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The Startled Elephant on our Boat Ride in the Okavango Delta
Last but certainly not least in our fabulous trip to Southern Africa a few short weeks ago was our visit to the beautiful Okavango Delta region of Botswana. Interestingly, I actually won 2 nights from a wonderful company called “Wilderness” at a luncheon dedicated to African Safari Travel at my annual travel conference with Virtuoso in Las Vegas back in August 2023. This win was what prompted my trip to Africa this year.
Virtuoso Week Wilderness 'Communities' booth with backdrop of our Vumbura Plains Lodge
Obviously, one doesn’t go to Africa for a ‘free’ 2-night stay so instead, we extended our time here with Wilderness to 3 nights, paid the difference and then created a full itinerary to include all that we did in Parts 1, 2, and 3 and it was all truly amazing.
Wilderness is an incredible company that I’ve heard about over the years but gained even more respect for them at my last Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas in August. I attended a learning session with them at Virtuoso’s “Communities” weekend and was floored by their commitment to Ecotourism and the sustainability of both wildlife and the people of Africa.
Vumbura Plains Sustainability Wall depicting all their incredible community commitment
Their portfolio of destinations has expanded since 1983 to 2.3 million hectares (almost 5.7 million acres) across eight countries including Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and most recently to East Africa’s Tanzania and Kenya. Their focus is to ‘increase the world’s wilderness through low-volume high-value conservation tourism, while ensuring empowerment and upliftment of local communities living in or near these iconic wild places’. Absolutely, a noble way to operate as a travel and tourism offering.
Wilderness' Presence in Africa is far reaching
This trip to Botswana was our second time visiting. The first time we went was back in 2021 at a similar time of year and included our first visit to Kenya and our second time in Victoria Falls. During that time in Botswana, we not only went to the Okavango Delta but also went to Chobe National Park along the Chobe River.
Elephants on our trip to Chobe River and Chobe National Park in 2021
The Okavango Delta in Botswana is the most wonderful place to visit and is incredibly diverse from one season to another. We learned a lot about how the Delta evolved with the help of termites and their mound building to create the islands. It’s quite amazing how it has progressed over the years. It’s also incredible to think how the water of the Okavango River commences in the Angola highlands and flows into the Kalahari Desert flooding the area and bringing life to one of the largest inland Deltas in the world.
Metallic Depiction of the Okavango Delta
The lovely part about our visit there was how refreshing it was to actually see so much more water present even during the dry season that we were there for. South Africa’s Sabi Sabi area was particularly dry but even though the Okavango Delta was anxiously awaiting their rainy season, there was still a fair amount of water in much of the area where we were. Of course, where there’s water, there’s healthy wildlife and, of course, it’s also vital for the people who reside there too!
Wilderness' Vumbura Plains from the air - Courtesy of Virtuoso
‘Pula’, the name of Botswana’s currency but also literally translated in the Setswana language means ‘rain’ and it is absolutely essential to their existence, and they all cherish and praise the rain in Botswana. In fact, they don’t say ‘cheers’ when they clink glasses, they say ‘PULA’ with vehemence!
Driving through water with our amazing Tracker/Guide, 'Taps'
Our initial experience with Wilderness started with a very cool lounge and outstanding customer service at the airport in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. When we first arrived at the airport in Victoria Falls, the experience was very slow and rather frustrating for all arrivals.
Wilderness' Lounge at Victoria Falls Airport, Zimbabwe
Our departure to Botswana was the compete opposite since we were treated like absolute royalty and ended up in this beautiful lounge area while we had other folks take care of everything from checking us in to whisking us through customs and security to getting us onto our small plane that we took from Victoria Falls to Kasane, Botswana.
Our flight from Victoria Falls to Kasane, Botswana
The contrast between the arrival and the departure from Victoria Falls is a perfect example as to why I want to experience as much as I can before I arrange travel for my clients so that I can ensure that they experience the latter vs. the former. The intel is priceless for me in my business.
Anyway, we had the same fabulous service in Kasane before we boarded our small private plane to our next great stop along the way in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
Our Wilderness flight from Kasane to our Lodge in the Okavango Delta
We arrived at Vumbura Plains which happens to one of Wilderness’ premium lodges and it truly was magnificent! Their people, the food, the animals and the accommodation were all incredible and we had such a great time during our stay. We were there for just 3 nights, but we certainly made the most of it with so many great experiences.
