Travel to Okavango Khwai Village

an unusually pretty stretch of river

At around 1960 square kilometres, Okavango Khwai Village is a large safari area in the extreme north-east corner of the Okavango Delta.

The main areas of interest line the southern flank, which borders onto various waterways, the most notable of which is the Khwai River which lies opposite the main Moremi National Park.

The southern area contains a diverse range of habitats including large stands of leadwood forest, open grasslands, seasonally flooded waterways, lagoons and plains. It is a particularly scenic part of Okavango.

These diverse habitats host a similarly wide range of wildlife, especially during the flood season, including lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, wild-dogs and lots of elephants. Along the rivers there are good numbers of hippos and occasional crocodiles. Grazers include giraffes, zebras, kudus and impalas. It is also a reasonably good area for unusual sightings such as honey-badgers, civets, servals and pangolins.

Camps here are able to operate safari both within the concession, where off-road driving and night vehicle safaris are permitted, as well as crossing over into Moremi National Park during the day.

Unlike most other concessions, this area is run by the local community, containing a large village and camps from several different safari operators. It is also part of the major overland route between Moremi and Chobe national parks, containing campgrounds for self-drive safaris.

Khwai Village is quite a busy area, which does suffer from considerable traffic issues and is nowhere near as pristine as the nearby private concessions. However, most of the accommodation is priced to compensate.

When it comes to trip shapes and durations in Botswana, most visitors combine 2, 3 or 4 lodges by light aircraft over 6-12 nights. We very rarely recommend deploying one of these precious spots on this rather second rate Khwai Village Concession, but may be lured into doing so under certain unusual circumstances.

These trips are often done in combination with further nights at the Victoria Falls and/or down in the Cape.

Seasonality

The Khwai Village Concession can be visited year round, but wildlife viewing is most reliable during the May-Oct dry season months.

The May-Jun flood season is a period of transition from the hot wet summer to the cool dry winter and is generally considered to be a great time to visit. Temperatures can drop towards freezing during the night, but this has little adverse effect on safari, there are virtually no insects and plenty of baby animals around. The flood in this eastern part of the delta is usually late, unreliable and relatively light, meaning that the camps remain primarily focused on land-based safari during this period. For this reason the area is commonly combined with another wetter concession for boating activities. June can get very busy with self-drivers due to the long school vacation in South Africa.

The Jul-Sep dry season is the classic time to visit and is generally considered to be the best time for wildlife viewing, as many animals are drawn to the floods which have reached their peak. Some of the camps on the Khwai Valley Concession are able to offer some limited mokoro canoe safari and motorboat safari at this time, although less so in September. This is the high season in terms of prices and visitor numbers and it is worth noting that the area can get very busy with self-drivers and overland safaris, especially in August.

The Oct-Dec hot season is the transition period between the peak of the dry season, when temperatures and humidities can become uncomfortably high in advance of the rains. When the rains do arrive, the animals can disperse suddenly into the vast mopane forests in the north and become much more difficult to access.

Jan-Apr is the main green season in the Okavango Delta, when the area experiences the majority of its rainfall. There are lots of baby animals around and the landscapes are green and beautiful. Conditions prove dramatically through these months, making late March and the whole of April particularly attractive, especially given the often dramatically discounted prices.

Getting there

The better camps in the Khwai Valley Concession are usually accessed by light aircraft into the local bush airstrips. Unusually, they can also be reached by vehicle from Maun in 3-4 hours, which can save a great deal of money, especially for larger groups.

distressingly busy with self-drive and overland vehicles