The Okavango Delta

Overview: 

Sit­ting along the Spine of Africa, Botswana’s Oka­van­go Delta is one of the world’s largest inland deltas and a true nat­ur­al par­adise for ani­mal lovers – with the large water­holes, lush green grass­lands and incred­i­ble lagoons being home to hun­dreds of thou­sands of ani­mals and some of the most unique and endan­gered species on the plan­et.  

Set amongst 15,000 square kilo­me­tres of the Kala­hari Desert, the Oka­van­go delta is unique in that its riv­er delta’s flow inwards as opposed to the ocean – cre­at­ing a per­ma­nent Delta that acts as a con­stant source of life through the year and a series of con­stant­ly chang­ing sea­son­al deltas that spill into the Oka­van­go area from neigh­bour­ing Ango­la dur­ing the Sum­mer months cre­at­ing a mag­i­cal eco-sys­tem that allow the stun­ning fau­na and lush Green­ery of the plains along with the famous African wildlife includ­ing the Big 5 to thrive.  

Although cli­mate change con­tin­ues to threat­en the vol­ume of water reach­ing the Delta, the rich oasis of the Oka­van­go Delta which includes the famous More­mi Game Reserve sees a range of stun­ning wildlife includ­ing Hip­pos, Croc­o­diles, Giraffes, Lions Leop­ards, Zebra’s and Ele­phants gath­er in one eas­i­ly acces­si­bly loca­tion and offers explor­ers to chance to tra­verse the beau­ti­ful Delta’s on tra­di­tion­al Moko­ro Canoe, by bush walk, by game dri­ve and even on an ele­phant to get up close and per­son­al with some of the worlds’ most stun­ning wildlife for a tru­ly unique expe­ri­ence as they trav­el across the beau­ti­ful won­der of the world that is the Oka­van­go Delta.   

Where:

The stun­ning Oka­van­go Delta is found in North­ern Botswana – with the town of Maun being con­sid­ered the gate­way to the won­der.  

Getting there:

On account of the Oka­van­go Delta being made up of vol­umes of Water, you’re in for a bit of trek to get there.  

The eas­i­est way is to fly to the town of Maun in North­ern Botswana which serves as the gate­way to the Oka­van­go Delta– and which you can reach by direct flight from South Africa from either the town of Johan­nes­burg or Cape Town. 

Hav­ing reached Maun, it’s then a mat­ter of get­ting a bush flight – a flight in a small scenic plane over the vast Oka­van­go Delta dur­ing which you’ll see the incred­i­ble Delta and if you’re lucky some of it’s res­i­dent below you, before arriv­ing at the airstrip inside the Delta that serves the lodges.  

Alter­na­tive­ly for those with a fear of fly­ing or who are on some­thing of a bud­get, you can actu­al­ly self-dri­ve (dis­cussed in detail below) into the Oka­van­go Delta park – for this option we’d advise start­ing in one of the main towns of Gaborone or Maun and get­ting a 4 wheel dri­ve before mak­ing your way across Botswana into the park. Just be warned that you can’t dri­ve at night in the park, you’ll have to keep on the route – and make sure to avoid dri­ving into the Water holes ! 

Once inside the park, if not self-dri­ving, you’ll be able to explore the Oka­van­go Delta either on foot, by safari dri­ve, by Moko­ro Canoe, by air bal­loon or by Ele­phant back – with a range of tours and prices avail­able to explore this won­der all of which need to be arranged before­hand and require a guide.  

Best time to Visit:

There’s a clear wet and Dry Sea­son in the Oka­van­go Delta – as the floods from neigh­bour­ing Ango­la flow into Botswana in the sum­mer months add to the per­ma­nent Delta cre­at­ing many water­holes and pro­vid­ing this incred­i­ble eco-sys­tem and its many ani­mal res­i­dents with it’s source of life.  