The main lodge area at Wilderness' Vumbura Plains - Photo courtesy of Virtuoso
Some of the Amazing Wilderness people including our Guide, Taps
Our Welcome Snacks & Drinks - quite the spread
The lodging itself was absolutely stunning. It was a very open concept that was simply beautiful with a huge living area, bedroom area, bathroom area, outdoor patio, outdoor shower, plunge pool and an incredible view across a wide expanse of the beautiful, natural Okavango Delta with hippos and birdlife in our backyard. It was AMAZING!
The main area of our own lodge accommodation - HUGE and WIDE OPEN! Stunning!
Our indoor shower - magnificent!
The main sitting area inside looking out to the plunge pool and outdoor sitting area
Looking into our lodge from the outdoor shower area
Looking towards our bedroom area from the sitting area
Looking from the inside to the outdoor plunge pool and sitting area outside
While we were there, we experienced yet another ‘weather event’ with some pretty strong winds, a bit of a lightshow of lightening that was further afield from us and a little bit of much needed rain or pula that everyone cherishes in Botswana and the rest of Africa. And then, we wake up to this stunning sunrise in our 'backyard'...
Stunning sunrise looking out from our lodge accommodations
Our game drives were wonderful with animals abound including giraffe, plenty of elephants, lions, storks, baboons, zebra, kudu antelope, wart hogs, and so much more. We also had plenty of great sunrises and sunsets as well each day.
We came across a leopard who recently gave birth to a cub but sadly were unable to catch a glimpse of the cub although the mother was beautiful. We were fortunate to see 5 different animals that we hadn’t seen in South Africa including hyenas, jackals and three different regional antelope varieties, namely the Sable, Tsessebe, and the Red Lechwe.
Sable Antelope native to the area
Red Lechwe Antelope also native to the area - they love the water
And not to be forgotten, the incredible bird life!
Bee-eater birds of Southern Africa
African Fish Eagle
Assorted Storks
Saddle Billed Stork
We also had some very special experiences at the Wilderness Lodge including a wonderful bush breakfast that was in a wonderful setting and was a ton of work for the staff with the setup of a portable bathroom, all kinds of grills for cooking and, of course, just about any kind of drink one might desire including champagne! The meal was very tasty following our morning game drive that day.
Our Fabulous Bush Breakfast
Another great experience unique to Botswana is the mokoro ride, which is wonderfully peaceful, that is, until we had the delightful experience of an elephant crossing in front of us! Wow! How exciting that was for all of us. Fortunately, the elephant wasn’t interested in us, he just wanted to get from one side of the tributary of water to the other and he was far enough upstream that we didn’t get in his way but had a very unique perspective of him from our water vantage point.
Our Chance Encounter with an Elephant Crossing in front of our Mokoro
Our Peaceful Mokoro Ride following the elephant crossing encounter
The beautiful sunset after our mokoro ride
The final truly amazing experience we had here at this lodge and area was a wonderful boat ride. As we skimmed along a waterway that was shallow enough for hippos and elephants to wade along the edges, the water was deep enough in the middle to enable us to safely navigate away from the hippos and dodge the elephants that we also startled along the way. The latter was a REALLY exciting part of our boat ride! We had ‘sundowner’ gin and tonics on board the boat as we made our way back to dry land as the beautiful sun was setting.
Our elephant encounter on our boat ride - we pissed him off a little...
Our sunset on the way back after our boat ride
I must admit that I actually had tears in my eyes as we departed in our small plane from the airstrip as I knew it was our final safari experience in Africa for this trip and this always makes me sad since I have such a passion for these trips.
Our fond farewell photo of our Tracker/Guide, Taps and Wilderness' Vumbura Plains
For us, our first trip to Africa back in 2010 was a bucket list trip but since then we’ve had 5 other trips including this latest one and we’ve loved every one of them. Africa, safaris and the people get into your heart and it is such an incredible place that I hope everyone is able to experience if they have any desire to do so. It was very special for us to have someone with us this time for their first time and experience it all again as we have in the past. We look forward to our future trips here and also I hope to enable more clients to see and experience this wonderful place. Africa truly has so much to offer!
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