Fleewinter

Zarafa Camp Selinda Concession Botswana - ABW018

Zarafa Camp is an exclusive safari camp in the Selinda Concession overlooking the Zibadianja Lagoon - the source of the world-famous Savute Channel and offers excellent a top class big game experience.

4 Bedrooms, Sleeps 8

Pool - Yes
Restaurant - Meals All Included

Excellant Safari
Exclusive Camp

Zarafa Camp evokes a sense of old-style safari with four large, luxuriously appointed double or twin 'marquis style' tents, sleeing a maximum of eight guests. The emphasis at Zarafa Camp is on offering a personalised and private experience - perfect for those who favour a more intimate experience or those who prefer the entire camp for their own, exclusive use.

Accommodation at Zarafa Camp is in spacious tents with verandas, positioned under cool and shady trees with breath-taking vistas of the Zibidianja Lagoon. A large bedroom, en-suite bathroom, featuring a copper bath and both indoor and outdoor showers, are standard.

The main area at Zarafa Camp is furnished in the same 'campaign' style as the tents and evokes the traditional safari ambiance of the turn of the 20th century. Lounge and dining facilities may be enjoyed under canvas or on the full-length deck shaded by giant broad-leafed trees.

Activities at Zarafa Camp are flexible to suit particular interests and include morning, afternoon and night game drives with experienced professional guides in custom-built 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers. Short guided nature walks from camp are encouraged, to introduce guests to some of Africa's less prominent wildlife. Guests can relax in camp and enjoy a massage too.

Zarafa Camp boasts all of the Chobe wildlife, with a varied bird and mammal community. Abundant plains game can be found here including lechwe, kudu, buffalo, zebra and giraffe. It is also a predator-rich reserve including cheetah, wild dog, lion, and leopard. The massive herds of elephant are another highlight while a wide variety of birds - some 300 or more - can be seen.

Access to the camp is possible with daily flights from Maun (Botswana) and from here you will be flown in small air-craft to Zarafa Camp. It is also possible to combine with a visit to Victoria Falls and travel across to Kasane (Botswana) from where you will take a charter flight to the camp.

The Selinda Reserve is a private 135 000-hectare (330 000-acre) wildlife area located in northern Botswana. What makes this locale special is that it follows the floodplains of the Selinda Spillway, the waterway that winds its way through dry countryside to connect the Okavango Delta in the west to the Linyanti and Kwando wetlands and rivers in the east.

The full length of the Selinda Spillway winds its way through the Reserve and forms a magnet for the wildlife of the region. As Botswana is so flat, this river can flow in one of two directions or - as happens in some years - it can flow in both! Waters from the Okavango pour into the Selinda Spillway and flow from west to east. In the extreme east of the Reserve, waters from the Kwando and Linyanti rivers and floodplains force their way up the Spillway from east to west. Only in years of exceptional water levels in both these systems does the water that flows in from both the east and the west join up.

This concession has a variety of habitats - wide-open savannah dotted with attractive palm trees; thirst-quenching waterways surrounded by dry woodland and then the river systems and floodplains themselves that draw thousands of animals to it, as they are forced to quench their thirst in the dry season along these waterways. The Selinda floodplains are host to a wide diversity of antelope and plains game. Game drives are fruitful with a multiplicity of antelope, Burchell's zebra, southern giraffe, blue wildebeest, and plenty of elephant and buffalo to be seen. Predator viewing is exceptional including the hippo-killing lions of Selinda, leopard, wild dog and cheetah.

The Selinda Concession is ecologically similar to Linyanti, but differs in the increased extent of its floodplains. Like the Linyanti, in the dry winter months, enormous herds of elephant remain close to the permanent water of the Zibadianja Lagoon (the Savute Channel's origin) and the Linyanti waters.

Photographic credits to Wilderness Safaris and their photographers.