Moremi
Stay & safaris
When to go
Wildlife & experiences
Areas of the reserve
Planning your trip
Booking with us
Maun is the last town you see for nine nights. A charter flight puts you down at the Xakanaxa airstrip on the first afternoon, and from there the whole route is on the ground: three nights in Moremi Game Reserve, three in the Mababe private reserve between Moremi and Chobe, three at Savuti on the old lakebed in central Chobe, and a boat on the river at Kasane on the last day. The camp is a Letaka mobile tented camp, and it is yours: a maximum of seven guests, one guide from start to finish, and a crew striking the tents and rebuilding them ahead of you on exclusive campsites where no other tents or vehicles are. Departures are on set dates, and the rate is the lowest of the Botswana routes we sell.
A charter flight from Maun to the Xakanaxa airstrip opens the route; it is booked separately from the safari, and we will arrange it. Your guide is waiting at the strip and the drive to camp is the first game drive: mopane, then the floodplain, then the tree line where the tents are already up. The crew has been there for hours and dinner is ready. That first night sets the pattern for nine: a table under trees, a fire that stays lit, canvas, and the reserve's sounds close by.
Coffee and a light breakfast at the fire before it is light, then out. Xakanaxa lies at the join of mopane woodland, floodplain and permanent water, and the ground carries a resident buffalo herd several hundred strong and at least four lion prides that follow it; wild dog are a possibility on any day. The drive runs roughly four hours and comes back mid-morning to brunch, with bread baked in the coals. The middle of the day is shade and a book. In the afternoon a second drive, and dinner under the stars.
A second full day on the same ground, with the guide steering by what yesterday showed: a pride on the move, a den, the buffalo's line. Xakanaxa is one of the reserve's best birding stretches, and the morning along the lagoon edge and the Khwai backwaters gives wattled crane, slaty egret, African skimmer on the sandbars, fish eagle, and raptors on the thermals by mid-morning. The camp rhythm holds: brunch, the long hot middle of the day under the trees, a second drive as the light goes soft.
The first move. Bags are packed before breakfast and the crew strikes camp behind you. The morning is on the water: a mokoro in the Khwai's backwaters at Mbudi, poled through reeds with the water at eye height. Then the vehicles go north-east along the Khwai, past the Dombo hippo pools, and into the Mababe private reserve, a concession of some 50,000 hectares between Moremi and Chobe. The tents are up when you arrive and a hot bucket shower is waiting. Bull elephant stand at the Khwai's permanent water here, relaxed and close, and the first drive on the new ground runs into the dark.
Mababe is a private reserve, so the rules are the reserve's own: night drives are permitted, and the walks the national park forbids are on offer here when the grass allows. After the afternoon drive the vehicle stays out past dark with a spotlight, for genet, civet, spring hare and, with luck, serval. Out here the dark is total, and the spotlight makes the bush into a stage: two eyes catching in a thicket, held, gone, and then nothing but the engine and the cold coming up off the ground. The reserve caps vehicles at twenty across its whole area, and other vehicles are rare.
If the grass is low enough for your guide to read the ground, the morning is on foot: a walk from the vehicle with the guide out front, reading tracks, checking the wind, stopping for the things a vehicle drives past, a dung beetle at work, a lion's print with the edges still sharp. The afternoon is a drive to the Khwai's water and the elephant bulls, and the evening a second chance at the night's animals.
The longest drive of the route, and the one that explains the country. North from Mababe the vehicles climb the Magwikwe Sand Ridge in deep sand and low gear, the old shoreline of a lake that has been dry for thousands of years; from the top the Mababe Depression is laid out as a pale basin of clay. Then down into central Chobe, past the Savuti Marsh to the Gubatsa Hills, where the tents are up on the new site. Lunch is under a tree on the way.
Savuti's lion are the reason the name carries so far. The marsh pride, twenty to thirty strong in good years, is one of very few anywhere recorded hunting adult elephant, and it does so after dark in the dry season; by day you find them at the waterholes or flat in the shade. The open marsh holds cheetah, and wild dog in the wetter months. The drives run long here, because the ground is open and the sightings are at range: a line of elephant on the far side, a cheetah on a termite mound, the Gubatsa Hills dark against the pale grass.
One morning you walk to the base of the Gubatsa Hills with your guide, to the San rock paintings on the rock face there: eland, sable, elephant, the outline of a hunter, on volcanic stone far older than the marsh. Klipspringer stand on the hill's ledges and raptors ride the thermals off it by the middle of the morning. The afternoon is a last drive on the marsh, and the last night under canvas is the long one, with the fire kept lit.
The last drive is north-east through the forest reserve, Zambezi teak on both sides and the chance of roan and sable, which favour this woodland. You come out at the river for a picnic lunch and an afternoon on a boat, with elephant along the bank, and the route ends at Kasane Airport in the late afternoon. Victoria Falls is a road transfer away if you want to keep going.
