Great Plains has opened the six-bedroom Okavango Explorers Camp in the roughly 400-acre private Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana.
Located at the intersection of two iconic ecosystems, the upper Okavango Delta water system and the ancient Selinda Spillway, this area is teeming with wildlife.
“We are proud to introduce the latest camp in our Explorer Collection, set within what might just be Great Plains’ best-kept secret, the Selinda Reserve,” said Great Plains co-founder Dereck Joubert.
“Offering some of the highest concentrations of wildlife in the region, our guests can expect to spot lion, leopard and wild dogs, all of which hunt regularly in the area, along with elephants, giraffe and rare antelope.”
Okavango Explorers Camp sleeps a maximum of 12 guests, sharing, and provides a 1920s-style safari experience, including elephant-spotting canoe trips along the Selinda Spillway and exploring the area on foot like the explorers of a century ago. For a true bucket list-in-the-bush experience, guests can even opt to dine with their toes in the water, as the camp’s dedicated team arranges a lantern-lit, “floating” gourmet meal on the spillway.
“Selinda Explorer’s Camp is where you can sit with your feet in the sand and listen to or tell stories of your safari adventures and is in an intimate camp built near the ground,” Dereck continues, “In fact, this Explorer Collection safari camp follows the kind of camps Beverly and I have used for filming or research our whole lives.
nd yet, although offering an affordable Botswana safari experience, the camp has Persian carpets, exudes a real explorer’s camp feel, includes a lot of brass and copper, and is handmade by us just for you.”
Selinda Explorers Camp is located in the private 130,000-hectare (320,000-acre) Selinda Reserve of northern Botswana. The camp, which accommodates a maximum of only ten guests, is built on the banks of Botswana’s Selinda Spillway. Subtly placed under the shade of the riverine forest, the camp’s style is reminiscent of early African explorer’s philosophies and practices. Whiling away afternoons under the canopy of African ebony and Mopane trees, interspersed with guided walks, canoeing, and early morning and late afternoon / early evening wildlife drives, make this affordable Botswana safari camp a respite from the ‘daily grind’ of a traditional safari.
This authentic tented camp draws on the classic East African safari traditions with beautifully detailed campaign-style furniture made from recycled hardwoods and soft furnishings from Zanzibar and the East.
The four custom-designed, semi-permanent guest tents provide comfort and style but with a magnificently raw spirit. Each tent offers guests a well-appointed bedroom, covered veranda, private ‘bustani bathroom’ complete with hot water showers and a flush loo. All the guest tents are at ground level, on slightly raised platforms.
Selinda Explorers Camp is an unassuming camp, light on its footprint but heavy on its experiential luxury. The atmosphere of the camp is one of bush elegance with a relaxed style, complemented by attentive staff, private, professional service and fabulous food. Selinda Explorers Camp is an ideal property for guests who want to experience Botswana’s extraordinary wildlife but in the most private setting and taking advantage of an affordable Botswana safari experience cost. Selinda Explorers Camp is perfect for individual travellers, couples, families and small groups of up to ten guests sharing.
The camp sits in prime predator habitat, in a handpicked location based on Dereck and Beverly Joubert, Great Plains Conservation owners and National Geographic Explorers, exploring the area for years. Lion, leopard, cheetah, and the recently discovered Explorers Pack of African wild dog hunt these parts regularly.
There are possible sightings of good densities of giraffe, buffalo (in the dry season), and antelope – including roan and sable and recently spotted eland. In September, over 9,000 elephants traverse the private Selinda Reserve at the peak of the dry season. There is phenomenal birdlife along the Selinda Spillway’s banks for those looking for some ‘lifers’.
Source: https://www.travelweekly.com/Middle-East-Africa-Travel/New-Great-Plains-safari-camp-in-Botswana-Okavango-Delta & https://greatplainsconservation.com/safari/selinda-explorers-camp/
Video courtesy of greatplainsconservation.com
