With regards to safari locations, Botswana is certainly one of my high locations on the African continent to go to for each prolific wildlife and luxurious lodging. With the journey being virtually as essential because the vacation spot, I board my Airlink flight from Cape City Worldwide Airport to Maun Worldwide Airport with the fantastic prospect of staying at Ker & Downey Botswana’s Kanana within the Okavango Delta.
Arriving at Maun Worldwide Airport, the pleasant Martha from Ker & Downey’s meet and greet is at hand to make sure that I’m checked in for my inner flight on Safari Air. Captain Letso is on the controls and has clearly mastered the artwork of flying the GA8 Airvan and lands it seamlessly on the gravel floor. The Kanana airstrip is barely a three-minute drive to camp, relying on what you see alongside the best way. I’m collected by Wizzy, who drives me to Kanana, the place music and dance from the workers paves the best way to a hospitable welcome and an incredible expertise.
I make it in time for Excessive Tea, which is a collection of delicious freshly baked goodies and iced espresso, home made lemonade, and anything you may need to drink from the open bar or concoct from the espresso machine. Company are excited concerning the looming recreation drive, and those that have spent a couple of days in camp speak animatedly about what they’ve noticed, and which animals they’re hoping to see. With Kanana located in a personal concession, off-roading is allowed to get nearer to the wildlife, including one other component of enthusiasm for each guides and company!
One of the requested sightings by safarigoers is to come across a leopard within the wild. An elusive animal at finest due to their shy nature and camouflaged coats, it’s by no means a straightforward job for a information to search out these sought-after rosette massive cats. Setting off on our very first recreation drive at Kanana, Discipline Information Ona approaches a jackalberry tree, stops the sport drive car, and nonchalantly proclaims that there’s a leopard proper there. She is quick asleep within the tree, perched over the branches and content material as solely a leopard might be. A spotlight for me is setting eyes on a tiny leopard cub on my final morning, the place their mother had stashed them safely within the hollowed-out stump of a useless leadwood tree.
Again at camp, it’s lastly time to see my luxurious tented suite! I’m completely delighted to be staying within the Household Suite for the subsequent three nights, which is true on the finish of a tree-lined path the place an imposing sausage tree creates a shady refuge on sizzling summer time days. The tree doubles up for birds and any creatures that may need to have the sting on their elevated vantage level, equivalent to vervet monkeys or tree squirrels.
Opening the sliding doorways of my magnificent suite, it’s clear {that a} comfy haven has been tailormade for company having fun with the finer issues in life, even whereas on safari. With a view over the plains, which transforms right into a spectacular floodplain when the Okavango Delta’s annual water arrives from the Angola highlands, this pure phenomenon causes an inflow of aquatic wildlife, and company can embark on water-based actions when the water ranges enable for it, equivalent to gliding down the Delta’s channels in a mokoro (a dug-out canoe) or boating alongside the waterways the place company will change into avid birdwatchers.
It’s time for dinner, and being in a recreation reserve with a fence that retains solely the elephants out, wildlife can meander at their whim, as we uncover one evening when a leopard strolls proper via the camp, and comes bolting from my suite’s deck simply to vanish into the darkish evening. Ought to company need to clean up earlier than dinner, their information will acquire them at their suite and stroll them to the principle eating space as strolling by your self after sundown and earlier than dawn isn’t permitted for security functions. Dinner is served at a protracted desk with everybody eating collectively, making for a stunning return to the age-old custom of conversing with fellow company.
The identify Kanana means ‘land of milk and honey’ in Botswana’s native Tswana language, and Kanana is that and a lot extra. Aside from the heat of the workers and the unimaginable wildlife, Kanana is genuine luxurious at its most interesting.
How one can Guide with The Luxurious Safari Firm | Heléne’s worldwide flights have been generously sponsored by The Luxurious Safari Firm. Based by Rose Hipwood in 2010, her ardour for Africa is evident within the seamless association of bespoke, luxurious safaris throughout Africa which can be made particular by the individuals concerned, the distinctive places of the lodges, and the meticulously executed nature of every journey. Purchasers of The Luxurious Safari Firm can count on private 24-hour service safaris which take them into new territory with the proper individuals on the proper time, and imaginative itineraries. To guide, contact information@theluxurysafaricompany.com or name +44 1666 880 111.
