Last week I wrote about the new flight with SA Airlink from Kruger International Airport to Victoria Falls and back again. This means that you won’t need to stay overnight in Johannesburg.

I have no problem with this as I often feel that Johannesburg gets a bit of a raw deal in many of our client’s itineraries. They don’t want to stay there but sometimes they have to because flight connections. So they decide to arrive in Johannesburg in the afternoon, get transferred to their hotels in the late afternoon (when Johannesburg traffic is at its worst) and then fly out again to Botswana or Victoria Falls or Namibia the following morning. Then they feel that there is nothing to do in Johannesburg and that they’ve slightly wasted a night.

Now that fewer of our clients will be forced to overnight in Johannesburg, perhaps some of them will decide to stay there and allow enough time to enjoy what’s on offer. Because believe me there is plenty to enjoy! This is what we recommend if you are staying in Johannesburg:

•    If you need to overnight allow enough time to at least do an orientation tour of Johannesburg  en route to your hotel. These tours can be as long as you like and you’ll learn so much about the history of gold in South Africa and Johannesburg.

•    Alternatively why not pre-book yourself a couple of Spa treatments at your hotel and allow enough time to relax. We recommend either Fairlawns Hotel & Spa or (if you are feeling rich, The Saxon Hotel & Spa…) both of which have state of the art spas.

•    If you have an afternoon free, book a Johannesburg city and Apartheid Museum tour which is a fascinating journey into South Africa’s recent past

If you have been having a stressful time at work, why not start your holiday with two nights relaxing at one of Johannesburg’s luxurious boutique hotels such as Fairlawns or The Westcliff Hotel. You can enjoy a morning tour – see our Reasons to Visit Johannesburg for some ideas – and relax around the pool in the afternoon enjoying the gardens (at Fairlawns Hotel) and the stunning panoramic views (at the Westcliff Hotel). Both have excellent Spas and restaurants and offer complimentary transfers to Johannesburg’s swish upmarket boutiques if you need a little retail therapy.

Finally if you do need to stay overnight  and don’t want to spend a fortune but hate the idea of an impersonal airport hotel, we recommend Tintswalo Waterfall. We have excellent rates at this five star hotel set in its own equestrian estate and it also offers complimentary airport transfers so that you don’t waste your money on transport!

Last post I was talking about Shinde Camp and Footsteps.

Next we headed to the Moremi Game Reserve and Camp Okuti…

Camp Okuti
Camp Okuti, in the Moremi Game Reserve of Botswana, was rebuilt at beginning of 2008 and is looking very good. The overall design makes reference to the old wagons used by the settlers. I liked Camp Okuti which has an attractive authentic bush feel. The pool area, being adjacent to the main deck but with some secluded shaded deck for relaxing during the heat, was particularly nice as it overlooks the river channel. The food was excellent and the staff were exceptionally friendly (especially the lovely Moni!)

The rooms are huge. They are not so shaded as at Shinde and Footsteps but they have been designed to allow a good through draught of cooling night air. The indoor and outdoor bathrooms were very attractive.  The terrain around Camp Okuti is rather special and varied with open airy areas of woodland contrasting with beautiful lagoons and pools and open expanses of grassland. We visited Dead Tree Island which had excellent birdlife and eery lifeless trees silhouetted in the water – great for our attempts at arty photography.

However you are in the Moremi Game Reserve which is a National Park so you do see other camp’s vehicles and also mobile safari vehicles… Game-viewing is excellent in this part of the Moremi and we were certainly very lucky with an exciting (and somewhat horrific ) lion kill – three lion on one zebra which we saw from the beginning (lions sleeping and seemingly comatose) to the start of the hunt (crouched low in the ground and creeping forward with bent legs) to the chase (very fast) to the bloody kill (unfortunately very slow!). However a point to note is that such a notable sighting soon brought a host of other vehicles so it would be good to combine staying at a Moremi camp with staying at a private concession camp to get that real sense of the Okavango Delta wilderness.

