Often considered the beating heart of the Okavango Delta, the Moremi Game Reserve is world famous for its game viewing and rightly so – it is home to some of the highest wildlife concentrations in Africa.

• The Moremi Game Reserve covers almost a third of the Okavango Delta and sits right in the heart, where floodwaters are highest for longest.
• Chief’s Island keeps its feet dry all year round meaning it becomes a refuge during the flood when wildlife concentrations are extraordinarily high.
• Activities in the Moremi include mokoro (traditional dug out canoe) expeditions, boat trips, game drives and guided walks
• Moremi’s ‘Game Reserve’ status does place restrictions on some activities – off-road driving, night drives and walking are not permitted. These activities can take place in the Moremi’s private concessions however.
• A range of accommodation options sit at a variety of price points. Those in exclusive concessions enjoy access to both private and public land – the best of both worlds.

Take a look at: Mombo & Little Mombo Camp, Chief’s Camp, Machaba & Little Machaba, Tuludi Camp

Every year, rain falls over the distant highlands of Angola from where the water slowly meanders its way south, along the Okavango River to Botswana. Here it collects in a great inland alluvial fan: the Okavango Delta.

• The floods generally reach their peak in April or May, shortly after the rains in Botswana begin to ease. This marks the beginning of peak season.
• Immense numbers and a great variety of wildlife is drawn to the Delta’s waters including flocks of colourful birds, elephants, hippos, lions, leopards and African wild dog.
• Large swathes are designated as National Park which places restrictions on activities while private concessions offer low visitor numbers and unrestricted exploration off road, at night and on foot.
• ‘Wet’ camps at the heart of the Delta offer a fabulous array of water-based activities while ‘dry’ camps on the outer fringes focus on 4×4 game driving and walking.

Take a look at: Duba Plains, Duba Explorers, Splash Camp, Gomoti Plains, Tubu Tree, Little Vumbura, Kanana Camp, Baines Camp, Belmond Eagle Island Camp, Mapula Lodge, Kwara Camp

Situated in the very north of Botswana, the Linyanti’s northern boundary is defined by the Linyanti River which forms the border with Namibia. From here, permanent flood plains and marshes spread southward attracting high concentrations of bird and wildlife especially during the dry season.

• ‘The Linyanti’ is the collective term used to describe three private reserves – the Linyanti, Selinda and Kwando.
• Great herds of elephants famously congregate and sightings of lion, cheetah and leopard are good. The region is considered one of the best places to see African wild dogs.
• In green season the thick mopane foliage makes game viewing more challenging, but guests will be richly rewarded with pretty green-season scenery, lower visitor numbers and reduced prices.
• Most of the luxury lodges are situated outside of National Park boundaries allowing night drives, walking safaris and fishing.

Take a look at: Lebala, Lagoon, Duma Tau, King’s Pool, Selinda Explorers, Selinda Camp,  Zarafa Camp

Chobe is known for its immense herds of elephant and buffalo, the size of which are seldom seen elsewhere, especially during the dry season when wildlife travels from far and wide to drink from the Chobe River.

• The park has four distinct ecosystems which support a wealth of wildlife including lion, elephant, cheetah, the rare oribi antelope, and over 450 species of bird.
• Chobe is one of the busier parks in Botswana, especially during peak season when visitors arrive in conjunction with the huge herds of wildlife.
• The riverfront produces beautiful sightings of elephants drinking and wallowing among lush green reeds.
• As a National Park, Chobe does fall under government regulations and certain activities such as off road driving and walking are not permitted.
• The Savtue Marsh, and the channel that feeds it, are known to mysteriously dry up and flood without any apparent cause or pattern. The unpredictability often produces opportunist wildlife behaviour, as seen in Attenborough’s famous ‘fishing leopards’.

Take a look at: Chobe Under Canvas, Muchenje Safari Lodge, Savute Under Canvas, Belmond Savute Elephant Camp.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) is the largest, most remote reserve in Southern Africa – a vast and seemingly barren landscape of wide skies and empty horizons where swathes of golden grass seem to stretch to eternity.

• The reserve was uniquely established as a place where the indigenous San people could continue to live traditional lifestyles and some isolated communities still remain.
• Wildlife includes black-maned lion, desert-adapted elephant and rhino, plus brown hyena, aardwolf, oryx, bat-eared fox and ostrich.
• A low density of predators, coupled with the flat, open grasslands, create ideal conditions for cheetah, and the CKGR is one of the best places in Africa to see them.
• During the rainy season the game viewing action intensifies as green grasses attract great numbers of plains game, followed by the inevitable predators.

Take a look at: Tau Pan, Dinaka Camp, Kalahari Plains

The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is visible from space as the remains of a giant super-lake that once covered a vast area of southern Africa. The salt pans are a featureless expanse of hauntingly beautiful nothingness broken only by the curvature of the earth where the land meets the sky in a shimmering haze.

• In the rolling grasslands, isolated populations of the indigenous San Bushmen remain as extremely skilled hunter-gatherers that specialise in tracking.
• Chapman’s Baobab was thought to be over 1000 years old when it finally fell just a couple of years ago still bearing the carved initials of David Livingstone.
• A handful of explorer-style tented camps are some of the most sought-after in Africa, known for their glamourous eccentricity.
• When the rains arrive (January – March) the flooded pans attract unbelievable numbers of birds and zebras in the second biggest animal migration on the African continent

Take a look at: Camp Kalahari, Jacks Camp, San Camp