This unique phe­nom­e­non not only cre­ates the many incred­i­ble water­holes in the delta that you can explore by Moko­ro canoe, but also influ­ences the cycle and trav­el of the ani­mals – with the ani­mals forced to trav­el inland to the per­ma­nent Delta in the tra­di­tion­al win­ter months and mov­ing out­wards to the tem­po­rary Delta’s and the thriv­ing grass­lands dur­ing the tra­di­tion­al spring and sum­mer months – which heav­i­ly increas­es your chances of view­ing them.  

 In fact dur­ing the months of Decem­ber – April, which is con­sid­ered the green low sea­son, you’ll find that ani­mals dis­ap­pear from the Delta as despite some rain, most ani­mals are forced to head inland or move of the Delta com­plete­ly to sur­vive. Yet despite this, its still a great time to go as prices are cheap­er and you’ll still see of the wildlife that pre­fer to stay put – with aquat­ic crea­tures in par­tic­u­lar great to spot dur­ing these months.  

 Dur­ing April  – June we’d advise steer­ing clear of the Delta if you can, it’s of course still beau­ti­ful, but you’ll be get­ting worst of both worlds with bib­li­cal like floods cre­at­ing a tough envi­ron­ment to explore and a dan­ger to your­self and your guides – and also see­ing the last remain­ing ani­mals from the green sea­son dis­ap­pear – mean­ing if you can get on a tour chances are you won’t see much – def­i­nite­ly a sea­son to avoid.  

 Dur­ing July – Novem­ber – you’ll find the peak sea­son, which means increased prices but also com­fort­able warm tem­per­a­tures as the floods sim­mer down cre­at­ing the right amount of water for grass to flour­ish and ani­mals to nour­ish. You’ll find wildlife at its peak in August – Sep­tem­ber, with this being mat­ing sea­son and then the birthing sea­son begin­ning in Sep­tem­ber – Novem­ber – with the com­bi­na­tion of grass­lands, Delta’s and stun­ning wildlife mak­ing the July – Novem­ber peri­od a tru­ly great time in the Oka­van­go Delta.  

 There­fore we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend avoid­ing April – June and if you can time your vis­it for the peak wildlife peri­od of Sep­tem­ber – Novem­ber, which while more expen­sive will give you the best pos­si­ble expe­ri­ence in the won­der of the Oka­van­go Delta.  

 Explore: 

As arguably the worlds great­est spot for wildlife and a tru­ly incred­i­ble wilder­ness area a trip to the Oka­van­go Delta is all about com­ing face to face with the incred­i­ble wildlife that life in the nat­ur­al splen­dour of the delta.  

Animals:

The Oka­van­go Delta is home not only to the African big 5 (the Cape buf­fa­lo, Ele­phant, Leop­ard, Lion, and rhi­noc­er­os) but thanks to the beau­ti­ful and life-giv­ing eco-sys­tems of the Delta is home to at least 150 dif­fer­ent species of mam­mals and rep­tiles, 500 species of birds, 35 dif­fer­ent species of aquat­ic ani­mals and more than 1500 species of dif­fer­ent plant and fau­na, mak­ing it a true nature par­adise.  

In par­tic­u­lar the Oka­van­go delta is known for the size and num­bers of its herds of Giraffes, Ele­phants and its play­ful leop­ards, with the famous Marsh pride of Lions that hang out on the famous delta riv­er of Chobe also con­sid­ered a must see when track­ing ani­mals across the Delta.  

In fact the Chobe riv­er is con­sid­ered one of the best of the many incred­i­ble nat­ur­al spots in the Delta – with the dry sea­son in par­tic­u­lar see­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of ani­mals being forced inwards and con­gre­gat­ing at its life giv­ing waters – with packs of Zebra’s, buf­fa­lo and ante­lope gath­er­ing to pro­vide not just incred­i­ble pho­to shots for explor­ers but also a chance for their preda­tors to strike as Croc­o­diles, Hip­pos and Lions seek out their prey – which makes for an incred­i­ble and raw view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty of the won­der of nature in action.  

