March 6, 2008

Africa & Mideast | Botswana

Botswana’s Big Five

By Judy D'Mello

Game for the latest glamping destinations? CC Africa heads to the heart of the Okavango.

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Botswana’s upscale game park scene is busy welcoming five newcomers — and, fortunately, the focus remains centered on spotting herds of beasts, not hoards of khaki-clad travelers. Opening this week are CC Africa’s Savute Under Canvas and Chobe Under Canvas in Chobe National Park, home to the world’s largest elephant population. With only six tents per camp, both sites offer a guest-to-elephant ratio around 1:10,000, in addition to all the de rigueur amenities of upscale bush camping — en suite bathrooms, al fresco showers and personal butlers. Bush guides in open 4×4s promise unhindered wildlife encounters with endangered species as well as big game predators (Savute has the region’s greatest concentration of lions), and the annual zebra migration (through March and April).

But stay tuned until August, when CC Africa ups the ante on high-cost low-volume safaris and unveils two new über-luxe lodges, Xaranna Tented Camp and Xudum Delta Lodge (pronounce the x’s like k’s). Set in the Okavango Delta — a bio-diverse melting pot of wildlife visible from space — each camp has eight apartment-sized suites with sitting area, indoor and outdoor showers, plus a private plunge pool. Also debuting the same season is the company’s Botswana Explorer Expedition, a ten-day mobile safari for the more peripatetic venturer who also likes his creature comforts (read: en suite tents).