Unique Tours and Safaris presents the ultimate 4x4 self-drive safari for the nature lover from/to Windhoek Namibia: Wild Botswana

Photo: An aerial close-up of Botswana's unique Okavango Delta

From Namibia, Across Borders

Wild Botswana
21 Day/20 Night Self-drive Safari around Botswana
Mostly camping, some lodge overnights
from/to Windhoek via Eastern Namibia through wildlife parks in south-western, central, north-eastern and north-western Botswana, incl. Chobe National Park, Moremi Wildlife Reserve and Okavango Delta

How often have you seen films on television or listened to someone telling you about Botswana's amazing African wildlife populations and the natural beauty of the Okavango Delta? You love nature, enjoy being part of it but suspect that the experience of true wilderness will remain out of reach due to cost involved in such extraordinary African holidays?
Here is your answer: Unique Tours & Safaris' camping & lodge safari  through the game parks of Botswana will take you right to the wildlife hot spots without blowing your holiday budget.

Yes, it's true - using a 4x4 is an absolute necessity; travelling with a group of four or more friends and family members in at least 2 vehicles will make you feel safer; you cannot do this tour at the height of the rainy season in Botswana as many roads turn into impassable mud pools; it is advisable to have some prior experience of travelling in Africa and to be able to enjoy camping as much as nice lodges.

In return, you'll get African nature, wildlife, wilderness pure - the essence of Southern Africa at its very best!

Unique Tours & Safaris, Namibia

Contact Heike by Email:
info@unique-tours-safaris.com

Web: www.unique-tours-safaris.com

P. O. Box 1301
Swakopmund/Namibia
Cell:  +264-(0)81-2122580
Tel/Fax: +264-(0)64-406313
NTB-Registration: TFA 00107

Wild Botswana

21-Day/20-Night 4x4 Self-drive Safari around Botswana

Mostly camping, some lodge overnights
from/to Windhoek via Eastern Namibia through wildlife parks and nature conservation areas in south-western, central, north-eastern and north-western Botswana, incl. Chobe National Park, Moremi Wildlife Reserve and Okavango Delta

Special vehicle rental conditions and cross-border fees will apply to this safari.

Day 1     Windhoek
Upon arrival at Windhoek's Hosea Kutako International Airport, you are transferred into Windhoek where you collect your rental vehicle. Proceed to your guesthouse accommodation in town and enjoy the remainder of the day at leisure.
The city centre of Namibia's capital is small enough to explore most of its sightseeing attractions, a craft centre, and museum on foot or book an optional guided city tour.
There are various dining options in the vicinity of the accommodation - just ask your hosts for recommendations.
The Elegant Guesthouse - Windhoek
Bed & Breakfast Basis
Khomas Region
Today’s accommodation makes for a perfect choice to start your Namibian holiday. Situated in tasteful and tranquil surroundings, it is still close to numerous amenities you might require in preparing for your tour through Botswana's wilderness. Please note: No fresh produce incl. meat may be taken into Botswana!
 

Optional alternative lodging:
Charlotte’s Guesthouse - Budget
Safari Hotel - Tourist Class
Hotel Heinitzburg - Upmarket

Day 2     Windhoek - Botswana Border
From Windhoek, travelling east on the Trans Kalahari Highway, towards the Botswana border, takes you into the Kalahari and to the outskirts of the Omaheke Desert. In Gobabis, the region's only town and administrative centre, the local tourist info centre provides details about sightseeing and excursion options available for getting to know historic sites and various ethnic communities. The Herero culture is most prominent in the Omaheke Region but also Damara, San, and Batswana splinter groups are settled here. 
Once at your overnight place, there are opportunities for joining the farmer on a Kalahari nature drive in the later afternoon and to relax around the swimming pool in beautiful garden surroundings
Kalahari Bush Breaks Lodge - Gobabis Area
Dinner, Bed & Breakfast
Omaheke Region
Your accommodation is ideally situated to take in Namibia's lesser known yet just as interesting Omaheke Region. It is also close enough to the Buitepos border post to allow for an early start the following morning and an easy half-day drive on the Trans Kalahari Highway to your first destination inside Botswana, the Ghanzi area.
The "Highway" is a tarred single-lane overland road through the Kalahari that links the economic centres in north- & central-eastern South Africa as well as those in southern Botswana with Namibia's Walvis Bay Harbour.