Birds:

Along­side the Mam­mals and Amphib­ians that call the park home, the Delta is also a bird lovers par­adise with the at least 500 species pro­vid­ing not just a con­stant stream of bird song that lights up the won­der, but also incred­i­bly and rare view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

With the Grass­lands and tall trees comb­ing with the Delta mak­ing a per­fect spot for the birds to flour­ish – you’re like­ly to spot some of the rarest species on the plan­et – includ­ing the African Skim­mer and the Pel’s fish­ing owl along with the colour­ful king­fish­ers, giant eagle owls, egrets and horn­bills – which all pro­vide incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

With the extrav­a­gant, colour­ful and plen­ti­ful mam­mals and birds that call the Oka­van­go Delta home mak­ing it a true wildlife par­adise and giv­en the raw pow­er, beau­ty and rar­i­ty of these ani­mals unques­tion­ably mak­ing the Oka­van­go Delta a true won­der of the world.   

The Okavango Delta

The Oka­van­go Delta itself is con­stant­ly chang­ing with water flow­ing in from Neigh­bour­ing Ango­la from Spring help­ing to expand the size of the Delta dur­ing the spring and sum­mer months – before it slow­ly detracts again in Autumn as the cycle begins again.  

Although the area of the Delta has been slow­ly decreas­ing due to a lack of rain­fall in Ango­la, the Delta can be split into two dis­tinct parts – a per­ma­nent swamp that the croc­o­diles, hip­pos and fish call home and the con­stant­ly mov­ing out­er edges of the Delta that is sea­son­al and where you’ll find the major­i­ty of the mam­mals mov­ing between grass­lands and the swamps.  

Moremi Game Reserve 

The most famous area of the Delta and one which com­bines both­er per­ma­nent and sea­son­al water holes is the More­mi Game Reserve – that cov­ers a third of the whole area of the delta and is known for its stun­ning lush green wood­lands and grass­lands which attract hoards of both mam­mals and tourists – chances are you’ll be spend­ing the major­i­ty of your Oka­van­go Delta expe­ri­ence here ! 

Acces­si­ble by self dri­ve as well which is a real bonus for those on a bud­get (although self dri­ve night dri­ves are off lim­it)– the More­mi Game Reserve is both acces­si­ble and well trekked full of 5 star lodges and camp­sites and encom­pass­es famous wildlife spots includ­ing the Chief’s Island – a pri­vate island full of wildlife that once served as the poach­ing cen­tre of the Chief of Botswana and the More­mi Tongue island which is set amongst wet­lands and shrub – again afford­ing incred­i­ble view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

The More­mi Game Reserve is also one of the only places on the plan­et where all the big 5 are known to live and thanks to a series of con­ser­va­tion efforts one of the best places to spot both black and white rhi­nos as well as the illu­sive and endan­gered African Dog. Explorable by both foot, game safari, self-dri­ve, hot air bal­loon and on a horst or Ele­phant back the More­mi Game Reserve is a tru­ly unique sight and the best place in the Oka­van­go Delta to spend your trip as you trav­el across the stun­ning rivers, deltas and wood­lands in search of life.  

The rest of the delta is split into mul­ti­ple sec­tions, includ­ing the famous con­nect­ing ‘wrist sec­tion’ – which is known for cheap camps – and where those on a bud­get can look to camp for the night – sur­round­ed of course by the glit­ter­ing songs of the birds and the pos­si­ble intru­sion of curi­ous wildlife.  

While all of the camps and sec­tions in the Oka­van­go Delta are unique and offer incred­i­ble wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties, for those on a lim­it­ed time and bud­get we’d real­ly rec­om­mend a trip to either the stun­ning par­adise pools for some incred­i­ble aquat­ic and hip­po view­ing or the vast Duba Plains – a dry area known for its incred­i­ble Lion sights, with a sun­set trip offer­ing you a chance to see packs hunt­ing against the warmth and beau­ty of an African sun­set.  

