Moremi
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Skybeds
A bed five metres up, open to the stars, with the waterhole below.
From our guest surveys — how we gather evidence
Three towers, one waterhole
Skybeds strips the safari down to its oldest thrill: a safe perch above wild ground at night. Three sturdy timber platforms stand well apart around a remote, busy waterhole in the north of the Khwai Private Reserve — the only permanent water for miles — and the camp below them amounts to a fire, a raised dining deck, a table and a cook. There is no lounge, no boutique and no WiFi; there is a G&T at sundown, dinner off the flames, and then the climb to bed.
The waterhole is softly lit after dark, and the parade never really stops — elephant, giraffe, lion, wild dog and hyena have all been logged in a single night's viewing from under a duvet.
Bathroom below, bed above, sky on top
Each platform stacks the essentials vertically: an enclosed bathroom with a hot shower, flushing loo and basin at the base, a dressing level above it, and at the top an enormous double bed in crisp white linen and a feather duvet — completely open to the night sky, netted against the insects, with a canopy to pull across if rain threatens. Hot-water bottles go in as the temperature drops, and once you're up for the night, the staircase pulls up behind you.
There are no plugs on the platforms and no electricity above the bathroom level — the main deck and the vehicles carry the charging points.
The sighting you sleep inside
The night is the activity. Sundowners are usually taken up on one of the platforms as the light goes, dinner is cooked on the fire below, and then the programme is the waterhole — the soft light catching whatever comes to drink, from breeding herds of elephant to the reserve's lions and wild dogs, while you watch from bed until sleep wins. Dawn reverses it: coffee with the sunrise as the morning shift files in.
Around the night itself, game drives and guided bush walks bookend the stay — a walk before breakfast is the classic close — and the game drive across from your base camp usually calls at the reserve's sunken photographic hide on the way.
Skybeds lands hardest once you've settled into safari rhythm — a night here between two camp stays resets the whole trip's sense of wonder. It books as an add-on night from the reserve's camps, so build it into the route from the start; the three platforms go quickly.
Once you're up for the night, you pull the staircase up after you — a drawbridge against the night shift drinking below, and the only door a Skybed has ever needed.
Deep in the reserve's dry north
Skybeds stands at a remote waterhole some twenty-two kilometres north of the Khwai River, in the Khwai Private Reserve between Moremi and Chobe — dry country where the pan's permanent water concentrates everything. It is reached by game drive from the reserve's camps, with transfers from Elephant Pan included in the stay.
What it costs.
Rates are per person per night, based on two guests travelling together (sharing).
One night, built into the journey
Ask people back from Botswana which night they still talk about, and the sleep-out wins with unfair regularity. Skybeds distils everything the safari promises — proximity, wildness, the sky — into a single night engineered to be safe and comfortable, then hands you back to your camp in time for brunch. As an added night inside a Khwai Private Reserve journey, it earns its place before almost anything else.
Is this for you
- ✓You want the night sky and the night shift, not just a story about them
- ✓You're building a Khwai Private Reserve journey and want its signature night inside it
- ✓A hot shower and a proper bed are your only non-negotiables off the grid
Did we sleep much? no But hearing everything out there all night was amazing. Elephants at the hide the next morning made it even better.
Tell us your dates and which Khwai Private Reserve camps you're weighing — we'll fit the Skybeds night where it lands best.
The fine print.
- —All meals
- —Local-brand drinks
- —Transfers to and from Elephant Pan
- —Transfers from other camps in the reserve
- —Premium-brand drinks
- —Conservation, community & reserve fee (charged per person per night)
- —Travel and medical insurance
- —Gratuities and items of a personal nature
Guests from sixteen years are welcome, and under-18s stay under adult supervision on the platforms at all times.
By game drive from your camp in the Khwai Private Reserve — transfers from Elephant Pan are included, and the drive across usually calls at the sunken photographic hide.
No — there is no WiFi or mobile signal, and the platforms carry no plugs. Charging points are at the main deck and in the vehicles.
Skybeds runs from the first of April to the end of October, takes a minimum of two guests, and books in combination with a stay at the reserve's camps.