Optional alternative lodging:
Zelda Guest Farm - Tourist Class
Kalahari Bush Breaks - Camping

Day 3     Gobabis - Buitepos Border Post/Botswana - Ghanzi
Ghanzi is often referred to as the "Capital of the Kalahari. Even though it is literally situated in the middle of nowhere, this little town has grown in leaps and bounds, since the inauguration of the Trans Kalahari Highway, which made it accessible to the general travelling public for the very first time in its existence.
Here, you'll have to stock up on provisions for the coming days, as it will take some time, until you'll reach proper shopping facilities once again.
Thakadu Bush Camp - Ghanzi Area
Bed & Breakfast
Western Botswana
Experience a true African bush feeling at the Thakadu Bush Camp. Enjoy vast landscapes teeming with lions, cheetahs and other spectacular wildlife. This area is one of the last untouched areas in the world.

Optional alternative lodging:
Trail Blazers - Budget
Tautona Lodge - Tourist Class
Kalahari Arms Hotel - Upmarket
Thakadu Bush Camp - Camping

Days 4 and 5     Ghanzi - Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Proceeding in a south-eastern direction, you reach the first of Botswana's numerous nature conservation areas, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Nearly 20% of the country's surface and thus most of its wildlife as well as the most fragile habitats of the Kalahari are protected in such vast reserves. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve, established in 1961 already but difficult to access until fairly recently, is larger than Denmark. Covering approx. 52,800 sq kilometres, it is the largest game reserve in Botswana and one of the largest in Africa.
Experience marvellous game viewing during leisurely drives across the grassveld of the Kalahari.
During these two days, you make your way from the middle of the game reserve to its northern exit, with camping overnights in spots with particularly high game concentrations.
Piper Pans / Sunday Pan - Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Camping: camp site only
Central Botswana
Piper Pans is one of the areas where game concentrates and lingers around a waterhole. As anywhere in Botswana's dry lands, game movements largely depend on water pumps working to provide the life-sustaining liquid, which is absent from the Kalahari's surface.
There is always game in the shade of the Acacia trees at Sunday Pan and lions frequently roam the area. Campsites are situated on low hills overlooking the pan.

Optional alternative lodging:
Haina Kalahari Lodge - Tourist Class
Deception Valley - Camping

Day 6     Central Kalahari Game Reserve - Makgadikgadi National Park
You leave the Central Kalahari Game Reserve via the Matswere Gate, to travel via the villages of Rakops and Tsoe northwards to Khumaga and the Makgadikgadi National Park. Don’t bother to pronounce its name until you heard it from a local, as it is one of the many words of the Setswana language that can get your tongue in a knot. The vast expanse of the Makgadikgadi Pans is a sight to behold with salt-baked sands stretching as far as the eye can see.
Khumaga Camp - Makgadikgadi Pans National Park
Camping: camp site only
Central Botswana
The village of Khumaga is located on the northern border of the park. A rather controversial fence has recently been built to prevent lions from leaving the park. The zebra migration from Phuduhudu to the Khumaga area of the park is one of the highlights in this area, with large herds of zebras filling the air with their bark-like, often high pitched calls.

