Passage Through Botswana and Zimbabwe

After arrival, we’ll be met and whisked out to the halcyon Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa in Johannesburg’s verdant suburb of Sandhurst. And in the evening, we’ll enjoy dinner at the home of old Micato friends.

It’s hard to be more enthusiastic about the “vast, mesmerizing oasis” of the Okavango Delta than we are. Suffice to say—until you experience it—that the Delta is in the topmost rank of world wonders (and more sweetly accommodating than most).

We fly north from Johannesburg to Maun and on to the intimate, very Africa-chic Mapula Lodge, set on its own serene island in a private 220,000-acre concession, giving us great solitude as we explore the incredibly lush Delta’s gently wending waterways and islands by watercraft, 4-wheel drive vehicles, and on walks with Mapula’s cadre of enthusiastic guides. This part of the Delta is blessed with an exceptionally varied animal population, prominently including the harrumphing hippos at home in Mapula’s lagoon.

A short morning flight takes us to what we think is one of Botswana’s best kept secrets: the Khwai Private Reserve, another Okavangan marvel. Our lodging here is Sable Alley, an inspirationally stylish camp set on its own quiet lagoon. We step out onto the veranda of Sable’s enormous (almost 600-square foot) tents to a close view of the lagoon and its medley of animal visitors.

Khwai’s water- and landscapes vary dramatically: riverine forests, acacia woodlands, and the Delta’s gliding watercourses. We’ll explore them all, in small watercraft, safari vehicles, and on foot, delighting in the reserve’s full African cast of nowhere-else-on- earth creatures—lions, skyscrapey giraffes, bouldery Cape buffalo and peppy, fascinating African wild dogs. “They live the life domestic dogs wish they could live,” as biologist Rosie Woodroffe says.

We fly into Zambia, and along the way we may see a dramatic sight from many miles away: silvery, towering clouds rising up from the flat brown earth. The plume of the world’s most colossal cascade, Victoria Falls.

Our small, astutely designed Thorntree River Lodge is set in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, beside the Zambezi River, upstream from the Falls. We’ll make an arrival-afternoon game drive in the park (lovingly protected rhinos are headliners), or take a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. But Victoria Falls beckons, and we’ll spend Day 9 wandering its many vantage points, strolling through mist in our Micato-supplied rain gear, swooping over the Falls in a helicopter (the famous, pulse-quickening Flight of Angels), continually astonished by one of the greatest wonders in a world full of them.

Somalisa Camp is located in the middle of Hwange, in a vlei, or marshy, animal-attracting area. We arrive in the intimate camp (only seven fully modern, elegantly decorated tents) after a short flight from Victoria Falls and make the first of our eventful game drives in the cooling afternoon, perhaps after a revivifying dip in Somalisa’s aquamarine pool, often with elephants frolicking in a waterhole only yards away.

Hwange is classic African bush country, and our game drives in the park are exceptionally rich; the Big Five are in residence, along with white rhino, zebras by the hundreds, and more than a hundred other mammals, including another large contingent of wild dogs, stately gemsbok, and brown hyenas, crafty and oddly compelling creatures who endear themselves to many veteran safariers. And after game drives we relax on Somalisa’s tree-shaded veranda, enjoy the camp’s top-notch cuisine, and savour safari’s freedom from care.

After a short flight to Victoria Falls—one more chance to see the rising clouds of The Smoke That Thunders—we continue by air to Johannesburg, with day rooms in the InterContinental before our flights home.