Southern African Adventures
Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique
Exotic, varied wildlife with almost guaranteed opportunities to see the Big 5 - Rhino, Leopard, Lion, Elephant and Cape Buffalo - plus loads of equally amazing other African creatures, awe-inspiring landscapes and a vibrant mosaic of cultures. A world of adventure and unparalleled travel possibilities await.
Prices effective:
06 January 2011 - 19 January 2011
Package: CAD $9195.00 (Per Person - sharing)
-PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE – Subject to a maximum of 12 participants so book early!
David Skillan's Botswana & Zambia Wildlife Safari - January 2011
Join seasoned world traveller David Skillan to see the best of Botswana and Zambia with the security and the assurance of a worry-free, relaxing escorted holiday. Although this wildly succesful escorted safari has been completed, please keep you eyes posted on this website, as David Skillan oftens returns to Botswana and Zambia. David has in excess of 30 years in the Travel and Tourism industry and has successfully organized and led well over 100 tours abroad. This tour is a high quality, first-class excursion, offering extremely good value.
6 January – Thursday
VANCOUVER – LONDON
Our great adventure begins with an overnight Air Canada flight to London. Dinner, breakfast and drinks on board.
7 January – Friday
LONDON – JOHANNESBURG
On arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport we will transfer to a convenient and comfortable hotel where day rooms have been booked for us. The afternoon is at leisure to relax, take a taxi to Windsor or the Underground into the city. This evening we will transfer back to Heathrow Airport for our South African Airways flight to Johannesburg.
8 January – Saturday
JOHANNESBURG
If ever there was a city of contrasts, it is Johannesburg - "City of Gold". Even though today the city is an international mining and financial capital, the spirit of a rough, rugged mining town lingers on underneath its brash modern exterior. Upmarket shopping malls in the city centre and tree lined suburbia offer gastronomic delights as one would find in most sophisticated cities of the world. Accommodation is of equal sophistication and the variety is enormous.
On arrival in Johannesburg we will be met by a representative from Wilderness Safaris and transferred to our hotel near Sandton.
The Southern Sun Hyde Park, which opened in September 2009, is located at the prestigious Hyde Park Shopping Centre, one of Johannesburg’s most exclusive areas. At this state of the art hotel guests are welcomed into a stylish lobby, at ground floor level which is conveniently located close to the dedicated hotel parking.The design and decor has been carefully crafted by the design company to reflect the lifestyle of discerning guests, with the furnishings and fittings adding a touch of class. There are 132 contemporary designed guestrooms offering panoramic views of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs. On the lifestyle level, a 60-seater a la carte restaurant will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, while an exclusive whiskey bar will be perfect for elegant relaxation.
Afternoon at leisure for optional touring, shopping or just relaxing.
Overnight at the Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel on on a bed and breakfast basis.
9 January – Sunday
OKAVANGO DELTA
This morning, after breakfast, we will be transferred back to O R Tambo International Airport for our Air Botswana flight to Maun.
On arrival in Maun we will be met by a representative from Wilderness Safaris and assisted to our Sefofane light aircraft for our air transfer to Little Vumbura Camp in the Okavango Delta. (Please note that all baggage on all Sefofane light aircraft transfers in Botswana and Zambia is limited to 20kg per person, in soft-sided bags).
The Moremi has built up an excellent reputation. This is the park to view the Okavango's big game. Animals include large numbers of buffalo, elephant, leopard and lion, as well as all the plains game. Wild dog are a big specialty. In this area you will experience one of the highest quality wildlife-viewing opportunities in Africa, within some of Africa's finest scenery. Explore the savanna and floodplains in open 4x4 vehicles. Birdlife is prolific with waterfowl and waders being particularly common. Camps in this area may also offer some water activities.
Little Vumbura Camp is situated in the northern concession area of the Okavango Delta, bordering onto the Moremi Game Reserve, and is close to the Okavango's outermost dry sandveld and open savannas. The privacy of this area is one of Little Vumbura's main attractions. The camp accommodates twelve guests on a wonderful island in the same region as its sister camp, Vumbura Plains. The six tents are under an enormous canopy of ancient Okavango forest with ebony, marula, knobthorn, garcinia and fig being the dominant trees. Each tent is large and roomy and has en suite facilities, as well as an outside shower for those who want to be even closer to nature. The dining room and pub are under canvas and have been built in and around the existing trees. There is a pool and a "sala" for relaxing and reading in the quiet of the day.