After the first afternoon, nothing on this route flies. A charter from Maun puts you at the Xakanaxa airstrip; from there you travel in a customised open-sided Land Cruiser with your guide and at most six other guests, and the same guide stays with you to Kasane. Moremi to Mababe follows the Khwai; Mababe to Savuti crosses the Magwikwe Sand Ridge, the slowest ground of the trip; Savuti to the river runs through the teak forest. Behind you a crew and a safari chef strike the camp and rebuild it ahead of you at each site, so every camp is ready when you arrive. The vehicles carry 220-volt inverters for camera and torch batteries; there is no phone signal and no internet for the ten days. Luggage is soft bags only, 20 kg per person.
Savuti's marsh pride, twenty to thirty lion strong in good years, is one of very few prides anywhere recorded hunting adult elephant. They do it after dark in the dry season, when the elephant are held at the last of the water.
Day 1 · Maun Airport — Arrive; the charter to the Xakanaxa airstrip leaves from here, booked separately.
Days 1–3 · Xakanaxa, Moremi Game Reserve — The first camp: buffalo and lion ground at the join of mopane, floodplain and water.
Days 4–6 · Mababe Private Reserve — The private reserve between Moremi and Chobe: night drives and walks.
Days 7–9 · Savuti, Chobe National Park — The marsh and the Gubatsa Hills in central Chobe: the marsh pride and the rock paintings.
Day 10 · Kasane Airport — The river by boat, then the airport for onward connections.
Each tent is Sahara-style, four metres by three, with a high roof, a solid-frame bed made up with linen, and at the back an en-suite long-drop and a hot bucket shower filled for you on request. Paraffin lanterns light the camp and a rechargeable lamp lights the tent. Dinner is at a laid table under the stars, cooked by the safari chef who travels with you, and the fire stays lit. On a moving day the bags go out before breakfast, breakfast is on the route, lunch is under a tree, and the tents are up with the showers hot by the time you reach the new site. There is no phone signal and no internet from the first afternoon to the last; the vehicles carry 220-volt inverters for camera batteries and torches. Seven guests at most, on exclusive licensed sites, and no other camp within sight.
Rates are per person, based on two guests travelling together (sharing).
A single supplement may be applicable to solo occupancy.
June to October for most people: the game is at the permanent water on all three stretches, the grass is low for walking and the nights are cold under canvas. April and May are the shoulder, with the tracks open again after the rains. March and November are the turning months. December to February are green, at the lowest rates, and the route around the Mababe Depression is longer after heavy rain.
- —The Khwai, the Savuti waterholes and the Xakanaxa lagoon edge hold the game
- —The grass is lowest, so the Mababe walks are at their best
- —Cold nights under canvas in June and July; hot days by October
- —Departures fill early; peak rates
- —The rains have cleared and the tracks are open again
- —Mababe at its most accessible; night drives and walks in full swing
- —Shoulder rates
- —Migrant birds still in through April
- —March: the last rains easing, the country still green
- —November: the first storms, the first green flush, and newborn antelope
- —Green rates in the last days of March and from late November
- —The Depression can be soft after rain, and the route adjusts
- —Lush country, migrant birds in voice, newborn impala, zebra and wildebeest, and the predators after them
- —The lowest rates of the year
- —The Mababe Depression's clay is impassable after heavy rain, so departures in these months take the longer route around it
- —Storms most afternoons, usually short
Loved this trip. Same guide the whole way and moving camp actually became part of the fun. mababe was our favourite, especially the evenings around camp.
The route runs as written: three reserves, nine nights on the ground, seven guests at most. Tell us the month you have in mind and the names travelling; we will confirm the next departure with space and book the charter to the strip.
- —Nine nights in an en-suite mobile tented camp on exclusive campsites
- —Your guide, a safari chef and the camp crew throughout
- —All meals at camp
- —All local drinks at camp: water, soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits (premium brands excluded)
- —All game drives in the open-sided vehicle; night drives and guided walks in Mababe, conditions permitting
- —The mokoro outing on the Khwai, the rock-painting walk at Savuti and the boat cruise on the river on the last day
- —All park, reserve and concession fees
- —The charter flight from Maun to the Xakanaxa airstrip on day 1, which we book for you separately
- —International and regional flights to and from Botswana
- —Premium-brand drinks
- —Travel and medical insurance, which is compulsory
- —Visa fees where they apply
- —Gratuities for the guide and crew
- —Personal items, and optional extensions
Children of twelve and over travel on the set-date departures. For younger children we can quote a private departure of the same route; ask us.
Long Way North runs on set departure dates, with at most seven guests on each. Tell us the month you have in mind and we will confirm the next dates with space.
No. From the first afternoon at Xakanaxa to the last on the river there is no cell signal and no internet. The vehicles carry 220-volt inverters for camera and torch batteries.
The charter and the vehicle carry 20 kg per person in a soft-sided bag. A hard suitcase does not fit the aircraft; we can arrange storage in Maun.