Leisure Wheels 4×4 Safaris consists of specialist tour operators to ensure that our readers enjoy the most exciting overlanding trips available. All our tours have been tried and tested, so we know what our readers want and what they don’t want. Our Botswana specialist is Andre van Vuuren from Explore Africa Adventures. The Jewel of Africa tour is a must on the calendar this year – whether you’ve never been to Bots or whether you struggle to stay away, this is a unique trip that we are very proud to promote.
The Jewel of Africa safari runs from 15 – 26 March 2013. This is what you can expect, should you decide to join us:
DAY 0: 15 March 2013
Sebe Sebe
Andre, our experienced guide, will meet you at Sebe Sebe situated on the banks of the Limpopo River.
Here you will stay in chalets and the cost is included in the price of the safari. More details will follow in the tour leader’s letter prior to the tour.
DAY 1: 16 March 2013
Kubu Island
You will leave via Lethlekane for Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi Pans where you will spend the first night. The real Botswana starts here!! In the southwest of Sua Pan lies an isolated granite outcrop, some 10m high and a kilometer long, known as Kubu Island. It forms the shape of a crescent, and its slopes are terraced with fossil beaches of wave-rounded pebbles, providing startling evidence of the prehistoric lake’s former water levels. Crowned with an array of ancient, gnarled baobabs and surrounded on three sides by a vast grey emptiness, Kubu has a unique atmospheric beauty.
At night, with the wind moaning through the baobabs, it is easy to imagine the waves of a great inland sea lapping at its pebble beaches. Many of the island’s rocks are white, covered in ancient, fossilized guano from the water-birds that used to perch here when it was surrounded by the lake. The moonlight reflecting off the pan’s white surface gives the place an almost supernatural atmosphere, which is heightened by the mystery of Kubu’s former inhabitants. The shoreline is littered with Stone-Age tools and arrowheads, while concentric dry stone walls on the islands survive from a much more recent village, perhaps around AD1400–1600, and outside this are a number of stone cairns.
DAY 2: 17 March 2013
Island Safari Lodge – Maun
After breakfast you continue your journey to Maun where the group will overnight at Island Safari Lodge. There is a beautiful pool, pub and restaurant. If there is a demand, a one hour scenic game flight (with a light fixed wing aircraft) over Chiefs Island and the Okavango swamps can be organised.
DAY 3-5: 18-20 March 2013
Moremi Game Reserve
The group will stock up with fuel, ice and some last minute shopping before departing via Shorobe and the Buffalo Fence for the Moremi Game Reserve – The Jewel of Africa – in the heart of the Okavango Delta. The Moremi forms an integral part of the Okavango Delta, comprising of permanently swamped areas and dry land. It is probably the prime tourist destination in Botswana. Moremi is a prime wildlife area where elephant, hippo, lion, buffalo, giraffe and most other game can be seen in abundance. We will stay in Xakanaxa Camp for three nights (situated on the bank of the Xakanaxa Lagoon and in one of the best game viewing areas of the Moremi). Daily activities will include 4×4 game drives, a sunset boat cruise on the waterways of the Okavango Delta, bird watching, brunches in the bush, sundowners and unforgettable nights around the campfire.
DAY 6-7: 21-22 March 2013
Savuti
The group will leave for Savuti in the Chobe National Park on its way to Kasane. It is almost impossible to imagine that this desolate, harsh landscape was once submerged beneath an enormous inland sea. The Savuti channel also started to flow again after many years and it really is a spectacular sighting to find Saddle Bill Storks on the Savuti Marsh and to hear the call of Fish Eagles in the campsite. The Savuti area is one of the most photographed areas in the whole of Africa and most of the Africa Wildlife Videos (Derek and Beverly Joubert’s “Eternal Enemies”) and others where filmed here. You will stay over in Savuti Camp for two nights.
DAY 8: 23 March 2013
Chobe Safari Lodge
Travel through the Sandridge and Teak Forests via Kachikau to Kasane where you will overnight in “luxury” at Chobe Safari Lodge (beautiful campsite and ablutions, hot water showers, swimming pool and a characterful thatched pub overlooking the Chobe River).
DAY 9: 24 March 2013
Chobe National Park
You are going to spend the day in the Chobe. The Chobe is proud and very famous for its abundance of elephants – the highest concentration to be found anywhere in Africa. Chobe is also famous for its huge herds of buffalo, for its rich bird life and, not least for its boat cruises and exquisite sunsets. Everybody will do a morning game drive into the park with their own vehicle and the afternoon you will be treated on a three hour sunset game cruise on the Chobe River – an African experience not to be missed. The night will again be spent at Chobe Safari Lodge.
DAY 10: 25 March 2013
Woodlands
Head for Francistown on your way back to South Africa and overnight in the campsite at Woodlands. For those of you who do not want to camp, the option is there to stay in one of the chalets.
DAY 11: 26 March 2013
Home
This is the end of our Safari and we are heading home.
COST
The cost will be R 7000 per person, but is subject to change if any of the service providers increase their prices.
INCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE
FGASA & DEAT registered Guide Vehicle 3rd parties (P200)
Level 2 First Aider Fuel
Fully equipped recovery vehicle Personal Purchases
All Park entry fees except for Chobe on Day 9 Food and beverages
All camping fees Camping equipment
All vehicle entries except for Chobe on Day 9
Boat cruise on Delta
Boat cruise on Chobe
For more information or to book your space on this trip, send an e-mail to [email protected]