Overnight at Little Vumbura on an all-inclusive basis.
10 January – Monday
OKAVANGO DELTA
Two full days of game viewing and other activities. The Vumbura Reserve offers both land and water activities in a park that has a wonderful variety of habitats and a great diversity of wildlife.
The reserve offers an enormous traversing area of close on 130,000 acres. Open 4x4 Land Rovers allow close proximity to animals in the savannah and forested areas. The Vumbura area is possibly the only area in the Okavango where one can see Red Lechwe (an animal that inhabits the fringes of the waterways) and a Sable Antelope (an animal that enjoys the dry countryside) on the same game drive. Add in lion, leopard, elephant, cheetah and buffalo along with all the plains animals, including giraffe, and one has an excellent all round wildlife experience in a remote and private part of the Okavango. Birding, too, is great with large varieties and quantities. Walks, mekoros and boating give Vumbura's guests the opportunity to enjoy Africa from a different perspective.
Overnight at Little Vumbura on an all-inclusive basis.
12 January – Wednesday
OKAVANGO DELTA
After an early morning game viewing activity and brunch we will be transferred by Sefofane light aircraft from Little Vumbura to Xigera Camp.
Xigera (pronounced Keejera) is one of the Okavango's best kept secrets. This Wilderness Safaris Classic Camp is situated on Paradise Island within the Moremi Wildlife Reserve, one of the most beautiful parts of the Okavango. Xigera is in an area which has permanent water all year round - yet there are lots of large islands in the area which hold good concentrations of animals. It is the perfect land and water activity camp and is one of the only Okavango camps which offers game-drives, foot safaris, mekoros and boating trips. The camp takes a maximum of twenty guests in comfortably furnished tented rooms. En-suite bathrooms have showers and flush toilets and there is an additional outdoor shower. All rooms are under a shady grove of trees and overlook a floodplain and waterhole. The dining room, lounge area and pub overlook the river. Raised walkways connect the rooms to the dining area. There is a plunge pool to cool off during the heat of the day.
Overnight at Xigera Camp on an all inclusive basis.
13 January – Thursday
OKAVANGO DELTA
A full day of game viewing and other activities in the Okavango Delta. Xigera has something for everyone in an area where there are no other Moremi camps. Permanent water all year round allows one to enjoy an unparalleled variety of activities including foot safaris, mokoro trips, game drives and powerboat outings in total privacy. Enjoy a true Delta experience while you sit back in a mokoro (dugout canoe) and silently glide through the wonders of the tranquil Okavango waterways observed by a myriad Delta creatures. Watch the sunset and the birds gliding home to roost from a motorboat on the Xigera Lagoon. Observe the wildlife and unique Delta scenery from the comfort of a Landrover or, for the adventurous, track animals on foot. Or simply take in the beautiful sunrise from your comfortable bed while sipping your morning tea or coffee.
Overnight at Xigera Camp on an all inclusive basis.
14 January – Friday
LINYANTI
After an early morning game-viewing activity and brunch we will be transferred by Sefofane light aircraft from Xigera Camp to the Linyanti.
Savuti Camp is situated in an isolated part of the Linyanti Concession along the Savute Channel in northern Botswana. The site of Savuti Camp is about 17 kilometres 'downstream' from the Zibadianja Lagoon - the source of the Savute Channel. The Channel stopped flowing between 1980 and 2008; during this time it was an unusual and productive ribbon of grassland that served as a corridor and feeding ground in the surrounding woodland for a wide variety of herbivores.
