camp side of Hwange is a mix of grassland, teak woodland and open pans, and in the dry months the animals come to the water in shifts: elephants by the hundred through the day, buffalo in dust clouds, and sable and roan antelope, which are hard to find in most other parks on this trip. A stop at the Nyamandhlovu Pan viewing platform gives a raised view over one of the busiest waterholes.

Après-midi

We are back at the lodge for lunch, and the middle of the day is free; the lodge waterhole often has visitors of its own. In the late afternoon you choose: a second game drive to a different set of pans, or a guided walk with a licensed professional guide.

Soir

Both end at sunset. Dinner at the lodge, with the sounds of the bush around it.

Compris

• Morning game drive in Hwange National Park in an open 4x4
• Afternoon game drive or guided walk with a licensed professional guide
• All meals at the lodge

Through Bulawayo to the Matobo Hills

Hwange to Bulawayo, then the Matobo Hills

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Matobo Hills
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

One of the trip's longer road days, about 320 km and four hours in all, right at our cap, so we leave after breakfast at 8 am and break it in the middle. The A8 runs south-east through Lupane towards Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, with a coffee stop on the way.

Après-midi

In Bulawayo we stop for a sit-down lunch and about an hour at the Natural History Museum, the largest in the country, with its mammal halls and its galleries on the geology and early peoples of the region; your guide also points out the wide colonial-era streets, laid out broad enough to turn an ox wagon. Then it is about 35 km south into the Matobo Hills, where granite domes and balancing boulders rise out of the bush. We reach our lodge in the hills by mid-afternoon, with time to settle in and watch the light go orange on the rocks.

Soir

Dinner at the lodge.

Compris

• Natural History Museum in Bulawayo, entry included
• Sit-down lunch in Bulawayo
• Dinner at the lodge

Rhino tracking and rock art in Matobo

Matobo National Park: rhino tracking, Nswatugi Cave and World's View

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Matobo Hills
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We set out after an early breakfast with licensed local guides to track white rhino on foot in the park's protected rhino area, reading spoor and dung in the cool of the morning and closing in quietly once the animals are found; the guides set the distance. Tracking takes two to four hours on rocky, uneven ground.

Après-midi

After a picnic lunch we drive to Nswatugi Cave, a short climb up a granite slope, where giraffe, kudu and running human figures are painted on the rock in ochre.

Soir

In the late afternoon we walk up the bare dome of Malindidzimu, called World's View, where Cecil Rhodes was buried against the wishes of many local people; the hill is sacred to them, and the sunset over the boulders is the reason to go. Dinner at the lodge.

Compris

• Rhino tracking on foot with licensed local guides, park and tracking fees included
• Nswatugi Cave and its San paintings
• Sunset at World's View (Malindidzimu)
• All meals

Through Beitbridge to northern Kruger

Matobo Hills through Beitbridge to Musina, then the Pafuri gate of Kruger National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Northern Kruger (Pafuri)
• Environ 7 h de route

Matin

The Pafuri gate closes at about 5:30 pm from May to July, with no late entry, so this is the one day we leave at 6 am, before sunrise, with packed coffee and breakfast; doze in the van if you like. A stretch stop in Gwanda, then Beitbridge at about 10:30 am. Your guide handles the forms on both sides.

Après-midi

Over the bridge, lunch is a quick 45-minute meal in Musina, or packed in the van if the border runs long. Then about 160 km east on the R508 and R525 through baobab country to the Pafuri gate, which we aim to reach by mid-afternoon.

Soir

If the border keeps us past about 2 pm, we switch to the planned night near Musina, already in the price, and drive in when the gate opens.

Compris

• Transfer through the Beitbridge border with your guide
• Lunch in Musina, or packed if the border runs long
• Kruger National Park conservation fees from today
• Dinner at the lodge, or near Musina if we stop there

Pafuri and Crooks' Corner

Game drive in the Pafuri area of northern Kruger, to Crooks' Corner and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Northern Kruger (Pafuri)

Matin

We go out at first light in open 4x4s with licensed guides, at most six guests in each, into the Pafuri area between the Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers, the wildest and quietest corner of Kruger. There are fewer animals than in the south, and far fewer vehicles: nyala in the riverine thickets, elephants under the baobabs, buffalo at the river, and birds you rarely see elsewhere in South Africa. The drive passes through a forest of yellow fever trees, glowing lime-green in the low sun, and ends at Crooks' Corner, where the Luvuvhu meets the Limpopo and South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique touch.

Après-midi

We are back at the lodge for lunch and a free afternoon, after a long day yesterday.

Soir

Late in the day there is a short sunset drive along the Luvuvhu, or you can stay by the pool. Dinner at the lodge, with the frogs and the night birds calling from the river below.

Compris

• Morning game drive to Crooks' Corner in an open 4x4 with a licensed guide
• Short sunset drive along the Luvuvhu River
• All meals at the lodge

Activités en option

• Guided visit to the Thulamela heritage site, a stone-walled royal settlement from about 500 years ago (priced at booking, where SANParks runs it)

South through Kruger to Shingwedzi

Pafuri to Punda Maria, then south to Shingwedzi inside Kruger National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Shingwedzi, Kruger National Park
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive south inside the park, about 130 km at park speeds and roughly four hours with stops: this is a game drive with a destination, in our own vehicle with your guide. The road climbs from the Luvuvhu valley through the sandveld around Punda Maria, where the plants and birds change, and then out into the open mopane country that covers much of Kruger's north.

Après-midi

We stop for lunch at a rest camp on the way and arrive at Shingwedzi early in the afternoon. The camp sits above the Shingwedzi River, and in the dry season the riverbed and its pools are where elephants, buffalo and the occasional lion come down to drink, so the river road below camp is a good late-afternoon loop. The rest of the afternoon is free.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner, our last night in the bush together.

Compris

• Game drive from Pafuri through Punda Maria to Shingwedzi with your guide
• Lunch at a rest camp on the way
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• SANParks sunset drive from Shingwedzi, where offered (priced at booking)

Through Kruger to Phalaborwa, fly to Johannesburg

Shingwedzi to Letaba and the Phalaborwa gate, then Phalaborwa by air to Johannesburg

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

It is a last game drive south through the heart of Kruger's north: about 170 km and four and a half hours with stops, longer than our usual cap because the whole morning is a game drive, not a transfer. The road passes the Mopani area and crosses the Letaba River, and we reach Letaba rest camp in the late morning.

Après-midi

Lunch there is a sit-down meal at about noon, and those who like can walk through its elephant hall, a small museum of the park's great tuskers, open until 4 pm. Then about 50 km to the Phalaborwa gate and the airport just outside it.

Soir

The flight to Johannesburg takes about an hour and lands at OR Tambo in the late afternoon or early evening, depending on the schedule we confirm, where your trip ends. Choose a flight home leaving Johannesburg after about 8 pm, or ask us to book a night in Johannesburg.

Compris

• Game drive from Shingwedzi to the Phalaborwa gate
• Lunch at Letaba
• Flight from Phalaborwa to Johannesburg OR Tambo