Hyena Pan

huge herds of elephants at the waterhole

Hyena Pan (recently renamed Elephant Pan) is located in the Khwai Concession in the Okavango Delta area of northern Botswana.

The camp is centred on a very pleasant open-sided main building with lounge and dining areas, as well as a small gift-shop and a modest plunge pool out on the main deck, with steps leading down to a pleasantly earthy campfire area.

Animals in camp

The whole camp overlooks a waterhole which can be incredibly active. We have personally witnessed around 1000 elephants in a single day during August.

The elephants also come in to drink at the swimming pool, which is within around 5-7 metres of guests sitting alongside (holding their breath).

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Hyena Pan is in a total of eight comfortable tents, one of which is a family room. All are accessed by ground level pathways and set up on low decks.

Activities

Hyena Pan provides the following guided activities …

• Vehicle safari
• Hides
• Walking safari
• Night vehicle safari

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, one or two of which will usually be here in Okavango Delta, combined with the Linyanti Waterfront and/or Makgadikgadi areas.

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

The usual stay duration in the Khwai River area is 3-6 nights.

Seasonality

The Khwai River 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.

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.

The more southerly camps on the Khwai River Concession are able to offer some limited mokoro canoe safari and motorboat safari at this time, although less so in September.

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 camps in the Khwai River Concession are usually by light aircraft into the local bush 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 an hour to the camp, through some relatively uninteresting mopane forest, but with good chances of some early animal sightings.

Unusually, this area can also be reached by vehicle from Maun in 3-4 hours, which can save a great deal of money, especially for larger groups.

usually combined with other camps in this area