In 2008, the Savute Channel once more became a deep, clear waterway harbouring hippo and aquatic life with myriad varieties of waterbirds. Wildlife, from plains game to a plethora of predators, has had to adapt to a new source of water and all the opportunities and menaces it has brought with it. For different species the Savute Channel has become a place of refuge, an obstacle, an unrivalled food source, a navigational aid, a larder, a playground, and a graveyard. It is impossible to say yet whether the waters will persist or begin to recede in earnest as much of this will depend on the next summer rains - but while it lasts, at Savuti Camp, there are front-row seats for each drama that is played out.
With two-thirds of the Savute Channel located in the concession, Wilderness guests have private and exclusive access to the abundant game and the natural and geological changes that are occurring on a daily and seasonal basis.
This intimate camp's en-suite accommodation is in seven large walk-in tents that are raised off the ground and face onto the Savute Channel. From the camp's thatched dining area, a plunge pool and large viewing area with fire pit extend outwards on raised wooden decks, providing a wonderful view of the Savute Channel and its wildlife.
Game concentrations here are high, particularly in the winter dry season, and apart from abundant plains game, species such as roan and sable antelope, southern giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyaena, black-backed jackal and wild dog may also be encountered. In winter, this area can also be excellent for the sought-after aardvark and aardwolf, which are big ticks on anyone's mammal lists!
Overnight at Savuti Camp on an all inclusive basis.
15 January – Saturday
LINYANTI
A full day to explore the Savute Channel and its environs through day and night game drives, nature walks with a guide (on request), and several well-positioned hides for safe, up-close animal viewing. Savuti Camp's former 'wood-pile hide' in front of camp is now part of the flowing Savute and famous for spectacular elephant viewing in the drier winter months.
Overnight at Savuti Camp on an all inclusive basis.
16 January – Sunday
VICTORIA FALLS
After an early morning game viewing activity and brunch we will be transferred by Sefofane light aircraft to Kasane where we will clear Botswana exit formalities. We will then continue by road and boat to Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.
At 1708 metres wide, Victoria Falls is the most expansive curtain of water in the world and drops more than 100 metres into the sheer Zambezi Gorge. The Tonga and Makalolo peoples lived here for centuries before the Falls were ‘discovered’ by David Livingstone in 1855, who named them after his queen. Its local name – after which the national park is named – is Mosi-Oa-Tunya, "the Smoke that Thunders," which describes accurately the huge spirals of spray that can be seen 30km away. Located in the south-west corner of Zambia, the Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River are the central points in an area of spectacular scenic beauty: from the Falls themselves to the broad, picturesque course of the Zambezi River upstream, the rainforest adjacent and the stark, jagged gorge downstream, the power and timelessness of nature’s forces are evident throughout.
Toka Leya Camp is situated on the banks of the Zambezi River in the eastern sector of the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, some 12km up from the Victoria Falls. Accommodation consists of 12 safari-style tents, each en suite with a view of the magnificent Zambezi River and some of its islands. The camp’s dining and bar area are under a shaded canopy of trees overlooking the River and there is a swimming pool.
Overnight at Toka Leya on an all-inclusive basis.
17 January – Monday
VICTORIA FALLS
A full day of activities and adventures at Toka Leya. Fishing trips and sundowner boat trips to the islands in front of the lodge, canoe trips, visits to Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, visits to historical Livingstone, visits to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, nearby African villages and Stone-age sites are all included in the rates. Other activities including the following can be arranged at extra cost: game walks and drives, full day canoeing trips, white-water rafting, bungi jumping, helicopter and microlight flights, elephant-back safaris and tours of the Zimbabwe side of the Victoria Falls.
Overnight at Toka Leya on an all-inclusive basis.
18 January – Tuesday
VICTORIA FALLS – LONDON
After breakfast this morning we will be transferred to Livingstone Airport for our South African Airways flight to Johannesburg . On arrival we will have use of a Premier Lounge where we can relax, have a shower or enjoy complimentary snacks and drinks. Later we will board our overnight South African Airways to London.and onward flight on South African Airways to London. Dinner, breakfast and drinks on board.
19 January – Wednesday
LONDON – VANCOUVER
We will arrive in London early this morning and will connect to the Air Canada flight to Vancouver where our trip ends.
Optional extensions to beautiful Cape Town or the tropical islands of Mozambique are available at additional cost. Please talk to us about these options at time of booking.