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The bow of a mokoro and a guide's silhouette with his pole against the setting sun in the Okavango Delta

Sample journey · 11–13 days

From Table Mountain to the Okavango waters

Cape Town, the Winelands, the Okavango Delta & the Chobe River

Photo: Colin Watts / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

This journey joins two entirely different sides of southern Africa. Cape Town is a city where a morning can begin on Table Mountain, lunch be taken beside the Atlantic and the evening spent at a vineyard an hour away. After a few days there comes a flight north to Maun in Botswana, and from there a small plane into the Okavango Delta: thousands of channels, lagoons and palm-fringed islands flooded each year by water that arrives from the distant highlands of Angola.

In the delta there are two camps: one on the water, where days pass by mokoro and on foot across the islands, the other on drier ground, where leopard and wild dog are tracked by vehicle. To finish, the Chobe River and afternoons by boat among elephants. The journey is designed for couples celebrating something that matters: small camps of a few tents, dinners under the stars and enough time that nothing ever needs to be hurried.

The route

The journey

  1. Cape Town
  2. The Cape Peninsula
  3. Franschhoek
  4. Maun
  5. Okavango Delta: a water camp
  6. Okavango Delta: a land camp
  7. Kasane & the Chobe River
  8. Victoria Falls (optional)
  1. The last light of day on the cliffs of Table Mountain, Cape Town

    01Days 1–5 · Cape Town & the Winelands

    A city between the mountain and the sea

    Four nights in Cape Town, at a hotel looking onto Table Mountain or the Atlantic. The first day is gentle: the coloured houses of the Bo-Kaap, a walk along the waterfront and sunset from Signal Hill. The second is Table Mountain: by cableway or, if you both enjoy walking, on foot with a guide, whenever the wind allows. The third is the Cape Peninsula: Chapman's Peak Drive, the wind-blown Cape of Good Hope and the penguins of Boulders Beach, with lunch at a fish restaurant by a harbour. The fourth is for wine: about an hour to Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, where tastings take place in old Cape Dutch farmsteads beneath steep mountains and dinner can last until the stars come out. On the morning of day five, the flight to Botswana.

  2. Guides poling mokoros through the reeds in the dusk light of the Okavango Delta

    02Days 5–8 · Okavango Delta: a water camp

    A silence only a mokoro hears

    From Cape Town to Maun it's a direct flight when it operates, otherwise via Johannesburg. In Maun a small plane is waiting: half an hour or so over the maze of water, and you land on a gravel strip near camp. Three nights on the water side, where the channels hold water all year. Wildlife watching here is different, slow and quiet. The mokoro, a slender canoe poled by a guide, slides past water lilies and papyrus; frogs, tiny reedbuck, pairs of fish eagles and sometimes an elephant wading through the shallows. In the afternoons, walks across the islands with a guide who teaches you to read tracks; in the evening, dinner by the fire. There are usually fewer animals here than on dry land, but no fewer moments to remember.

  3. A leopard climbing along a tree branch in the Moremi area, Botswana

    03Days 8–10 · Okavango Delta: a land camp

    On the trail of a leopard

    A short flight to the other side of the delta, to drier ground near Moremi Game Reserve, where wooded plains link the islands. Two nights here, and the rhythm changes: open-vehicle drives at dawn and in the evening, when animals are most active. In these areas leopard, lion prides and rare wild dog are often seen, while red lechwe and buffalo graze the water's edge. Guides who know the area well follow tracks and alarm calls, but no one can promise what will appear, which is what keeps every drive interesting. In between, long lunches, a hot afternoon in the tent looking over a lagoon and an evening when the team sets dinner under the open sky. If you like, a doors-off helicopter flight shows the delta from above, laid out like a map.

  4. Elephants and antelope drinking beside a wide river in Chobe National Park

    04Days 10–12 · Kasane & the Chobe River

    Elephants in the evening river

    The last light-aircraft flight is to Kasane on the Chobe River, for two nights at a lodge above the water. In the dry season huge herds of elephant often gather along this river, and an afternoon boat trip lets you watch them up close: elephants wading across, spraying and bathing, while crocodiles and hippos doze on the banks. In the morning, a drive through Chobe National Park along the river; in the evening, one more boat trip, this time towards the sunset. From Kasane you can fly home via Johannesburg, or carry on: Victoria Falls, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, is only about an hour away by road, and two nights there would make a gentle ending beside thundering water.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    Table Mountain & the Cape Peninsula

    The mountain above the city, penguins at Boulders Beach and the road along the Atlantic cliffs.

  2. 02

    By mokoro among the lilies

    Quiet hours in the channels, when all you hear is the pole and the birds.

  3. 03

    Two sides of the delta

    A water camp and a land camp tell two different stories of the same place.

  4. 04

    The Chobe by boat

    Elephant families wading the river in the evening light, seen from the water.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • With Victoria Falls

    Two nights at the falls, with a walk through the rainforest along the edge and dinner above the Zambezi gorge, stretch the journey to 13–14 days.

  • More time at the Cape

    Two nights in the Winelands instead of a day trip, or a few evenings in Hermanus, where whales often come close to shore in winter and spring.

  • Choosing the season

    The delta's floodwater usually peaks in the dry season, roughly June to August, when Cape Town is cooler and wetter; late spring joins a warm Cape with a dry delta full of wildlife.

  • Simpler camps

    The same journey works with simpler, well-established camps on the edge of Moremi, reached by road from Maun.

Practical considerations

  • Light aircraft to the delta camps take only soft bags and a limited weight, so we'll help you pack in advance; any other luggage can be left in Maun or Cape Town.
  • Northern Botswana lies in a malaria area, so it's worth speaking to a doctor or travel clinic well ahead about prevention.
  • Flights between Cape Town and Maun, and light-aircraft schedules, depend on the season, so we'll fit the exact routing to your dates.
  • Before you travel we check current entry requirements for South Africa, Botswana and, if you add the falls, the neighbouring countries.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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