Looking to get a little wild in the year ahead? Perhaps start with your travel plans, which should include a visit to Botswana’s newest old school safari camp, Migration Expeditions.
If Botswana isn’t already on your personal bucket list, then feel free to slap yourself in the face, because it jolly well should be. The hottest destination in sub-Saharan Africa right now, Botswana has become the poster boy for sustainable tourism and wildlife conservation, and this new safari camp lets you embrace both.
Open seasonally from December to April, Migrations Expeditions makes up in rustic experientialism what it lacks in a romantic, thought-provoking name. With just six canvas tents set on low timber decks and equipped with bespoke furniture and bucket showers, the camp leaves the plunge pools, spa tents and wine-paired degustation dinners to the softer set and instead keeps the focus on the wildlife, which in this part of the country, is all about the unique zebra migration.
The Zebras live in the northern areas surrounding the Chobe River during the dry season from July to early November. Roughly 250 km south, the Naxi Pan receives its first rainfall in November, which sparks the animal instinct within these beautiful animals, and the zebras begin to move. The journey takes 14-20 days to reach the Naxi Pan as vegetation springs to life. It’s the longest land migration in Africa and remained relatively undiscovered until recent times due to the virtually inaccessible landscape.
Once you’ve had your fill of zebra, you can also look out for the famous Kalahari lions, large elephant bulls, cheetah, jackal and spotted hyena. If you are lucky you may also see some of the rarer species the area, including leopard, wild dogs and the brown hyena. There are also chances to get up close and personal with Baine’s Baobabs, a cluster of ancient baobab trees on a small island that overlooks KudiaKam Pan. The million-year-old trees look unworldly perched on their oasis surrounded by the vast pan.
What a way to kick-off 2020.
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