Lagoon Camp

a genuine focus on serious safari guiding

Lagoon Camp is located in the Kwando Concession in the Linyanti Waterfront area of northern Botswana.

This is a seriously wildlife-focused safari camp set under a canopy of leadwood and knobthorn trees alongside a lovely oxbow lake on the Kwando River to the north of this concession.

Pulling into the vehicle turnaround, we are met by just one or two members of staff, rather than the usual choir, and welcomed in.

The main building is a large open-sided structure under thatch. The central part is on two levels, with a gift-shop below and a small library upstairs. To the right is the main dining room, whilst to the left is the bar and lounge. Out front there is a nice sandy-floored campfire area and a very pleasant small swimming pool, both above the river and with broad views out across the floodplains.

Lagoon Camp suits people who are primarily focused on excellent safari guiding and wildlife sightings. The camp itself is relatively simple and suits guests who are prepared to be a little forgiving from time to time.

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. At night hippos and elephants often wander between the tents. We love to go to sleep to the sound of hippos in the lagoon, accompanied by the more distant roaring of lions and the whooping of hyenas.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Lagoon Camp is in eight tented rooms, which are accessed via a network of sandy ground-level pathways. The rooms are set up on decks and have lovely private verandahs above the water. The rooms themselves are enormous, with high thatched ceilings and canvas walls. On a lower level there is a pleasant lounge space, with the bed higher up and a large bathroom to the rear, with conventionally plumbed basins, shower, free-standing bath and shower. There is also an outside shower. One of the rooms is a larger family suite, which has an additional bedroom, but only one shared bathroom.

Activities

Lagoon Camp deliberately focuses on a very limited range of activities …

• Vehicle 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.

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

We most commonly include Lagoon Camp in trips when also visiting the nearby sister property, Lebala Camp, splitting four to six nights on this concession area.

These camps are usually combined in trips with others from the same stable, notably Kwara Camp and Splash Camp, both in the nearby Okavango Delta.

Seasonality

Lagoon Camp can be visited year round.

The Jun-Oct dry season is the most popular time for safari, when the weather is reliably good. The drying out of the seasonal waterholes in the vast hinterland during Mar-May causes enormous numbers of animals to migrate towards the Kwando and Linyanti rivers. For some reason the dry season conditions in the Kwando Concession encourage an unusual clustering of mixed predators, leading to the epic predator on predator battle scenes for which the area is so well known.

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 Oct-Nov the temperatures and humidities can become uncomfortably high in advance of the rains, which can be much more of an issue given that the vast majority of camps do not have air-conditioning.

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. A proportion of the animals, notably elephants, head south and east in search of better grazing at this time, although there are still some around. We have experienced some really excellent safari in the Kwando concession throughout this period and there can be substantial savings making it a smart time to travel.

Getting there

Lagoon Camp can only be accessed by light aircraft into the nearby Kwando North 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 20 minutes into camp.

usually visited in combination with nearby Lebala Camp