How to Explore the Okavango Delta:

With the Oka­van­go Delta being vast and made up of mul­ti­ple Delta’s and con­tain­ing a series of preda­tors you are going to need to take pre­cau­tions when get­ting round – luck­i­ly mul­ti­ple com­pa­nies and guides offer mul­ti­ple ways to explore this stun­ning won­der — and keep you both safe and close to the action and give you the chance to see the stun­ning ani­mals that inhab­it it and expe­ri­ence the best of this won­der up close: 

Bush Walks

The most obvi­ous and easy way to get around, you and an armed guard will trek through the incred­i­ble grass­lands and to the edge of mul­ti­ple water holes and deltas look­ing for the ani­mals who reside in the Oka­van­go Delta. While walks nor­mal­ly last 2 hours and take place at either sun­rise or dusk you can expect to stop at numer­ous water­holes to glimpse hip­pos, croc­o­diles and buf­fa­lo and observe (from a safe dis­tance) the Giraffes, Lions, Leop­ards and Ele­phants as well as the stun­ning birds in the Oka­van­go Delta for a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence – just be sure to bring your Cam­era and Binoc­u­lars ! 

 Mokoro Canoe

With so much of the Oka­van­go Delta being a Delta riv­er – the best way to real­ly expe­ri­ence the won­der is to trav­el through the waters– which let’s you not only see the ani­mals up close but also expe­ri­ence the tra­di­tion­al way of cross­ing the Delta that has been the tra­di­tion­al way of cross­ing the delta by the San Bush­men – who still live in the Oka­van­go Delta — for gen­er­a­tions.  

For the incred­i­ble jour­ney through the Delta, which often takes place on the wildlife par­adise of the Chobe riv­er, you’ll find your­self lying down in a small wood­en canoe known as a Moko­ro and being pad­dled by your guide or a mem­ber of the San Bush­men tribe and gen­tly strolling through the incred­i­ble Delta’s com­ing with­in inch­es of Hip­pos and Croc­o­diles and see­ing giant ele­phants sip­ping from the water as well as being able to spot the stun­ning ani­mal and bird res­i­dents of the Delta on the water’s edge.  

Most tours also take place right on sun­rise and sun­set – which means you get to expe­ri­ence the deltas against the back­drop of the great African Sun­rise or Sun­set and when the ani­mals are at their most active, with the sun­set tours in par­tic­u­lar offer­ing stun­ning views and being the per­fect end to what will sure­ly be a per­fect day at the won­der of the world that is the Oka­van­go Delta.  

Motorboat 

For those who feel the Canoe doesn’t offer enough secu­ri­ty or who want to explore the Delta’s at a faster pace you’ve also got the option of a Motor­boat to get through the wet­lands at a faster pace. While you’ll still get a shot at the same wildlife, expect the land mam­mals to dis­ap­pear upon hear­ing the boat approach – min­imis­ing your chance of view­ings – but you’ll still be able to spot hip­pos and croc­o­diles, who have been known to approach motor­boats our of curios­i­ty!  

Game Drives

Per­haps the most pop­u­lar and eas­i­est method of explor­ing the Oka­van­go Delta, Game Dri­ves see you tak­en around in a 4 x4 to the ani­mal hotspots of the Delta’s and is an almost guar­an­tee that you will see the big 5 and mul­ti­ple mam­mals that call the Delta home.  

Stop­ping at key grass­lands and Delta edges to allow you to view both land and water-based ani­mals, you’ll be accom­pa­nied by an armed guide who will not only serve as pro­tec­tion but give you a brief­ing on the ani­mal and help you with your pho­tos. The Game dri­ve is also the best and one of the only ways of expe­ri­enc­ing the won­der at night – allow­ing you to see ani­mals on the hunt and those who spend their days safe­ly tucked away sleep­ing – for a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend fit­ting in mul­ti­ple game dri­ves dur­ing your time at the won­der! 

Self-Drive:

An option for those on bud­get, the Oka­van­go Delta is one of the few nat­ur­al wildlife places in the world that you can actu­al­ly self dri­ve into and around – giv­ing you the chance to decide where you go in the park and how long you stay !  

While night dri­ving is off lim­it for this option and you’ll still be required to get a guide for a monoko expe­ri­ence – self dri­ving pro­vides an option for those who are oper­at­ing on a strict bud­get to explore the won­der, with the mul­ti­ple camp sites across the won­der offer­ing a place to secure­ly spend the night.  