Optional alternative lodging:
Meno A Kwena - Upmarket

Day 7     Makgadikgadi National Park - Nxai Pan National Park

With overnight facilities and places of interest situated as isolated as they are in the centre of Botswana, it is unfortunately necessary to change your base camp frequently. Today, you travel further north, across the main road connecting Maun and Nata, to enter the Nxai Pan National Park. Baobab trees dominate the scenery of this part Botswana.
According to an ancient folk tale, the baobab was the last tree species to be created and the most beautiful one. The tree became so arrogant that it would not allow birds to sit on it. God, in his anger about such vanity, pulled it out of the ground and re-planted it upside down. And this is why the baobab still looks today, as if its roots reach into the air.
Baines’ Baobab - Nxai Pan National Park
Camping: camp site only
Central Botswana
In the Nxai Pans game gathers under the few shady Acacia trees during the heat of the day. This makes game viewing very easy. Pitch your tent and view game on the pans even while you are having your first morning coffee.
Baines Baobabs was named after the famous painter and explorer Thomas Baines, who painted this unusual group of baobabs in 1862. Although the pan at Baines Baobabs is dry for most of the year, the area is transformed into a massive sheet of water during the rainy season.

Optional alternative lodging:
Nxai Pans - Camping

Day 8     Nxai Pan National Park - Nata    
After all this being and feeling close to nature, a little break in civilised surroundings and the comforts provided by proper beds and hot showers is probably most welcome: A half-day's drive east, on the main tar road through central Botswana, takes you to the town of Nata and its Nata Lodge. A lovely garden under big shade trees offers respite from the relentless African sun, and the village's service station will whip your safari vehicle back into shape.
Stocking up on groceries should however wait until you reach Kasane, as it offers more and better shopping facilities. Instead, taking a guided afternoon excursion (optional) into the Nata Sanctuary is recommended.
Nata Lodge - Nata
Bed & Breakfast Basis
Eastern Botswana
An oasis set among Mokolwane palms on the edge of the pans, Nata Lodge is ideally situated close to the entrance to the Nata Sanctuary and just off the main road, 10 km from Nata village.
If you are lucky enough to travel this way around end of May/mid June, and under the condition that the Makgadikgadi Pans did receive sufficient rainfalls in the previous summer season, you may experience the Nata Santuary becoming the final staging ground of one of African nature's most spectacular performances:
The end of the annual epic migration of flamingos in their thousands, after they walked their still flightless newly born chicks across hundred of miles of hostile muddy salt pans as the rain water collected in the pans retreated towards the north, during the onset of winter. Those who survive the ordeal and reach the last remaining puddles of rain water near Nata, are the ones to have a fair chance at living a flamingo's life full circle. Their parents by then flew thousands of miles on frequent journeys up and down Botswana to provide nourishment collected from reliable water sources, and many perish afterwards from exhaustion.
It's a fascinating story of life triumphing over death, in spite of enduring great losses and hardships, that was told in a much acclaimed TV documentary, years ago.

Optional alternative lodging:
Nata Lodge - Camping

Day 9    Nata - Kasane
Just two hours north, on the banks of the Chobe River and the outskirts of Kasane, lies your next destination - Kubu Lodge. Join the lodge for an optional boat cruise in the afternoon, enjoying the huge populations of elephant and buffalo the Chobe region is known for, next to many other game species and a prolific birdlife.
Kube Lodge - Kasane
Dinner, Bed & Breakfast Basis
North-eastern Botswana
Kubu Lodge offers comfortable thatched chalets on stilts overlooking the Chobe River. An idyllic setting on the doorstep of the world famous Chobe National Park.
In order to allow for an early departure into the park tomorrow, your groceries shopping and preparing your vehicle for the coming week - to be spent in northern Botswana's wilderness areas with no infrastructure at all -, will best be done today.

