Zarafa Camp

one of the finest safari camps in Africa

Zarafa Camp is located in the Selinda Concession in the Linyanti Waterfront area of northern Botswana.

This is a super-luxury property, one of the very best in the country, situated amongst a shady copse on the southern side of the seasonal Zibadianja lagoon, at the northern end of the Selinda Spillway.

The camp is centred on a large open-sided structure under canvas, containing gorgeous dining and lounge areas in Colonial style, opening out onto extensive decks with a lovely campfire area and broad views out over the surrounding plains. There is a spa and outdoor gym.

The camp offers extremely high levels of service, with a warm welcome on arrival, personalised notes in your room and a high level of professionalism and attention to detail throughout. The crew are universally praised by guests.

One aspect we always appreciate is the amount of wildlife that comes into camp. Here the most common visitors are baboons and vervet monkeys in the trees around the tents, with a range of other animals often in view on the plains out front. During a recent visit a family of warthogs had very much made itself at home around the main mess and a large elephant was slowly munching his way through the camp, coming very close indeed. At night hippos and elephants often wander between the tents. It feels unusually tranquil here, somehow the camp itself seems to encourage guests to relax.

Rooms

The camp has a total of six rooms in two specifications …

Standard Rooms : The main guest accommodation is in just four very well-appointed guest tents, accessed by a network of broad ground-level pathways. Set up on decks, these very large tents have separate and very comfortable lounge and bedrooms areas, with a lavish bathroom at the far end, featuring conventionally plumbed basins, shower and toilet, plus a lovely free-standing copper bath-tub. Out front a private verandah features a decent sized plunge pool and an outside shower. Each room is provided with a pair of top class binoculars and, remarkably, a top of the range SLR camera for use during your stay. The staff will even teach you how to get the best out of them and download your images onto a memory stick for you to take home.

Dhow Suite : The other two rooms are contained within the much larger Dhow Suite, which features a private lounge and dining room, as well as two completely independent bedroom and bathroom areas, with a larger private pool and campfire area out on decks to the front. This unit can function completely separately from the rest of the camp, so is great for family groups. You can even take a third room in order that six or seven of you can make your home here.

One major standout feature of Zarafa Camp is that the bedrooms are fitted with solar powered, environmentally sensitive mini air-conditioning units which maintain comfortable temperatures within the mosquito net, which is highly appreciated during the hotter months of Sep-Dec.

Activities

Zarafa Camp provides the following guided activities …

• Vehicle safari
• Walking safari
• Bush meals
• Motorboat safari
• Night vehicle safari

When it comes to trip durations in Botswana, most visitors combine 2, 3 or 4 lodges by light aircraft over 6-12 nights, one of which will usually be here in Linyanti Waterfront, often in combination with further nights at the Victoria Falls and/or down in the Cape.

Linyanti Selinda is one of four private concessions that make up the Linyanti Waterfront, a fabulous safari area that combines naturally with the nearby Okavango Delta.

Most guests choose to stay at one lodge in Linyanti, usually for 3-4 nights.

Seasonality

Linyanti Selinda can be visited year round.

The drying out of the seasonal waterholes in the vast hinterland during Mar-May causes good numbers of animals to migrate towards the Kwando and Linyanti rivers. The wildlife viewing therefore tends to be very strong throughout this period.

During May-Jun temperatures can drop towards freezing during the night, but this has little adverse effect on safari, the days are gorgeous and there are virtually no insects around.

During the May-Oct dry season the wildlife viewing in this area can be really intense and particularly photogenic. This dry season period is the most popular time for safari, when the weather is reliably good.

During Oct-Nov the temperatures and humidities can become uncomfortably high in advance of the rains.

During the Nov-May green season the landscapes are verdant and beautiful, the animals are well-fed and there’s lots of babies around, providing a great contrast to the harshness of the dry season. It is also important to note that there are substantial savings to be made on lodge prices during green season, so it really can be a smart time to travel.

Getting there

Zarafa Camp can only be accessed by light aircraft into the nearby Selinda Airstrip, which has daily flight connections with all other camps in Okavango, Linyanti, the main airport at Maun (for connections to Central Kalahari, Nxai, Makgadikgadi and Johannesburg) and north to Kasane (for connections to Livingstone and Victoria Falls).

From the airstrip it is a drive of around 45 minutes into camp.

usually visited in combination with the Okavango Delta