When check-in is accompanied by a lion’s roar

The place: Selinda Explorers Camp, Botswana

Check-in

The main lounge and dining area.

Usually when guests arrive at a Great Plains Conservation camp they’re greeted with a song, but today I’ve received a roaring welcome from lions instead. A 45-minute light plane flight north from Maun, the gateway to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, has brought me to a private airstrip inside the 130,000-hectare Selinda Reserve. I hop into a LandCruiser headed to Selinda Explorers Camp but we take a surprising detour, driving off-road to observe a lion pride my guide found on his way to the airstrip. When we finally arrive at camp an hour later, we’re met with a refreshing mocktail and shown to our tented suites.

The look

Plunge pool.

Shaded by riverine forest, Selinda Explorers Camp’s central hub is made up of two tented pavilions: a lounge and dining room respectively, joined by an outdoor fire-pit and plunge pool facing the Selinda Spillway. Sandy pathways branch out from camp to our tented suites just a short walk away.

A mix of comfort and adventure.

Lavish interiors evoke the wealth and class of early safari exploration, with leather couches, rich Persian carpets and copper touches that make the experience more akin to glamping than rustic bush camping. Accommodating just 10 guests, the whole camp is designed to be packed up quickly with little lasting impact on the environment.

The room

Great Plains Selinda Explorers Camp.

“Zip your tent or baboons will ransack the place,” warns my guide as he shows me to my front verandah. Stepping inside my 24-square-metre custom-designed double canvas tent (one of three, plus a two-bedroom family tent) I find a double bed with separate dressing area as well as a writing desk and tea station. The adjoining bathroom has an open shower, twin vanities and screened toilet.

Everything I need is beside the bed, including filtered drinking water, a torch, binoculars, insect repellent, yoga mat, and – crucially – a walkie-talkie to call for assistance at night (guests are not permitted to walk to or from their tents unescorted after 6pm). There’s no mobile signal but decent in-room Wi-Fi, and ample places to charge my devices. A pedestal fan strives valiantly in the midday heat with little success.

Out and about

Wildlife on the doorstep.

The camp’s location was handpicked by founders and documentary filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert for its prime predator habitat and proximity to the Selinda Spillway. Twice-daily game drives and walks are the main activity for much of the year, but guests can enjoy fishing and canoeing when the spillway floods from May to October. Scenic flights are available from $590 a person, minimum of two.

Food + drink

Outdoor breakfast.

Three cooked meals, afternoon high tea, tea and coffee, and a well-stocked open bar are included. Mealtimes are flexible and the menu skews vegetarian, using seasonal produce freighted in from Maun as nothing is allowed to be grown in the reserve. One evening we’re treated to a degustation dinner, the next we’re loading our plates from a barbecue buffet and dining al fresco beneath a chandelier strung from an acacia tree. If you love a dish, the chef will write down the recipe in your keepsake journal.

THE VERDICT
A stylish, sustainably minded glamping experience where every detail is taken care of.

THE ESSENTIALS
Selinda Reserve, Botswana. Rooms from $1760 a person a night and include light-plane transfers, game drives, meals, drinks and laundry. Modular ramps can be used to make rooms accessible and guests with accessibility needs can be accommodated in game drive vehicles. See greatplainsconservation.com

OUR RATING OUT OF FIVE
★★★★½

HIGHLIGHT
Dinner and a show as the camp staff put on a surprise musical performance around the fire.

LOWLIGHT
Radioing for help after rain caused the power to my tent to short circuit more than once.

The writer travelled as a guest of Bench Africa.