New! Okavango Delta, Botswana

Kwara Camp in the Kwara Concession and Chitabe Camp in the Chitabe Concession, Okavango Delta, Botswana - July 2026

A private trip to the famous Okavango Delta, where this year the water levels were very high. Too high for good wildlife viewing in the central areas as much of the area was under water or inaccessible for vehicles, and much of the wildlife had dispersed to drier areas. We stayed at two camps, Kwara Camp which was on an island surrounded by deep water rendering game viewing very difficult, and then Chitabe Camp which is in a dry area, and although there was more water than on my previous visit in 2023, this didn't impact too much on game viewing.

One encounter, shown in the slideshow below, was particularly memorable. We found a male Leopard returning to his Impala kill stashed in a tree, and we saw him go up into the tree and then watched him tuck in for quite some time. The following day we went back to check the situation out, only to find the tree surrounded by eight large sub-adult Lions. One Lion went into the tree and feasted on the stolen kill. Remarkably the Leopard was still in the tree, but had moved much higher up to be safe from the Lion. Eventually, after many hours, the Lion brought the remains of the kill down from the tree, and this resulted in an almighty scrap between the eight Lions present. After the Lions had finished eating and moved away, a Spotted Hyena arrived and carried off the last piece of bone. Finally, having been stuck in the tree for many many hours, the situation was safe for the Leopard to come down and flee the area! Quite an encounter!

My thanks to Safari Consultants for organising such a wonderful visit.