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Monachira
The channel that never runs dry — and the camp built beside it.
From our guest surveys — how we gather evidence
Beside the water that stays
In recent years the Delta's water has been retreating from famous stretches that once defined it — and pushing east along the Monachira, the narrow, permanent channel this camp is built beside. That accident of hydrology is the whole proposition: while other camps watch their channels run seasonal, Monachira keeps its boats in the water all year. The camp stands raised on wooden decks on an island at the channel's edge, in a remote corner of northern Moremi, looking over floodplains and wetlands that carry on to the horizon.
The main area runs open-sided under canvas — lounge, dining, a sunset bar and a firepit at the water — with a pool set to the floodplain view for the midday hours. The mood is deliberately unhurried: this is a camp made for the slow safari, where the day is allowed to move at the channel's pace, and the food and the guiding carry the reputation rather than any performance.
Ten tents on raised decks
Step up onto your deck in the late morning and the tent does what the old safari tents always did best: it frames the wild instead of shutting it out. Canvas walls hold the light soft, the bed faces the floodplain through gauze, and the shaded sala outside is built for the hours when the Delta goes still — a book, the heat ticking in the reeds, lechwe grazing the far bank. By night the soundtrack moves to the channel: hippo grunting up the dark, reed frogs in their thousands, and nothing else at all.
The comforts are quietly complete — en-suite bathrooms with running hot water, a flush loo and an outdoor shower under the sky, WiFi in the room, and an in-room massage bookable without leaving your deck. Eight tents take a double or twin; the two family tents are the real thing, two bedrooms and two bathrooms apiece, built for four with no bedrolls and no compromises.
The Delta by boat, all year
The water leads here, and it is the reason to come. Motorboat safaris run the permanent channel and its remote tributaries year-round — elephant swimming between islands, buffalo herds on the banks, and the aquatic specialists the dry-land camps rarely show you — while mokoro trips pole through the lilies at water level, the Delta's oldest way of moving. A short boat ride away sits one of the Okavango's great heronries, where herons, egrets and storks nest in their thousands — a spectacle that draws birders on its own account — and catch-and-release fishing fills the quieter hours.
The other half is on land: guided island walks that read the terrain the floods redraw each season, and game drives through country where lion, leopard and wild dog work the floodplain edges. The herds here run big — buffalo and elephant in serious numbers — and the remoteness keeps other vehicles scarce.
Monachira's unhurried, water-led rhythm works best as the opening or closing chapter of a Botswana journey — an arrival that slows you down to safari pace, or a final few days that let the trip settle before the flight home.
Monachira's drive network is smaller than at Moremi's dry-land camps; the channel, the mokoro and the walks carry the stay. If long overland game drives are the heart of your safari, pair this camp with a drive-rich one — we build that combination often — or choose a dry-land base outright.
Most of the Delta's floodwater now pushes east along the Monachira — a shift in the Okavango's plumbing that has left famous channels elsewhere running seasonal while this narrow one keeps its water all year. The camp is built on the right side of that change.
The Delta with the whole crew
Monachira welcomes children of all ages, and its two family tents — two bedrooms, two bathrooms each — make it one of the easiest camps in Moremi to do properly as a family. Families with children under six book a private safari vehicle for the stay, which in practice means your own guide and your own timetable. Under-12s sit out the mokoro trips and the walks are for sixteen and over — but the motorboat carries everyone, and for children the boat is usually the best seat in the Delta anyway.
Northern Moremi's quiet corner
The camp stands on the Monachira Channel along Moremi Game Reserve's northern reaches — a remote, water-dominated corner of the reserve where islands, riverine forest and floodplain interleave. Light aircraft out of Maun land at Shinde Airstrip, and the drive from there to the water's edge is about half an hour.
What it costs.
Rates are per person per night, based on two guests travelling together (sharing).
Stay three nights and the third costs nothing, as the low water gives way to the rains: chicks crowd the heronry's island nests, migrants return, and the rising channel favours the boat while the grass grows tall.
Year-round water, without the gamble
The classic Okavango water safari has become harder to guarantee — channels that ran for decades now come and go with the flood. Monachira removes the gamble: the channel is permanent, the boats run every month of the year, and the mokoro water is on the doorstep rather than a drive away. Add tents that do comfort without fuss, a family setup, and one of the great heronries up the channel, and it earns its place on any Delta journey.
Is this for you
- ✓You want the Delta's water safari — boat and mokoro — guaranteed, whatever the season
- ✓You're travelling as a family and want proper two-bedroom tents, not bedrolls
- ✓You'd take remoteness and birdlife over a big drive network
We liked that there was plenty to do without feeling scheduled all day. Boat, mokoro, drives... all good. Staff were warm and very easy going.
Tell us your dates and we'll build the journey around Monachira — the flights, the nights, and the drive-rich camp to pair it with.
The fine print.
- —All meals
- —Local-brand drinks
- —Scheduled safari activities daily
- —Return airstrip transfers
- —Laundry
- —Flights to and from Shinde Airstrip
- —Premium-brand drinks
- —Conservation & community levy (charged per person per night)
- —Private vehicle hire
- —Travel and medical insurance
- —Gratuities and items of a personal nature
Children of all ages are welcome. Families with children under six pre-book a private safari vehicle for the stay, under-12s don't join the mokoro trips, and game walks are for sixteen and over.
Light aircraft fly from Maun to Shinde Airstrip; from there it is a drive of about thirty minutes to camp.
WiFi in the tents and main area.
The camp is unfenced on its island and wildlife moves through freely — staff accompany you to your tent after dark.