Audley Travel

Over a thousand miles from Botswana, rain falls in Central Africa. Big drops drip from trees, rush into streams, down gullies and into rivers. Slowly the Okavango River forms, and flows not to the sea but into the rippling sands of the Kalahari where it disperses in a myriad of waterways and twinkling lagoons, creating a delicate web of life.

This is the Okavango Delta, a world of glittering water. Whispering palm islands are criss-crossed with animal tracks, the surrounding lagoons carpeted with lilies, orange gentians and water lettuce beneath which silver fish dart to and fro. Iridescent kingfishers dive, hippos grunt and papyrus rustles in the breeze. Elephant and giraffe feed in the dappled shade of waterberries whilst on yellow grasslands scattered with wild sage bushes buffalo, tsessebe, zebra and wildebeest are watched by the amber eyes of lion. Red lechwe fly across emerald green floodplains, spray in their wake, and in the distance a fish eagle cries. As night falls the clink of the reedfrogs begins. Fruitbats squeak, there are voices at sunset and under the stars the glowing embers of a fire and spirals of wood smoke.

Selected Highlights

Our specialists have travelled the length and breadth of the country to research the best places to stay and things to do. Here they list a few of their favourite “unmissables”. Click here for more highlights

Explore the Delta by mokoro boat

Slipping through the Delta's mazy waterways and tall papyrus in a mokoro is the most relaxing way of viewing game. As you silently travel with only the...  [more]

Go boating in the Delta waterways

At the heart of the delta is a labyrinth of waterways linking secret lagoons and marshlands where hippos splash and dive in deep water whilst elephants come...  [more]

Listen to the Botswana night

As the sun sets in the bush, animals large and small begin their evening symphony. Reed frogs tinkle whilst the cicadas provide the accompaniment, and as...  [more]