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Our Okavango Delta lodges are below this introduntionary text. Since we custom design Botswana Safaris, we can use any of the Okavango Delta lodges. Your Botswana Safari can be a fly in or a escorted group or privately guided mobile camping safari. To give you some ideas of how a Botswana safari is designed, see this link for our Botswana Safari Holiday. We can design any type of tour that includes any length of stay and lodge/tent camp combination that you want . If you are interested in a mobile Botswana Camping safari follow this link Botswana Camping Safari If you are interested in walkng safari in Botswana, follow this link Walking Safari in Botswana A Botswana Safari experience should always include, the Okavango Delta. A Okavango Delta Camping or Okavango Delta Safari ties in easly with the rest of a Botswana Safari. The best time for game viewing in the Okavango Delta is during the May-October period, as the animal life is concentrated along the flooded areas and the vegetation has dried out. The best time for birding and vegetation n the Okavango Delta is during the rainy season (Nov.- April) as the migrant bird populations are returning and the plants are flowering and green. We can design specialized birding Safaris in Botswana and especially birding Safaris in the Okavango Delta About the Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta is one of the world’s largest inland water systems. It's headwaters start in Angola’s western highlands, with numerous tributaries joining to form the Cubango river, which then flows through Namibia (called the Kavango) and finally enters Botswana, where it is then called the Okavango. Millions of years ago the Okavango river use to flow into a large inland lake called Lake Makgadikgadi (now Makgadikgadi Pans). The Moremi reserve, hunted by the bushman as long as 10,000 years ago, was initiated by the Batawana tribe and covers some 4,871 km, as the eastern section of the Okavango Delta. The Moremi reserve is mostly described as one of the most beautiful wildlife reserves in Africa. It combines woodland and forests, floodplains and lagoons. It is the great diversity of plant and animal life that makes the Moremi reserve so well known. The Moremi reserve contains within its boundaries approximately twenty percent of the Okavango Delta. 
The photo above was taken at Afternoon tea time during a water Safari at Camp Okavango, which is mainly a water camp. Tectonic activity and faulting interrupted the flow of the river causing it to backup and form what is now the Okavango delta. This has created a unique system of water ways that now supports a vast array of animal and plant life that would have otherwise been a dry Kalahari savanna.
The delta’s floods are fed from the Angolan rains, which start in October and finish sometime in April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and will only reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July, Taking almost nine months from the source to the bottom. This slow meandering pace of the flood is due to the lack of drop in elevation, which drops a little more than 60 metres over a distance of 450 kilometres. The delta’s water deadends in the Kalahari – via the Botetle river, with over 95 per cent of the water eventually evaporating.
During the peak of the flooding the delta’s area can expand to over 16,000 square kilometres, shrinking to less than 9,000 square kilometres in the low period. As the water travels through the delta, the wildlife starts to move back into the region.
The areas surrounding the delta are beginning to try out (the rains in Botswana occur approximately the same time as in Angola) and the wildlife starts to congregate on the edge of the newly flooded areas, May through October.
The delta environment has large numbers of animal populations that are otherwise rare, such as crocodile, red lechwe, sitatunga, elephant, wild dogs, buffalo, wattled crane as well as the other more common mammals and bird life. The delta environment has large numbers of animal populations that are otherwise rare, such as crocodile, red lechwe, sitatunga, elephant, wild dogs, buffalo, wattled crane as well as the other more common mammals and bird life. Safari activities by water are the primary speciality of the Okavango - the mokoro - a dug out canoe which is 'poled' along by your Guide is the most evocative way of exploring the numerous waterways. Motor launches travel on the main waterways and lagoons. Traditional 4x4 Game viewing vehicles are used on the main islands, with night drives available in the private concession areas - not allowed within the National Park. Walking Safaris are available from most Camps and Lodges - perhaps the most exciting way of viewing Game - stalking and tracking wildlife with an expert Guide. Game Viewing flights are available by both light aircraft and helicopter, but hot air ballooning is not allowed. Perhaps the most marvelous way of exploring the Okavango is on the back of an Elephant at Randall Moore's famous Abu Camp Rainfall is not heavy in the Okavango - it gets less than half of the rainfall than over the Kruger Park area | Okavango Climate Chart: Summer rainfall from late October to early April; cool to warm dry sunny winter days from May to early October | | Month - | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Average over 14 yrs | | Maun | 32/18 | 32/17 | 30/16 | 29/12 | 26/07 | 23/06 | 24/06 | 27/09 | 33/14 | 35/15 | 33/19 | 33/19 | Average Daily Max - Min ºC | | Maun | 107 | 79 | 71 | 18 | 05 | 03 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 23 | 56 | 86 | Rainfall (in mm) | | Maun | 69 | 73 | 74 | 70 | 68 | 70 | 63 | 60 | 55 | 56 | 63 | 65 | Relative Humidity (%) |
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