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Sediba Sa Rona
The old Khwai River Lodge ground, in its newest chapter.
From our guest surveys — how we gather evidence
An old address, kept alive
Some ground earns its reputation early: this bend of the Khwai River carried one of Botswana's very first photographic safari lodges, and Sediba Sa Rona now keeps that address alive. The lodge holds to the original footprint — no new ground broken in the Delta — under a canopy of ancient leadwood and fig trees, with the river in front and Moremi Game Reserve beginning beyond it. The name means “our source of water”, an ode to the Khwai itself, and the operation is run in partnership with a wholly citizen-owned Botswana company — the lodge's economics kept as local as its name.
The main decks step down toward the river: dining areas, a bar and a pool all set to the water view, an open-air fire deck for the first coffee and the last stargaze of the day, and a spa for the hours between drives. The finish is contemporary — natural materials, modern lines — run to a standard kept across Botswana for over forty years.
Fifteen tents above the river
The fifteen luxury tents stand along the riverbank, each en-suite, each with an outdoor deck set to the Khwai and the floodplain traffic beyond it. The deck is where the afternoon goes: bare feet on warm boards, the Khwai a few metres out, and the floodplain traffic — elephant, impala, a nervous line of warthog — crossing your view without noticing you. Fourteen take a double or twin; the fifteenth is the family tent — two en-suite bedrooms behind one entrance, taking two adults and two children.
The meeting point of ecosystems
The Khwai Concession is where the Delta's wetlands meet the dry country running toward Chobe — a corridor that funnels wildlife past the lodge in every season. Morning and afternoon game drives work this ground in open 4x4s with guides who know this corridor season by season, among lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog and elephant in numbers that have made Khwai's name. Night drives can be taken in place of — or on top of — the afternoon drive, departing after dinner and strictly within the concession, and, whenever the water is deep enough, mokoro excursions are poled through the river's channels.
The birding deserves its own sentence: the riverine forest and floodplains are made for it, especially through spring and summer when the migrants arrive to breed.
Drives here keep to the concession's road network, and the ground is shared with the area's other camps — a celebrated sighting can gather an audience. What the corridor gives back is the consistency: this is some of the most reliably game-rich country in Botswana, in every month of the year.
Sediba Sa Rona means “our source of water” — named for the Khwai River in front of it, the thread of the Okavango's water that this whole corridor, animal and human alike, depends on.
The specialist's Khwai
Two ways to sharpen the stay — both booked through us, in advance.
Doors-off helicopter flights
Scenic flights over the concession's lacework of channels and floodplains — flown doors-off, which makes them the photographer's version of the Delta from above. Carries a surcharge.
Specialist guiding
A private specialist guide for the length of your stay — photography, birding or big-game focused — layered on top of the lodge's own guiding team. Carries a surcharge.
The Khwai's most storied bank
Sediba Sa Rona's ground is the Khwai River's community-concession bank at the Okavango's north-eastern edge, with Moremi Game Reserve across the water — the wetland-and-dryland edge this corridor is known for. Flights from Maun take about thirty minutes, followed by a ten-minute game-drive transfer to the lodge.
What it costs.
Rates are per person per night, based on two guests travelling together (sharing).
Lodge comfort on historic ground
Sediba Sa Rona pairs things that rarely come together in the Delta: a full lodge — spa, pool, proper decks — on ground with real history, in a corridor whose game viewing needs no introduction. Add night drives on request, an operator with four decades in Botswana, and a citizen-owned partnership that keeps the benefit at home, and it makes a complete case for the Khwai leg of any journey.
Is this for you
- ✓You want lodge comforts — spa, pool, space — with Khwai's game density outside them
- ✓The story of a place matters to you as much as its facilities
- ✓You want the option of a night drive without committing every evening to one
The setting is extraordinary—elephants wandering past the veranda while hippos sit in the water below. Everything still feels new, spacious and exceptionally well cared for.
Send us your dates and we'll plan the trip around this bend of the Khwai — flights, nights and a water camp deeper in the Delta to go with the corridor.
The fine print.
- —All meals
- —Refreshments, local spirits and wines
- —Two scheduled safari activities daily
- —National-park fees
- —Return Khwai airstrip transfers
- —Laundry
- —Flights to and from Khwai Airstrip
- —Premium-brand drinks
- —Chobe impact levy (charged per person per night)
- —Specialist guiding and helicopter flights (booked in advance)
- —Private activity and vehicle hire
- —Travel and medical insurance
- —Gratuities and items of a personal nature
Children from six years are welcome; the family tent sleeps a family of four — two adults with two children under sixteen. Families travelling with children under twelve pre-book private activities.
By light aircraft from Maun — about thirty minutes — then a ten-minute game-drive transfer to the lodge.
Mokoro excursions depend on seasonal water levels, and night drives run within the concession only. The lodge is unfenced and wildlife moves along the river freely — staff walk you to your tent after dark.