Africa & Middle East > Botswana > Moremi and Okavango Delta > Okavango > Articles > Botswana's Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta is one of Africa's last wild places. Every year, summer rains falling 1,000 miles away on the Angolan highlands spill down the Okavango River to create a miraculous oasis in the northern Kalahari.

By the happiest of coincidences these seasonal floods arrive in the middle of Botswana's dry season, in the African winter months of July and August. Entering the Delta through the area known as the panhandle, they fan out through the dense papyrus beds, creating a hippo heaven of languid lagoons and crystal channels.

It's a huge area - more than 10,000 square miles of forests and floodplains strewn with islands in numbers beyond counting. Some are little more than old termite mounds, shaded by a single palm tree. Others are bigger than Greater London.

Protecting the Delta's northern sector is the Moremi Game Reserve, home to huge herds of elephant and buffalo and a refuge for all kinds of predators from lion and leopard to the highly endangered African wild dog.

Maun, a dusty little town on the edge of the Delta, is where all Okavango safaris begin. Air Botswana will fly you there from Johannesburg. Then follows a short hop by light aircraft, which decants you into the heart of Botswana's finest big game country.

Most accommodation is decidedly up-market and often seriously luxurious with plunge pools, en-suite bathrooms and cordon bleu cooking at Mombo, Chief's Camp and Vumbura. Many camps, such as Chitabe and Duma Tau, lie in their own private concession areas; and some are so exclusive that they take only half-a-dozen guests at a time. Among them is Abu's Camp, where clients can uniquely enjoy the thrills of a five-day elephant-back safari.

Elsewhere, you search for game in open 4WD Land Rovers or Land-Cruisers - with rugs provided on cold winter dawns. Or take to the water in a mokoro - the traditional Delta dugout canoe. No effort is required. Just sit back and go with the flow as your poler soundlessly guides you into a watery world of reeds, lilies, otters and fish eagles.

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