Optional alternative lodging:
Water Lily Lodge - Tourist Class
Chobe Safari Lodge - Upmarket

Days 10 and 11     Kasane - Chobe River/Chobe National Park
Only a stone throw to the west lies your next destination, again on the banks of the Chobe. Since elephant and buffalo love drinking here always listen before you exit your tent at night. Before you depart Kasane, refill your vehicle's tank to the brim as you will use up most of those 160 litres of fuel, before you reach the next petrol station in Maun. Situated only approximately 50km away from Kasane lies a secluded camping are that has pulled everybody into its spell who camped here.
Ihaha Campsite - Chobe National Park/Ngoma Bridge area
Camping
North-eastern Botswana
Ihaha is situated 33km from the Sidudu Entrance Gate and 23km from Ngoma Gate on the Chobe river front, providing each campsite with a beautiful view.
Each site is equipped with a barbeque stand and a refuse bin, and shared ablution facilities are clean and well maintained (contrary to those at the better known public Serondela camping grounds).
The Chobe National Park, especially along the Chobe River, is home to a huge population of elephant. These you may meet while exploring the surrounding of your campsite and the National Park. If you are woken by a strange sound just outside your tent try and withhold your curiosity until the sound moves a little away, it might be one of these grey, gentle creatures exploring your tent.

No optional alternative lodging in this area

Days 12 and 13     Chobe River - Savuti/Chobe National Park
Your journey takes you in a south-westerly direction through the Chobe National Park, from the vicinity of the park's Ngoma Gate via the tiny bush settlement of Kachikau to the Savuti area near the Ghoha Gate. For the better part of the day, It's tough driving on corrugated or deep sandy tracks that will test your bush driving skills but game viewing opportunities abound along the way and at the end of this stretch two nights spent in luxury await you.
In the south-western corner of Botswana's Chobe National Park lies a dynamic wilderness - a sweeping expanse of savannah brooded over by seven rocky outcrops guarding a relic marsh and the unpredictable channel that was once its lifeline. This is the geologically diverse and zoologically fascinating Savuti region. The area - all of 10 878 km² - is covered with spectacular rolling grasslands and an amazing abundance of wildlife and is known for its population of bull elephants and predator species.

In 2009, the unexpected happened - after 14 years of remaining completely dry, the Savuti Channel started flowing with water again and completely transformed the landscape and the hunting behaviour of carnivores like wild dogs and lions. Since Botswana experienced a late and good rainy season, during the African summer months until April 2010, it is likely that the spectacle of the channel in flood will be repeated over the main safari season between June and November 2010.
More information about the Savuti Channel's long cycles of revival can be found on the website of National Geographic.       
Savuti Safari Lodge - Savuti area/Chobe National Park

Full board including activities
North-central Botswana
Savuti Safari Lodge boasts a viewing deck, an al fresco dining area and swimming pool – which is ideal for watching game at the waterhole. Activities like 4x4 game drives on the famous Savute Marsh, and San rock paintings at Gubatsa Hills are offered.

Optional alternative lodging:
Savuti Camp - Upmarket
Savute Elephant Lodge - Upmarket

Days 14 to 16     Savuti/Chobe N. P. - Moremi Wildlife Reserve
Travel further in a south-westerly direction, via the Mababe Marsh and across the 4km long Magwikhwe Sand Ridge, to reach the Moremi Wildlife Reserve that borders the Chobe Nat. Park. Proceed along the Khwai River until you reach your first camp site within Moremi, situated near its North Gate.
Enjoy self-guided game drives, during the following three days, which will also see you visiting the 3rd Bridge and Xakanaxa on the northern tip of Moremi that reaches into the Okavango Delta, before your journey takes you to Maun.
Moremi Wildlife Reserve
Camping

North-central Botswana
Moremi Wildlife Reserve with its 4872 square kilometres counts amongst the most beautiful and variable nature reserves of the continent. It protects approximately one third of the Okavango Delta and stretches from the north-eastern via the so-called mopane tongue and Chief’s Island deep into the western delta. Only the relatively dry eastern part is accessible due to a passable net of roads that were developed to invite tourism. The area around South Gate tends to remain dry. It does have a public campsite but you need to be self-reliant with water, food and fuel, when travelling to Moremi.
The Northgate area can literally pump with game at certain times of the year and is well worth a visit.

