Questions about timing the Delta

Sometimes we can say confidently and sometimes we cannot, because the flood varies genuinely in timing and volume from year to year.

What we will do is tell you what is typical for your dates, what the current season is doing, and pick camps that are least sensitive to the flood being early or late. Anybody who gives you a flat guarantee months out is guessing.

Not principally. You sit a few inches above the water moving through papyrus at walking pace, with frogs and dragonflies at eye height and almost no noise.

It is the thing most people remember about the Delta and it is not how you will see lion. Take it for what it is, and pair it with a land camp if big cats matter.

Colder than people expect. Winter mornings in the Delta can be genuinely cold, and a dawn game drive in an open vehicle at speed is a cold experience — hence the blankets and hot water bottles.

Days warm up pleasantly. Pack for both, because every year somebody arrives for an African winter with only summer clothes.

It is beautiful and it is public land, which means statutory rules: on the track, in daylight, and no cap on vehicles at a sighting.

If your trip has room for only a couple of camps, a concession will generally give you more — night drives, off-road driving, walking and far fewer vehicles. Moremi is better as part of a longer trip than as the whole of a short one.

You can, and it is a thin version. One camp for three nights gives you two full days, which is enough to see it but not enough to have both kinds of Delta day.

Six nights across two camps of different types is where it starts to make sense of itself, and the second camp is where most people’s best memories come from.

Yes, deliberately. Lowest rates of the year, exceptional birding with migrants present, newborn animals, a transformed green landscape, and rain that usually comes as afternoon storms rather than all day.

Against that: lower water, reduced water activities and more scattered game. Good value chosen on purpose; a disappointment chosen for the price while expecting mokoro.

A the Okavango safari is usually quoted fully inclusive: accommodation, all meals, park and conservancy fees, your guide and vehicle, and transport between parks. Most camps include soft drinks, house wine, beer and laundry.

Not included: international flights, visas or travel authorisation, travel insurance, tips, premium drinks, and extras like balloon flights and spa treatments.

For July to October — the migration months in the Masai Mara — six to twelve months is normal, and the best small camps sell out first. Christmas and New Year book up just as early.

For the shoulder months, three to four months is usually comfortable. Inside eight weeks we can still put a very good trip together, but you are choosing from what is left rather than from everything.

This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.

You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.

No. Sending your dates, getting an itinerary and getting a costed quote is free and carries no obligation. Money only changes hands when you decide to hold space at a camp.

The safari areas themselves are well run, and camps take guest safety seriously. The practical risks are ordinary travel risks: road transfers, sun, stomach upsets and not listening to your guide around animals.

Check your own government’s current travel advice for the Okavango before you book and again before you fly, and take out insurance that covers medical evacuation. We will not tell you an area is fine if the advice says otherwise.