Windhoek to Victoria Falls: the Kalahari, the Okavango Delta and Chobe

Arrive in Windhoek

Hosea Kutako Airport to central Windhoek

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Windhoek
• Environ 45 min de route

Soir

Then we walk to a welcome dinner in town.

Compris

• Pick-up at Hosea Kutako Airport (WDH)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Across the Kalahari to Ghanzi

Windhoek to Gobabis, the Buitepos border, then Ghanzi in Botswana

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ghanzi
• Environ 6 h de route

Après-midi

We stop for a sit-down lunch along the way, timed around the border, then continue across flat red sand and thornveld to Ghanzi, the main town of the Botswana Kalahari, where farms and San communities share the land. We reach our lodge in the late afternoon.

Soir

There is time for a swim or a drink as the sky turns red, and dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Road transfer Windhoek to Ghanzi with stops in Gobabis and at the border
• Border crossing from Namibia into Botswana with your guide
• Lunch on the road and dinner at the lodge

A San walk, then on to Maun

Ghanzi to Maun

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Maun
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

In the cool of the early morning we walk into the bush near Ghanzi with San guides from a local community.

Soir

Over about two hours on flat sand they show how to find water in a buried root, which plants are medicine and which are food, and how to read the tracks crossing the path from the night before. Your guide translates where needed and leaves room for questions, and we confirm with the community how the walk is paid. We are back for a late breakfast, then drive north-east about 285 km, roughly three and a half hours, through cattle posts and mopane scrub to Maun, the town at the south-eastern edge of the Okavango Delta. Lunch is on arrival in Maun. We check in to a hotel on the Thamalakane River and the evening is yours, with time to repack into one soft bag for tomorrow's flight. Dinner is on your own; allow about CAD 25 to 45 for a main course and a drink in Maun.

Compris

• Morning bush walk with San guides near Ghanzi
• Road transfer Ghanzi to Maun
• Lunch in Maun

Fly into the Okavango Delta

Maun by light aircraft to a camp in the Okavango Delta

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

Matin

After breakfast we drive the few minutes to Maun Airport for the flight into the Delta in small light aircraft, about 20 to 45 minutes depending on where the camp lies. From a few hundred metres up you see the shape of it: channels and lagoons through the papyrus, islands ringed by palms, and game trails worn between them. The Okavango River rises in Angola and spreads into the Kalahari instead of reaching the sea, and the Delta was listed by UNESCO in 2014. A camp vehicle meets the plane. The camp we book for both nights must meet our standard: a permanent tented camp where every tent has its own bathroom and hot water, and meals are taken together. We name it when we confirm your dates.

Après-midi

Lunch at camp, then rest through the heat of the day. In the late afternoon we go out by mokoro, the Delta's narrow poled canoe, two guests to a boat, with a local poler.

Soir

Sundowner, then dinner at camp.

Compris

• Light-aircraft flight from Maun to the camp airstrip
• Late-afternoon mokoro trip with a local poler
• All meals at camp

A full day on the water

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 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 several metres tall that seed new islands, red lechwe splashing off through the shallows. The group walks in single file and the guide decides how close is safe. Back at camp by late morning for brunch, and the middle of the day is free: rest in your tent, read or watch the water. In the late afternoon we go out on the water again, by mokoro or by the camp's motorboat depending on the flood, into wider channels where hippos surface and fish eagles call from dead trees, and stop somewhere open for the sunset. Dinner at camp, with the hippos calling in the dark.

Compris

• Dawn guided walk on an island with a licensed guide and your poler
• Afternoon mokoro or boat trip into the channels, with a sunset stop
• 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

Breakfast at camp, 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. This flight replaces the 600 km road via Nata that the overland trips drive. 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 a lodge near the river, where we stay two nights.

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: elephant family herds coming down to drink, swim and cross to the islands, buffalo and hippos on the floodplain, and crocodiles on the sandbanks. We stay out until the sun drops over the Namibian bank.

Soir

Dinner at the lodge.

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 by land at dawn

Kasane to the Chobe riverfront and back

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Kasane
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

We leave the lodge before sunrise in two open 4x4s, at most six guests in each, to be at the Sedudu gate of Chobe National Park as it opens. The first hours are the best on land: the air is cool, the cats are still active, and the riverfront track is quiet before the day visitors arrive. The drive follows the river west along the floodplain, stopping wherever the animals are: elephant and buffalo herds, giraffe, sable antelope in the woodland, and the puku, an antelope found here at the edge of its range. Lions and leopards are seen in Chobe, though never promised. We are back at the lodge by late morning for brunch.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free: swim, sleep, walk into Kasane, or take the optional small photographic boat for a second, lower look at the river. Dinner tonight is your choice, at the lodge or in town; allow about CAD 25 to 45 for a main course and a drink.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in Chobe National Park in an open 4x4, park fees included
• Brunch at the lodge

Activités en option

• Small-boat photographic trip on the Chobe River (priced at booking)

Across the border to Victoria Falls

Kasane through the Kazungula border to Victoria Falls, then a cruise on the Zambezi

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

Matin

Breakfast at the lodge, then we leave Kasane at about 9 am for Victoria Falls, about 80 km and an hour and a half on the road. First comes the Kazungula border: we leave Botswana and enter Zimbabwe, where you buy your visa at the post in US dollars cash if you do not already have one, and your guide steers the group through the forms. Allow up to an hour. Past the border the road runs through mopane woodland, where elephants sometimes cross, into Victoria Falls town.

Soir

This is our one night at the Falls. Lunch is a sit-down meal in town, then we check in to our hotel and rest through the early afternoon; you can already hear the Falls from parts of town in high water. In the late afternoon we board a boat on the upper Zambezi, above the Falls, for a sunset cruise past islands where hippos surface, with the spray rising downstream. We end the trip with a farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Transfer from Kasane to Victoria Falls through the Kazungula border with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Victoria Falls town
• Zambezi sunset cruise, national park fee included
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Helicopter flight over the Falls in the afternoon (priced at booking), if you leave late on day 9 or prefer it today

Victoria Falls at opening, then home

The Victoria Falls Rainforest, then Victoria Falls Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

We are at the gate of the Victoria Falls Rainforest, in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls National Park, when it opens in the morning, before the tour groups arrive. The Falls are about 1.7 km wide and drop up to 108 m into a narrow gorge, and the path on the Zimbabwe side runs along the opposite lip, facing the water. Your guide walks you through the viewpoints, from the statue of David Livingstone past the Devil's Cataract and the Main Falls to Danger Point, where you look down into the gorge and across to the Victoria Falls Bridge. From March to May the spray can soak you; later in the year the view is clearer. We are back for a late breakfast at the hotel. Victoria Falls Airport (VFA) is about 20 km south of town, roughly 25 minutes, and a driver takes you there; book a flight leaving after about 1 pm.

Soir

Victoria Falls is a one-night stop on this trip; for more time here, add a second night when you book.

Compris

• Guided walk of the Victoria Falls Rainforest at opening, entry included
• Drop-off at Victoria Falls Airport (VFA)

Activités en option

• Helicopter flight over the Falls (priced at booking), if your flight is late in the day