This African safari is better than any other
A breathtaking new safari lodge in the heart of Botswana’s Okavango Delta pairs non-stop wildlife spotting with next-level creature comforts. Game on.
Arriving at Atzaró Okavango was one for the ages. On a helicopter transfer from nearby Maun airport, the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana shimmered like a mirage. Replenished by annual flood waters, this vast inland region amid the Kalahari Desert transforms from open plains into rich oases. The delta counts almost 2000 plant and animal species, a handful of which I spied during our brief flight. As we soared above a patchwork of mottled fields and gin-clear waterways, elephants foraged from trees, hippos splashed in rivers and antelopes darted along papyrus-fringed banks. On landing, I was collected in an all-terrain vehicle and serenaded at an open pavilion by the entire team. Now, that’s an arrival.
Unveiled earlier this year, the lodge is a collaboration between Spanish hoteliers Victor Guasch and Philip Gonda of Atzaró Group and Beks Ndlovu, the Zimbabwean founder of African Bush Camps. It’s a partnership – Balearic sybarites meet wildlife whisperers – with obvious benefits. Atzaró Group is known for its luxe boltholes on Ibiza and beyond, while African Bush Camps is acclaimed for its prudent safari guides. After almost two decades in the field, their reputation is irrefutable. Though just a few months old, word is already building about Atzaró Okavango, too. Situated on its own private concession, near a lagoon and palm islands, the camp allows for complete isolation and a rarefied safari experience.
Glamping doesn’t begin to describe the scene here. The central thatched lodge is filled with leather sofas, pan-African artworks and well-chosen antiques. Elevated wooden walkways connect various lounge areas, a fire-pit and eight tented rooms with parquet flooring. An additional pair of villas, each with two suites, caters for larger groups. My spiffy room featured a bed draped in netting, teak furnishings, Turkish carpets, plus a large stone tub and rainfall shower. On a secluded patio was another shower and a plunge pool. Bold geometric textiles and large-format wildlife prints were among the suite’s bountiful charms. But there was no time to linger over such flourishes. The adventures kicked off immediately.
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That first afternoon, I joined a gaggle of guests for the first of twice-daily game drives. In a four-wheel vehicle, Maitapiso Mosiiwa, who goes by the name Mighty, zipped along a set of sandy tracks before going off-piste, racing over a fragrant patch of wild sage. A call came in over the radio headset: the lions were preparing to hunt. Under the last shade of a tree, we encountered a small, playful pride of six, mostly sub-adult males whose manes had yet to bloom into ochre tufts. This group was under observation after the disappearance of their mother, potentially a casualty of human-wildlife conflict that the lodge works alongside villagers to help prevent.
At first, the pride didn’t appear to be fazed by much. Some idly fanned out into the grass, while others rested on a termite mound or suppressed teeth-baring yawns. Quite suddenly, the atmosphere changed, like a crack of sharp lightning across the field. From our raised position in the cruiser, we noticed a family of unsuspecting warthogs had emerged nearby, their stiffly raised tails bouncing to and fro. Turned out the missing member of the leonine clan had corralled them into the waiting predators. In a plume of dust and desperate squeals, a trio of lions cornered and snagged a piglet. It was an unnerving display of nature at its rawest, the hunter and the hunted, as other kills echoed in the twilight.
Mighty steered us through the bushes once more and, after a 20-minute drive, we stopped at a riverbank encircled with torches and dotted with white-cloth-draped tables. It was a Botswana-style barbecue under a starlit sky. Other lodge guests joined us and, around a roaring fire with cocktails in hand, we excitedly shared animal sightings. “It’s like a theatre, but there’s no rehearsal,” Beks Ndlovu, on location to check in with the team, told me. “This is just life here.” As the night grew darker, the Milky Way became more visible – the clearest cosmic display I had ever witnessed. The blend of terrestrial and celestial sensations filled me with awe.
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The ensuing days unfolded in the same format: a pre-dawn rise for breakfast, followed by several hours on a game drive, and convivial catch-ups at midday and in the evening. Botswana has endured unseasonable drought of late, and wildlife clustered around the few remaining watering holes and rivers. We were wowed by herds of zebras, wildebeest, impalas, water buffalo, and kudu, families of warthogs, baboons, and wild dogs, and another pride of lions. I also sighted jackals, honey badgers, yellow-billed hornbills, and a virtually unending parade of elephants, from matriarchs to week-old babies. Learning that a group of ambulating giraffes is called a “journey” proved its own delight.
Indeed, there’s no shortage of animal activity here – it’s a beastly blockbuster show with no end. “We share a boundary with the Moremi Game Reserve to the north,” explained Mighty. “Where the Okavango and the Moremi meet, there’s a diversity of life and landscapes.” Since the lodge sits on a massive 1100-square-kilometre concession, it would often be hours before we noticed another vehicle criss-crossing one of the paths. Each drive, Mighty called for a break in a familiar location to set up a refreshment table hooked onto the front of the vehicle. Coffee and tea with biscuits in the morning. Nuts, cheese, and wine in the afternoon.
One morning, I hopped into a chopper with Helicopter Horizons, provider of aerial safaris in the Okavango. I was again enthralled by the painterly patterns and cinematic vastness of the delta. Another afternoon, I glided through its sinuous waterways on a mokoro, a traditional dug-out canoe made of synthetic materials to preserve local trees. The sleek craft was piloted by Jimmy, who lived in a nearby village, and who had navigated this region for 20 years. We glided serenely down channels shrouded by long green grass, our route only interrupted by a bathing hippo at an upcoming bend.
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Back at the lodge, guests relaxed by the pool, sipped G&Ts at the bar or flocked to the dining pavilion for plates that blended local ingredients with European gastronomic flair. A boma, an ancestral enclosure, offered raised views onto a river where the curved backs of elephants could be glimpsed. A large solar farm and water-purification facility telegraphed the camp’s commitment to sustainability. Atzaró Okavango also aligns with anti-poaching patrols to protect endangered species in the region. After a family-style lunch, including pearl couscous and green peppers, bean and cabbage salads and grilled meats enlivened with African spices, lodgers trotted back to their tents to read, or enjoyed deep-tissue massages at the spa. I tried napping under my terrace canopy, but the unannounced visitors dropping into the camp kept me alert.
One day, a dozen elephants marched through the grounds, as though late for a soirée. Camera in hand, I was metres away from a mother and baby noshing on a tree near the entrance. Transfixed by the scene in my viewfinder, I failed to notice that an aggrieved relative had appeared directly behind me. An emphatic trumpet sent me scrambling down a path. It was a salient reminder that, as tourists, we are guests in this incredible habitat. It’s paramount to respect the majesty and power of such a place. Atzaró Okavango exists within the living environment of the delta, not apart from it. May it always be so.
The writer was a guest of Atzaró Okavango. The lodge is accessed via Maun airport, around a two-hour flight from Cape Town or Johannesburg. Rates from about $1000 per night in low season and up to around $2800 per night in high season. atzaro-okavango.com
