Highlights of Botswana: Okavango Delta, Moremi & Chobe

Today you experience the timeless magic of the Okavango by mokoro, the traditional dugout canoe that is the soul of Delta travel. After an early breakfast, your expert poler guides you silently through the clear, reed-lined channels, standing at the stern and easing the mokoro past waterlilies, papyrus and jewel-bright reed frogs, while malachite kingfishers dart overhead and red lechwe splash across the shallows. You may stop on a palm island for a guided walk, learning to read tracks, dung and birdsong with your guide, feeling the thrill of exploring big-game country on foot. The silence and reflections are profound. Back in camp for brunch and a siesta through the heat, you head out again by mokoro or 4x4 in the golden afternoon, ending with sundowners on the floodplain. Dinner is under the stars.

Today is devoted to the extraordinary wildlife of the Okavango Delta, exploring by open 4x4 and on foot. Setting out at dawn when the bush is cool and active, your guide tracks the Delta's big game across islands and floodplains, lion prides resting after the hunt, elephant families crossing the channels, and, with luck, the Delta's celebrated leopard and endangered African wild dogs, alongside giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hippo and elegant lechwe. You learn to interpret the drama written in tracks and alarm calls, and pause for coffee amid the wilderness. After brunch and rest through the midday heat, an afternoon drive follows the animals as they stir, ending with a sundowner as the sky turns to fire. Some camps offer a thrilling night drive in search of nocturnal hunters. Dinner and stories follow around the campfire.

After a final morning activity in the Delta, you transfer to the airstrip and fly by light aircraft to the legendary Moremi Game Reserve, the wildlife-rich heart of the eastern Okavango and one of the finest reserves in Africa. From the air you take in the shifting mosaic of floodplains, lagoons and forests, before landing and transferring by open 4x4 to your tented camp, game viewing along the way. Moremi was the first reserve created by an African community to protect its own wildlife, and its abundance is immediately apparent. After brunch and time to settle in, you head out on an afternoon game drive through its rich habitats, with excellent chances of big cats, elephant and buffalo, ending with sundowners as the light softens. Dinner is served under a vast, star-filled Botswana sky. Rest well amid the sounds of Moremi.

Today you immerse yourself in the superb wildlife of the Moremi Game Reserve, exploring its floodplains, lagoons and mopane woodlands by open 4x4. Setting out at first light, your guide tracks Moremi's celebrated predators, this is prime territory for lion, leopard and cheetah, and one of the best places on earth to encounter packs of endangered African wild dog on the hunt. Great herds of elephant and buffalo move through the reserve, alongside giraffe, zebra, red lechwe and countless antelope, while the waterways teem with hippo and birdlife, from fish eagles to saddle-billed storks. You pause for coffee amid the wilderness and learn the intricate web of Delta ecology from your guide. After brunch and a midday rest, an afternoon and early-evening drive follows the animals as they grow active, ending with sundowners. Dinner is around the fire.

After a final morning game drive in Moremi, you fly by light aircraft north to Chobe National Park, Botswana's first national park and home to the largest elephant population on earth. Landing near the Chobe riverfront, you transfer to your lodge overlooking the river, where the wildlife spectacle begins the moment you arrive. This afternoon you take to the water on a boat cruise along the Chobe River, gliding close to elephant families bathing and crossing the channels, past pods of hippo, basking crocodiles and buffalo herds coming down to drink, beneath skies alive with birds. As the sun sets in a blaze of colour over the water, sundowners in hand, the sheer abundance of life is overwhelming. You return to your lodge for dinner overlooking the river. Rest well to the distant trumpeting of elephants along the Chobe.

Today you explore Chobe National Park by land and water, making the most of its extraordinary concentrations of game. At dawn you set out on a game drive along the riverfront and into the woodlands, where enormous herds of elephant and buffalo gather, and lion, leopard, sable and roan antelope are all possible, alongside giraffe, kudu and zebra. You return for brunch and rest through the heat, then head out again in the afternoon, choosing another exhilarating boat cruise or a game drive as the light turns golden. The evening river cruise is a Chobe classic, hundreds of elephants coming down to drink and cross, hippos yawning, and one of Africa's great sunsets flaring over the water. You savour a final sundowner in this wildlife paradise before returning to your lodge for a farewell dinner. Rest well beside the great Chobe River.

After a final leisurely breakfast overlooking the Chobe River, and perhaps a last look for elephants along the bank, you are transferred to Kasane Airport for your onward flight, or continue to Victoria Falls or another extension. You leave having experienced the very best of Botswana, gliding by mokoro through the reed-lined channels of the Okavango Delta, tracking big game from an island camp, exploring the legendary Moremi Game Reserve, and watching the great elephant herds gather along the Chobe River at sunset, all in some of the last truly wild country on earth. The images stay vivid long after you land, the silver Delta from the air, the silent mokoro among the lilies, wild dogs on the hunt in Moremi, and a thousand elephants along the Chobe. Botswana offers wilderness, abundance and adventure in abundance, and you depart already dreaming of a return.