Whilst we’d strong­ly advise tak­ing the has­sle out of your trip and book­ing a tour, which will give you a much bet­ter chance of see­ing wildlife and stay­ing safe, for those who do wish to self-dri­ve be sure to avoid the ‘top gear expe­ri­ence’ and make sure you come well pre­pared, with a pre-defined route and a 4x4 – but the option of self-dri­ving is both an afford­able and adven­tur­ous way to explore the Oka­van­go Delta.  

Hot air Balloon safaris

For those who can’t get enough of the Oka­van­go Delta on the ground or the water, you’ve got the option to soar above the won­der for a bird’s eye view of the incred­i­ble res­i­dents and the grass plains and Delta below in the form of a hot air bal­loon Safari.  

Typ­i­cal­ly last­ing an hour and begin­ning at sun­rise you’ll soar above the won­der in the sum­mer months and be able to look down and get a true appre­ci­a­tion for the scale of the Delta below, as you glide above the many ani­mal res­i­dents and get some incred­i­ble pho­tos of a true won­der of the world.  

Elephant & Horseback Rides

Along­side trekking into the grass plains with a guide, you can also take either a horse­back or ele­phant ride into the great Delta. While a lit­tle slow and per­haps eth­i­cal­ly ques­tion­able for the Ele­phants, the chance to get an Ele­phants per­spec­tive as you cruise round in your very own herd through the grass­lands, no doubt encoun­ter­ing some of the Big 5 is a fan­tas­tic and unique way to explore the Oka­van­go Delta.  

Lodges:

Along­side the basic camps avail­able for those on a bud­get, the Oka­van­go Delta also offers some of the best wildlife Lodges on the Plan­et. These Lodges found in the hotspot of the More­mi Game Reserve offer a unique chance to eat and sleep along­side the incred­i­ble wildlife of the Delta as you the incred­i­ble wildlife strides past your Lodge.  

Although a lit­tle pricey the Lodges offer wel­come respite after a long day in the Oka­van­go Delta and most come with com­pli­ment walk­ing Safari’s and Game Dri­ves – as well as inter­net. For those who do wish to book in a camp the big two are the Xaran­na Camp and the Xudum Camp – that both offer air con­di­tion­ing and sun­set and wildlife views from bal­conies.  

For those want­i­ng a camp – which we’d real­ly rec­om­mend if your bud­get can stretch it – you’ll need to be quick to book in advance as there are both lim­it­ed rooms and the prices are known to increase the longer you wait – but there’s no doubt that retir­ing to a lux­u­ry lodge adds an extra ele­ment of enjoy­ment to your trav­els after a long day trekking, dri­ving and canoe­ing across the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Oka­van­go Delta.  

How long to stay:

While it’s pos­si­ble to book day tours of the Oka­van­go Delta – hav­ing made it all the way to Maun and giv­en the Delta is one of the best wildlife view­ing spots on the plan­et we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend that as a min­i­mum you should spend 4 days 3 nights here – this will give you enough chance to hike through the grass­lands, cruise down the Chobe Riv­er, wit­ness mul­ti­ple stun­ning African sun­ris­es and sun­sets and give you enough time to spot mul­ti­ple incred­i­ble res­i­dents of the delta.  

Our best rec­om­men­da­tion though for the best expe­ri­ence would be to spend a week to 10 days in the won­der – not only giv­ing you enough time to explore it a relaxed pace but take on some of the extra activ­i­ties such as bal­loon­ing or meet­ing the San Bush­men to tru­ly immerse your­self in this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Top Tip:

Botswana is not only an incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful coun­try but one of the safest, sta­ble and trav­el friend­ly in Africa – mean­ing that oth­er than mak­ing sure you keep an eye on your pos­ses­sions as you nor­mal­ly would there’s no need to observe the extra secu­ri­ty pre­cau­tions that you may need in oth­er coun­tries on the con­ti­nent.  