Optional alternative lodging:
Xakanaxa - Upmarket
South Gate - Camping

Days 17 and 18     Moremi Wildlife Reserve - Maun
Moremi is the last game reserve to visit in Botswana during this safari. Enjoy another few hours of game viewing drives en route to the South Gate and from there, you proceed south via Shorobe to Maun. In Maun, it will be high time to refuel your vehicle, before you continue to your accommodation just outside town.
The next day holds another surprise when a flight across the Okavango Delta and a boating excursion in a traditional canoe reveal the full extent and unrivalled beauty of this water wonderland teeming with African wildlife.
Motsentsela Tree Lodge - Maun
Bed & Breakfast Basis incl. Delta Excursion
North-central Botswana
Motsentsela Tree Lodge is ideally situated away from the bustle of Maun, perfect for the more discerning traveller, on his/her way to the Okavango Delta. Large sunken baths and an outside shower with a view into the woods will make your stay a memorable one. The lodge has a swimming pool complete with sun lounges. Join the operator on a flight to Chief’s Island including a full day Mokoro trip in the delta.

Optional alternative lodging:
Audi Camp - Tourist Class
Maun Lodge - Upmarket

Day 19     Maun - Ghanzi
Due to limited accommodation facilities between Maun and eastern Namibia, you return to Ghanzi today. It's an easy drive on tar roads all the way.
Enjoy the tranquil surroundings of your lodge for a last night in Botswana.
Tautona Lodge - Ghanzi
Bed & Breakfast
North-eastern Botswana

Tautona is situated near Ghanzi in its own private game reserve, approximately 5km from the centre of the village. Two swimming pools invite guests to cool off from the heat of the day.

Optional alternative lodging:
Trail Blazers - Budget
Thakadu Bush Camp - Tourist Class
Kalahari Arms Hotel - Upmarket
Thakadu Bush Camp - Camping

Day 20     Ghanzi - Buitepos Border Post - Gobabis Area/Namibia
Having completed your roundtrip through large parts of Botswana, you head west and via the Buitepos border post back to Namibia.
Just a few kilometres beyond the border line lies your last camp site surrounded by a privately owned game farm. 
Zelda's Guest Farm - Gobabis Area
Camping
Omaheke Region
A 5 000ha game park that is home to a large variety of wildlife. Zelda offers 16 individually furnished en-suite rooms, very comfortable camping sites, nice gardens, the “Baboona” bar, a restaurant and a small souvenir shop.

Optional alternative lodging:
Kalahari Bush Breaks - Tourist Class
Kalahari Bush Breaks - Camping

Day 21      Gobabis Area - Windhoek   
Proceeding west on the Trans-Kalahari-Highway through Gobabis and past Witvlei, it is easy to reach Windhoek by about lunch time. Return your rental vehicle and enjoy the few remaining hours surrounded by Windhoek's modern shopping facilities and cosy street-side cafés, before a transfer service takes you to the Hosea Kutako International Airport for your evening flight home.

Services Included in this programme, on a SELF-DRIVE basis:
- Accommodation & camp sites as indicated above
- Activities indicated as included above
- Meal basis as indicated above
- Vehicle rental from/to Windhoek - 21 days:
  Camping Vehicle equipped for 2
  • Incl. unlimited mileage
  • Incl. insurance cover as per vehicle rental company utilised

Not included are:
- Flights & Visa/Permits of any kind
- Sightseeing programme & entrance/park fees
- Optional activities

- Additional meals & all beverages
- Fuel for rental vehicle
- Purchases and expenses of a personal nature

No GUIDED version of this Botswana safari available.

An indication of the approximate cost of services included in this 21-day tour:
SELF-DRIVE:  Daily rate per person sharing rental vehicle & room/camp site: N$2680

All prices are based on service supplier rates valid until 31 October 2012