Top ten things to do on a Botswana safari

We can arrange a guide and support team to take your family on a private camping safari. Each day, decide with your guide what your family would like to do, then set off on foot, by vehicle or mokoro. Travel plains and waterways in search of elephant, antelope and giraffe. Enjoy the freedom! Then walk into your comfortable little camp, set up in a beautiful spot by your smiling support team.

Doug and Sandi Groves have devoted the last 30 years to looking after orphan elephants in the Okavango Delta. Your family can spend part of a day with them, meeting Jabu and Morula, two orphans now thriving after a traumatic start to life. Walk with the elephants, touch them and be inspired as Doug and Sandi tell you about their work and experiences. We can arrange this as part of your stay at luxurious Stanley’s or Baines’ Camp.

Safari guides are often expert photographers too. They can get you into the ideal position to take amazing photographs of animals. The non-threatening profile of the vehicle means you can approach close and capture an expression or action shot that tells a story and portrays the true essence of the animal. Hippo, giraffe, leopard — every creature is a unique character.

Imagine taking a walk in the Kalahari Desert with a San Bushman. What seems at first sight a parched area of scrubland, becomes a fascinating treasure trove. Your San Bushman guide will quietly lead you to secret sources of water and medication. He will show you how the desert offers everything you need to survive, if only you know where and how to look. The Kalahari changes spectacularly through the seasons and contrasts magically with the Okavango Delta.

In a ground-breaking conservation effort, endangered rhinoceros have been relocated from South Africa to the safety of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. The rich habitat has always been a great place to see the rest of the Big Five; lion, buffalo, elephant and leopard. Your guide’s tracking skills should now make finding a rhino in the Delta a little easier than a needle in a haystack. And, the joy of finding one will be enhanced knowing that the rhino is free at last to roam in safety.

Slowly, the red sun sinks and a thousand elephant emerge from the baked plain to plunge thankfully into the Chobe River. It happens every day, gathering in intensity from August to November. The best vantage point is the river itself, as sounds of sploshing, trumpeting elephantine joy carry across the water. Any animal in need of a drink gathers here too, as a long, hot day on the Chobe plains draws to a close.

The swimming pool at Little Tubu is beside an old elephant trail. The three delightful tented suites and the bush lounge diner sit higher and are elevated on wooden platforms, so you can gaze for miles. At siesta time, as you relax on your deck you might watch a couple of elephant sauntering along the trail. Sometimes, they find your man-made watering hole too tempting and can’t resist sucking up twenty gallons or so before moving slowly on.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my parents gave to me — twelve lechwe leaping. Next Christmas Day, your family could be gazing up at a gloriously beautiful leopard snoozing on the branch of a sausage tree. Christmas is a great time to safari in the Okavango, and it’s the low season pricewise. Perhaps you could spend a week on safari, then travel to sunny Cape Town for a sublime combination holiday.

Wild dog, sometimes called painted dog for their colourful coats, roam the landscapes of northern Botswana. They are always on the move and hunt as a pack. It’s thrilling to see them racing across a pan in pursuit of an antelope. The antelope often wins! Then your guide will park up close to the pack as they rest. These beautiful, intelligent creatures are vulnerable to lions, hyenas and livestock farmers. They live by their wits, their speed and co-operation within the pack.

As a special treat we can give your family an eagle’s eye view of the Okavango from a helicopter. See filigree fingers of blue water creating islands of green and ochre. Watch herds of buffalo, giraffe and elephant from the sky. Your helicopter can fly on to the “panhandle” where farming communities live. Elephants can destroy their crops and you will see innovative projects where people are taught to protect crops without harming elephants.