SGB8S

8-Day Scheduled Budget Overland Tented Safari

8 Days: US$1758.00 per person sharing

valid 01 January until 31 December 2012

This Scheduled Budget safari is designed to enable one to see some of the famous wildlife areas without breaking the bank.Start from Kasane and end in Maun

The safari starts from Kasane with a Chobe River boat cruise and ends in Maun with a drop-off at Maun airport.

• 2 Nights Chobe National Park
• 2 Nights Savute
• 3 Nights Moremi Game Reserve and Okavango Delta

Please note:  the above itinerary could change due to seasonal variations.

All park fees and camping equipment are provided.  The 2m x 2m dome tents are equipped with camping mattress, sleeping bag and pillow with an extra blanket in the winter months.  The tents have built in floors and mosquito gauze on the windows and door.  Shower and toilet facilities are shared.  Delicious 2 course meals are served with cordials and house wine at dinner.

Guests could be asked to assist the guide or staff with occasional camp chores such as collecting firewood or water, setting up or packing up camp.

DAY 1–2 CHOBE NATIONAL PARK

CAMPING-F/B

We meet in Kasane on your arrival and transfer by road to our private campsite in Chobe National Park. The drive to the Chobe River takes about one hour.

TERRAIN: Along the Chobe riverfront the terrain is that of a typical riverine ecosystem. Away from the river we have mixed miombo and broadleaved woodland that harbours rich avifauna.                      

GAME: Northern Chobe is famous for its elephant & buffalo herds, puku, kudu, Chobe bushbuck and hippo. One could also hope to see: lion, leopard, wild dog, giraffe, waterbuck, zebra, impala, baboon, vervet monkeys, warthog, sable, roan, lechwe, banded mongoose, crocodile, leguan.

ACTIVITIES: Game drives; birding

DAY 3 – 4 CHOBE NATIONAL PARK

SAVUTI - CAMPING- F/B

While the camp staff break camp and load the supply vehicle, we head off on a game drive. When we meet up with the supply vehicle again we drive to Savuti in convoy. The drive lasts approx five hours with a picnic lunch en route. At Savuti the staff will set up camp on the banks of the now dry Savuti Channel while we explore our new environment.

TERRAIN: Savuti Marsh is typical open grassland surrounded by Acacia bush and stony outcrops reminiscent of Serengeti.

GAME: Savuti is famous for its lions and hyenas, lone elephant bulls, zebra and wildebeest migrations. Other game one can hope to see include: giraffe, tsessebe, warthog, black-backed jackal, leopard, cheetah, bat-eared fox, impala, wild dog, kudu, baboon, steenbok, dwarf, slender and banded mongoose.

ACTIVITIES: Game drives; birding, bushman paintings, elephants at waterhole.

DAY 5 – 7 MOREMI AND OKAVANGO DELTA

CAMPING – F/B

We transfer by road to our private campsite in Moremi (approx 5 hours’ drive with a picnic lunch en route). The road leads via the Khwai River, which offers good opportunities for close-up game and raptor photography.

TERRAIN: Moremi being an extension of the Okavango offers a typical wetland system with grassy plains and pans surrounded by well-developed mopane forests and riverine woodland.                

WILDLIFE: Elephant, lechwe, waterbuck, impala, hippo, warthog, squirrels, baboon, vervet monkeys and banded mongoose are common. So are crocodiles and leguan. One can also hope to see buffalo, giraffe, bushbuck, lion, wild dog, leopard, cheetah, black-backed and side-striped jackal, zebra, wildebeest, tsessebe, bush babies, fruit bats, sable, kudu, roan, steenbok, duiker, honey badger. The birdlife includes water birds as well as dry land birds.

ACTIVITIES: game drives; birding

DAY 8 TRANSFER TO MAUN  - B/FAST ONLY

Transfer to Maun in time for your onward flight.

Excluded

• Soft drinks and beers
• Items of a personal nature, like towels and toiletries
• Any visas if required
• International flights

Departure dates for 2012:

06 – 13 April

08 – 15 June

24 – 31 August (fully booked)

05 – 12 October

7 - Day Budget Adventurer Safari

Departs from Kasane every Thursday and ends in Kasane every Wednesday

Cost per person sharing:  US$985.00 (2012)

DAY 1:   Kasane, Chobe National Park

Thursday / Camping - Lunch & Dinner

This safari starts in Kasane in the mid morning.  You have lunch and spend the afternoon enjoying 4 x 4 game drives in the Chobe National which is world renowned for large herds of elephant.

The Chobe National Park offers extreme contrasts and a variety of wildlife experiences within the confines of one park. It covers a variety of vegetation types and geological features that vary from the almost tropical habitat of the Linyanti swamp to the severe, desert-like landscape of the Savuti, and from the lush Chobe floodplain grassland to the deep sands of the Brachestegia woodland.  

