A short charter flight from Maun to the Xakanaxa airstrip in Moremi Game Reserve — not included in the package rate but easily arranged; we are happy to book this for you — delivers you into the heart of the Okavango. Your guide meets you at the strip and the game driving begins on the transfer to camp. By the time you pull up at the first tent, you will already have seen something. The camp crew will have been there for hours; dinner will be ready when you arrive.

Moremi Game Reserve

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Dinner (D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

Xakanaxa sits at the junction of mopane woodland, open floodplain and the permanent waterways of the Okavango — a convergence that makes it one of the continent’s most consistently productive game-viewing areas. The resident buffalo herd here numbers several hundred animals, its range overlapping the territories of at least four lion prides. Wild dog are a daily possibility. Each morning begins at first light; afternoons bring a second game drive into different terrain. The birding is exceptional throughout: wattled crane and slaty egret work the lagoon edges, African skimmer and fish eagle patrol the open water, and dozens of raptor species move through the mopane canopy.

Days settle quickly into a rhythm. A coffee and light breakfast around the fire before dawn, then straight out on the morning drive while predators are still active — typically four hours in the field before returning to camp at around 10 or 11am. Brunch is cooked fresh: camp bread from the fire, hot dishes, cold salads. The middle hours belong to the shade. A second drive goes out in the late afternoon as the light drops and the animals move again, returning to a lit campfire and dinner under the stars.

Moremi Game Reserve

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Full Board (B, L, D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

The travelling days on this safari are not lost days. The route from Moremi to Mababe follows the Khwai River north-east, and the morning begins with a mokoro excursion in the calm backwaters of the Khwai and Mbudi channels — a quieter, lower version of the Delta than anything seen from a vehicle. The convoy passes the Dombo Hippo Pools before crossing into the Mababe Private Reserve, a 50,000-hectare concession between Moremi and Chobe. The mature elephant bulls here — drawn to the permanent water of the Khwai River — are markedly more relaxed than the breeding herds encountered in the reserve itself.

Moving days have their own character. An early start, bags loaded before breakfast, which is taken somewhere scenic along the route — a riverbank, a clearing, wherever the morning produces something worth stopping for. Tea and cookies come at a natural pause; lunch under a shady grove of trees somewhere near the halfway mark. By the time the convoy arrives at the new campsite, the crew has been there for hours. The tents are up, the bucket shower is hot, and there is time to wash off the dust before afternoon tea and the first drive in the new area.

Mababe Private Reserve

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Full Board (B, L, D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

Mababe is where the activity menu opens up. Night drives are permitted here — not in the national park, but in this private concession beyond its boundary — and they change the safari entirely. Genets, civets, spring hare and serval move after dark; the lion prides encountered by day take on a different quality when found by spotlight from an open vehicle. Walking safaris are available conditions permitting, your guide judging grass height and safety on the day. The concession enforces a strict maximum of 20 vehicles across the entire reserve at any given time, and the exclusive campsite means you are unlikely to encounter another group.

The daily rhythm in Mababe follows the same pattern as Moremi — dawn drive, midmorning brunch, afternoon drive — but with two additions that change the texture of the experience. Walking safaris go out on foot conditions permitting, the guide reading grass height and safety on the day; there is a different quality of attention when moving on the ground. And after the afternoon drive, the vehicles do not return to camp when the light fails. Night drives run here by spotlight, into ground that national park regulations put out of reach elsewhere on the route. The bush in Mababe after dark is its own thing entirely.

Mababe Private Reserve

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Full Board (B, L, D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

Today’s drive is one of the more extraordinary in northern Botswana. The route crosses the Magwikwe Sand Ridge — the ancient shoreline of an inland sea that covered much of this landscape around ten thousand years ago. The ridge is deep sand: slow going, spectacular scenery. Beyond it lies the Mababe Depression, a shallow clay basin that floods seasonally and draws large numbers of birds and wildlife. The Savuti Marsh comes into view as the convoy approaches Central Chobe: an ancient lakebed ringed by volcanic outcrops that rise improbably from the flat Kalahari sands.

The longest and most distinctive drive of the route. The Magwikwe Sand Ridge is deep Kalahari sand — the ancient shoreline of a vast inland sea that dried up ten thousand years ago — and crossing it takes time. The pace is part of it. Beyond the ridge the Mababe Depression opens up: a flat clay basin that floods in the wet season and draws large concentrations of birds and game when it does. The Savuti Marsh and the volcanic Gubatsa Hills come into view on the approach to Central Chobe, a landscape that looks and feels markedly different from anything encountered in the previous six days.

Central Chobe National Park (Savuti)

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Full Board (B, L, D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

Savuti has a particular reputation earned across decades of wildlife documentaries. The lion pride here — fluctuating between 20 and 30 members — learned long ago to hunt elephant after dark, using numbers and the cover of night. Sightings of the aftermath, or occasionally the event itself, are possible. Cheetah are common in the open marsh; wild dog move through in the wetter months. The landscape is unlike anything seen earlier on this route: the Gubatsa Hills rise improbably from the flat Kalahari sand, volcanic and ancient, casting long shadows in the late afternoon light. Klipspringer pick their way across the upper rocks; the thermals above draw raptors that don’t appear elsewhere on the itinerary. A guided walk to ancient San Bushman rock paintings at the base of the hills adds a different dimension to the final exploration days.

Days in Savuti follow the same early-rise rhythm as the rest of the safari — dawn drive, brunch, siesta, afternoon drive — but the open flat landscape means sightings carry from a long way off, and drives here often run longer than planned. The guided walk to the Bushman paintings breaks the pattern on one of the two mornings: a slower, quieter start, reading a different kind of evidence of who has lived in this landscape across thousands of years.

Central Chobe National Park (Savuti)

Stay at: Letaka Mobile Tented Camp

Meals included: Full Board (B, L, D)

Drinks included: All local drinks included

The Zambezi teak woodlands of the Chobe Forest Reserve open around you as the convoy heads north-east for the last time — the canopy here is different from anything on the route so far, and roan and sable antelope move through it in a way they rarely do in more open bush. The journey ends at the Chobe River, where a picnic lunch waits before the afternoon boat cruise. Elephant herds come down to drink along the bank; the boat moves quietly upstream into the light. The safari ends in Kasane.

Chobe River, Kasane

Departs: Kasane Airport

Meals included: Breakfast (B) & Lunch (L)

Drinks included: All local drinks included while at camp