Signature Luxury Travel & Style
SAFARI BY CANOE
Botswana’s authentic delights.
Ilooked over the edge of my canoe in alarm at a small stream of bubbles and concluded it could mean only one thing. There was a hippo down there. A hippo heading straight towards us.
“But there’s no need to panic!” said my guide with an air of practised nonchalance. “However, now is probably a good time to pick up the pace.”
And with that we rounded into a shallow corner of Botswana’s Selinda Spillway just as a big black beast exploded from the depths with tusks scything the air.
Chuckling, my guide continued down the river towards the upmarket Selinda Reserve and Zarafa Camp.
“They’re cheeky little buggers, hey?” he said, cool as a cucumber.
We were together in the same canoe, on a five-day expedition following the Selinda Spillway for 45 kilometres between the great inland delta of the Okavango and the flooded yet game-rich conservation areas of Linyanti and Kwando.
Our destination? The five-star Zarafa Camp in the Selinda Reserve, a location made famous by National Geographic’s esteemed big cat filmmakers, Beverly and Dereck Joubert.
“We’re doing things rather like the old explorers of colonial times,” my guide told me as we drifted slowly downstream. “Don’t you feel like Livingstone?”
And yes, I suppose I did.
“A BIG BLACK BEAST EXPLODED FROM THE DEPTHS WITH TUSKS SCYTHING THE AIR”
We were paddling through areas seldom seen by human eyes. We often got out of the boat to make foot forays into the bush (in search of elephants and lions and the like) and in the evenings, our entourage (a complement of staff who had gone on ahead in their own canoes) was always on hand to serve us chilled wines and delectable food. Yes, I thought to myself, just like Livingstone indeed!
Million-star dining
Our days were full of glassy waters, wildlife and easy paddling.
We saw elephants swimming, antelope drinking and more birds than I would care to shake a stick at. And as for the evenings? Well, these were always a juxtaposition of homely comforts and serenity mixed with sleep-shattering calls in the night.
In the early hours, I was interrupted by elephants trumpeting and the sound of a leopard roaring. It was both thrilling and chilling at the same time
“We pull up wherever we fancy,” said our bush chef one evening while searing a Kudu steak on an open fire. “Your tents are erected and beds are made, a hot shower is installed behind
a tree, guards are put on the periphery, furniture is put out and the kitchen is fired up… literally.”
For the third night running he and his team had prepared a connoisseur’s feast of delicate entrées, delicious mains and divine desserts – all from a set of cast iron pots, portable grills and flickering flames.
“Does the smell not attract lions?” I asked him as he turned another aromatic steak.
“Yes,” was his simple answer. And then he wandered off into the darkness to begin beating eggs. Definitely thrilling and chilling. But that’s Africa for you.
An endangered destination
The Selinda Spillway is a relatively new destination on Botswana’s safari map, mostly because no one was able to navigate it until just a few years back.
“It was as dry as a bone,” my guide told me on the final day. A line of zebras peered at us from the opposite bank, their ears pricked in alertness.
“But then we had the mother of all floods and for the first time in nearly 30 years, this link between the Okavango Delta and the Linyanti swamps started flowing again.”
“Nobody knows how long the spillway will stay open, so consider yourself lucky that you have seen it. Next year it might dry up again. I hope not though.”
Although the adventure had been a somewhat soft one (there were no rapids or currents to deal with, and the camping was hardly camping at all) I still wanted to experience a little more of the luxury that Selinda Reserve is so famous for.
To that end, I booked myself into the stunningly beautiful Zarafa Camp; the icing on the cake of Selinda’s accommodation options.
Comprising a blend of canvas and sculpted wood, and favoured by the president of Botswana himself, Zarafa consists of just four stately safari tents, each with its own private view out over the surrounding game-rich swamps and
plains. A private outdoor brass-pipe shower sprays water at you from all directions while you watch elephants at play in the surrounding floodlands.
There is a four-poster bed and the furnishings are a blend of colonial safari romanticism with modern low-key garnishes. The enormous deck is made from old African railway sleepers, some of which have been carved with intricate patterns by Mozambican artists.
My stay at Zarafa was complemented by an open-sided safari vehicle, piloted by my own highly trained wildlife guide who showed me all that the reserve has to offer. Wild dogs, hyena, buffalo, lions, giraffe and leopard were all ticked off from my list, as was a selection of fine South African wines, supped from my deck while elephants played nearby.
For families and friends heading out on safari, Zarafa’s new exclusive Dhow Suites guarantee privacy. The same intimate elegance is here under canvas, only laid out on a dramatic scale.
Canoeing the Selinda Spillway combined with traditional vehicle-based game drives in Selinda Reserve must surely rate as one of the most idyllic safari experiences in Africa.
I’m certainly going back there. But it had better be soon. Who knows how long the water will be flowing.