There­fore, giv­en the Oka­van­go Delta is one of the best wilder­ness areas on the plan­et – our top tip would be to load up on sun­screen, mos­qui­to repel­lent and come equipped with a high-qual­i­ty cam­era and be sure to give your­self at min­i­mum 4 days / 3 nights in this incred­i­ble won­der so you can tru­ly soak up it’s nat­ur­al beau­ty and encounter as many of its res­i­dents as pos­si­ble.  

  

Cost:

Giv­en Botswana’s rel­a­tive safe­ty and sta­bil­i­ty – it also means it’s one of the prici­est places to vis­it in Africa – espe­cial­ly for a safari along the Oka­van­go Delta with prices known to dou­ble and tre­ble dur­ing the peak sea­son.  

For starters flights to Maun – which are usu­al­ly done via Johan­nes­burg will come in at around $1500 Usd round trip dur­ing peak sea­son – and then there is nor­mal­ly the small mat­ter of the bush char­ter flight into the heart of the Delta give it inac­ces­si­bil­i­ty which comes in at anoth­er $300 Usd – although you can mas­sive­ly cut your costs down by self-dri­ving into the park which will cost you a rental fee and petrol and then hir­ing a guide, just be sure to watch the tides and dri­ve safe­ly! 

Once inside the park there are nor­mal­ly a range of options to suit your bud­get – which will all vary based on the time of Year, the way you choose to explore the Delta and the time you stay in the Delta.  

You’ll find day trips – which include a Safari Walk, Game Dri­ve and moko­ro canoe trip start­ing at around $250 per day in the light sea­son, increas­ing to around $400 USD for the high sea­son – and increas­ing by either $100 USD per day in the light sea­son and $250 for each addi­tion­al day you stay in either sea­son.  

For those who tru­ly want to expe­ri­ence the Delta though, you’ll need a mul­ti day trip – and this will involve either camp­ing or spend­ing some nights in one of the incred­i­ble lodges – for many this offers the chance to either cut back on your accom­mo­da­tion costs by get­ting a camp­ing per­mit ($150 Usd per day) or going full out in lux­u­ry in one of the lodges for between $300 usd — $800 Usd a night – for those in camp­ing you can expect a tent, a cot, a mos­qui­to net and the chance to be inter­rupt­ed by wildlife dur­ing the day – where as the Lodges offer a true 5 star expe­ri­ence with all the home com­forts and the chance to wake and have break­fast amongst the incred­i­ble wildlife of the Oka­van­go Delta.  

While there is the chance to add on option­al extras includ­ing fur­ther trips down the Chobe Riv­er and walk­ing Safaris – as well as a bal­loon flight (150 usd) which can up the cost on aver­age for a 4 day 3 night safari you can expect to pay around $3000 Usd as a min­i­mum assum­ing you don’t self-dri­ve.  

While it is expen­sive, the chance to wit­ness all of the big 5 in their nat­ur­al habi­tat and drift along the incred­i­ble deltas of the Chobe Riv­er is a tru­ly unique and awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence and one that will def­i­nite­ly stay with you for­ev­er.  

Fun Fact:

Although the Oka­van­go Delta stretch­es for some  incredible15,000 kilo­me­tres dur­ing based on the flow­ing of the inland rivers – the Oka­van­go Delta is itself incred­i­bly flat – reach­ing just 2 metres in height at its peak and with a notice­able lack of famous African moun­tains and hills – mak­ing for per­fect wildlife view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties !  

 Best photo spot: 

While the best pho­tog­ra­phy will undoubt­ed­ly be based on your encoun­ters with the stun­ning wildlife – we’d cer­tain­ly rec­om­mend mak­ing sure you have enough cam­era bat­tery left for your trip down the stun­ning Chobe Riv­er at sun­set – which is nor­mal­ly both the high­light and finale of your trip — as you cruise down the incred­i­ble riv­er in a pad­dled moko­ro  grab­bing shots of the incred­i­ble African sun­set along­side the worlds great­est wildlife in the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Oka­van­go Delta.