DAY 2:   Savuti, Chobe National Park

Friday / Camping - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Today you travel from Chobe to Savuti.  The drive is approximately a 4 - 6 hour drive, depending on the amount of game you see along the way.  You arrive around midday for lunch.  The late afternoon is spent enjoying 4 x 4 game drives for about 2- 3 hours. 

Within the Chobe National Park, Savuti is perhaps one of the best known game-viewing areas in the country. Under ideal conditions the number and variety of animals seen can be quite staggering. The Savuti area supports mainly Camelthorn (Acacia erioloba) sandveld, Silver Terminalia (Terminalia sericea) sandveld, scrub savanna, and mopane veld. Savuti's almost desert-like landscape with a scorching sun, loose, hot sand, animals escaping the heat by clumping together in the limited available shade, and elephants impatiently lining up to get to the ever-dwindling water supply, offer a wildlife experience so different, yet so true to Africa.

DAY 3:   Moremi Game Reserve

Saturday / Camping - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After packing up camp you leave Savuti and head for the Moremi Game Reserve.  The drive is approximately a 4-6 hour drive stopping along the way to view game in areas that have higher game densities.  Generally the group packs up and leaves camp early morning. You arrive at the Moremi Game Reserve around midday for lunch (depending on how much game viewing was done en route).  After setting up camp the late afternoon is spent enjoying game drives for about 2- 3 hours.  You will spend the night at either Khwai, Xakanaxa, Third Bridge or South Gate.

The Moremi Game Reserve forms an intricate part of the Okavango Delta, comprising permanently swamped areas, seasonally swamped areas, and dry land.  Located on the northeast side of the delta, it is probably the prime tourist destination in Botswana, due to the fact that it encompasses several different types of ecological zones. The total surface area of this reserve is 4 871 square kilometers. This is almost one-third of the Okavango Delta - a fact Botswana can be very proud of. The dry land areas of Moremi consist mainly of Mopane veld (Colophospermum mopane). The giant mopane trees form the canopy woodland and lend an atmosphere unique to this area.  

DAY 4:   Maun

Sunday / Camping - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

You depart the Moremi Game Reserve heading for Maun.  The drive takes approximately a 4-6 hous.  Generally the group packs up and leaves camp following an early morning game drive and will enjoy a picnic lunch en-route to Maun and arrive late afternoon. Once in Maun you have the opportunity of conducting an optional scenic flight over the Okavango Delta (time permitting).

DAY 5:   Okavango Delta

Monday / Camping - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Maun is the gateway to the Okavango Delta and you will journey for a day into the Okavango Delta by mekoro (dug-out canoes).  You will enjoy guided game walks in search of elephant, wild dog, buffalo, lion and more.  The time spent in the Delta is approximately 6-7 hours.

The Okavango Delta must truly be one of Africa's most enchanted places. A swirl of lushness in a desert of Kalahari sand, the Delta is a remarkable phenomenon. It owes its origins to the formation of the rift valley across the course of the Okavango River. The area was formed over the last 5 million years due to atmospheric changes and movement of the Earth's crust.

DAY 6:   Makgadikgadi Pans

Tuesday / Camping - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

From Maun you travel to the Makgadikgadi Pans.  The drive is approximately 4 - 6 hours.  Here you will sleep out beneath the night sky under a blanket of stars. Many of the famous explorers would have used the Baobabs as a landmark to cross the pans.

The Makgadikgadi is a place of wide-open, uninhabited spaces under an endless canopy of blue sky. The remoteness, inaccessibility and danger of the pans all add to their allure.The area is comprised of the Sua and Ntwetwe pans. During the heat of the late winter day the pans become a shimmering mirage of disorienting and ethereal austerity. The large number of small villages and the small stone age tools and other artefacts that can be found scattered around the islands (for example on Kubu Island), all point to the fact that the Makgadikgadi Pans have supported human habitation, and their livestock, for a very long time. At one time the Makgadikgadi Pans was important as a major trade route.

DAY 7:   Kasane

Wednesday / Camping - Breakfast & Lunch

After awaking on the pans you will pack-up camp and drive to Kasane.  The drive is approximately 6 - 8 hours to reach the border by around 1400.  Shortly after passing Nata you pass through an agricultural area known as Pandamatenga which is the only crop producing area in Botswana.  From Pandamatenga to Kasane you should look out for elephant and sable antelope along the road.

• Budget Camping Safari including park fees, game drives, meals as indicated.
• Guests assist in all camp duties, full participation required
• Includes Services of a guide/ driver & cook, local polers in the Okavango Delta
• Drinks & drinking water are excluded and can be purchased in Kasane before departure
• Minimum 2 people for trip to depart
• Road Transfers to Victoria Falls or Livingstone can be arranged at an additional cost
• Departs Thursdays only.
• Minimum ages 12 years old.

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