Kanana Camp

Kanana Camp has just been completely rebuilt and its now a very attractive. The camp is charming set around the giant fig tree. Below the raised decks of the main lodge was a camp fire set right at the water’s edge which was very pretty great for pre and post-dinner drinks.
A good point at Kanana is the range of activities on offer: game drives, game walks, boat cruises, fishing and mekoro trips.  The Kanana concession comprises both drier and wetter areas so that land and water activities are offered throughout the year. I concentrated more on the water activities, the boating, island walking and mekoros and found the terrain to be very beautiful. As I focused on the water activities, you would naturally not expect to see the same quantity of game as on a game drive (another thing to note when considering which safari camp to book in Botswana). However we were very very lucky with our birding with excellent sightings of huge fish eagles and even the rare Pel’s fishing owl. I would say that Kanana would make a great combination with Camp Okuti or Shinde Camp.

During May I had the good fortune to head to Botswana to check out some of the safari camps in the Okavango Delta. (This is definitely the best part of my job!) The flood this year is going to be very big, following the high summer rains throughout Botswana and the water levels were already rising rapidly even though it was only May. (Typically the Okavango Delta flood starts reaching the camps around mid June!)

I enjoyed all the camps we visited though they were very different in character. I found the service ethic to be very high, with friendly and obliging people and the standard of game-viewing was excellent. The winter programme for the Okavango Delta safari camps is to have breakfast prior to the morning game activity. This works well as you are not cold on the open vehicles and also means that you stay out on your game drive longer (as your tummy is not rumbling!) You return mid morning and have an early lunch/brunch with a decent amount of free siesta time before a substantial afternoon tea.

We first headed to Shinde Camp…

Shinde Camp
Shinde Camp was probably my favourite Okavango Delta camp because its a private exclusive concession which is very beautiful; the quality of the game-viewing was amazing; the standard of guiding  was high (Thanks Paul!) and the camp is very attractive.

Shinde Camp has a lovely setting under the trees which keeps the tents cool in the high Botswana temperatures. The main buildings are very attractive set high in the trees on a cantilevered terrace of decks. I particularly loved the rather grand dining area under a curved canvas roof. At the ground level, there’s a lovely campfire area overlooking the waters/grassland where people meeting for safari activities or to enjoy pre- and post-dinner drinks. There’s also a swimming pool with shaded lounging area. Shinde is quite a romantic camp and has a honeysuite suite with a double bed so I’d recommended it for honeymoon couples heading to Botswana.

Shinde is a private concession and this is quite an important factor to consider, so the only vehicles we saw were also from Shinde. The concession is a beautiful open terrain with lots of small lagoons rapidly filling with flood water.  We had excellent sightings of lion (two groups), leopard, elephant, tessebe, red lechwe, fish eagles, zebra, giraffe and Paul, our guide was knowledgeablewith a nice dry sense of humour!

Shinde Camp is also somewhat unusual in the Okavango Delta in offering good quality game drives, boating and mekoro trips all year round. This is another important factor to consider when deciding on which safari camps to book in Botswana. Thus if you only had 3 nights to spend in the Okavango Delta, Shinde would be an ideal camp as you can experience both land and water safari activities.

Footsteps Camp
Footsteps Camp lies on the opposite side of the Shinde Concession in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Footsteps is the most rustic of all the Ker & Downey camps and totally suits its purpose as a base for walking safaris or family safaris. I love this sort of much more authentic bushcamp and find its paired back style of living very calming… Footsteps is in a very pretty  airy woodland area so that the tents stay cool during the day. The tent itself was much more comfortable than I was expecting and recently upgraded. The toilets are long drops (with ash provided in case of smells). The toilet was scrupulously clean and thus fine for me, but wouldn’t suit everyone! The showers are about two metres from your tent and are bucket showers so you need to say when you want a shower and they fill it up with hot water.  There’s also a charming bush bath (old-fashioned tin bath) which is fun!

Footsteps Camp is ideal for those who enjoy walking safaris and that is its main focus. The transfer from the airstrip is quite long  but, as our party found out, the transfer often takes the form of a game-drive. We witnessed elephant, leopard and even a lion kill (of warthog) on the transfer! Needless to say the transfer became a game drive! Typically you will do a shorter afternoon walk and return before sunset. There is a game vehicle based at camp, so you can also do a short game walk followed by a night drive if you prefer. The mornings usually offer a longer 3 hour walk.  The focus of Footsteps is on walking so don’t go here if you want the full range of safari activities.

Footsteps Camp is also the setting for their excellent Young Explorers Family Safari programme in Botswana which I also highly recommend.