Eastern Botswana Safaris

The Eastern Botswana Safari combines the two Basecamps of Camp Kalahari and Planet Baobab along with a variety of privately guided safari activities. Available from April 15 - October 31. The descriptions of the two camps are as follows:

Camp KalahariCamp Kalahari is the best way to experience the Makgadikgadi in a fresh and affordable way. It is the ideal camp for those who want fun, comfort, style and adventure. Situated right on the very edge of the vast and empty Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana, Camp Kalahari offers a range of activities to explore this beautiful, lunar landscape including game drives, quad bike excursions and nature walks with traditional Bushmen trackers.

A cluster of five khaki dome tents perches on the rim of the ancient superlake; replete with old style military stretcher beds, toasty bedrolls, crunchy cotton sheets, stripy African blankets and hotwater bottles in winter. Steaming bucket showers are on offer to sluice off the Kalahari dust.

The wing-shaped mess tent seems poised to take off across the sweeping expanse of salt pan that comprises your spectacular and otherworldly view! Camp Kalahari's chef is a talented chap, noted for his tasty soups and particularly for his "Pilli-Pilli Ho-Ho," a lethal concoction of chillies marinated in sherry and gin. Smeared over one's breakfast eggs, it's just the thing to sharpen sleep-dulled wits in preparation for whatever adventures await.

The best adventure of all is to travel across the pans on a quad bike, fat-wheeled two-man lawnmower things. Get dressed up in dark glasses and Lawrence of Arabia headgear and race out on to the pan. Fat tyres skim over the surfaces where heavier vehicles would sink. Watch the sun set in an insane conflagration of oranges and reds. And, then experience the even bigger thrill of seeing absolutely nothing… and sleeping out on the pans under a sky full of stars!

Planet BaobabAn accessibly priced and family friendly adventure safari into the magnificent Kalahari Desert and Makgadikgadi Pans. Shaded by enormous and ancient baobab trees is a traditionally styled Kalanga village. Planet Baobab boasts tradtional huts, a funky bar and restaurant, Kalahari's largest swimming pool and access to the boundless salt pans of the Makgadikgadi and an incredible array of wildlife.

At PB, you can sleep in traditionally styled Bakalanga huts with en-suite showers, curl up in a Bushmen hut complete in every detail, pitch your tent, or park your 4 x 4. You can light your own campfire, or gather round the communal blaze in the lelwapa and enjoy a cool drink, then sling your own boerewors onto the fire or enjoy PB's unique Pan-African cuisine.

Thankfully, the funkiest bar in the Kalahari awaits your pleasure, a well known watering hole for travellers of every description and the more colorful characters from Maun. At any one time, locals jostle the cross-continentals who have slogged it through the bush, and worse, to get here. Just a stone's throw from all this beer and bustle is the elephant's paddling pool.

When it comes to ablutions, this oasis comes to its own. In addition to sluicing off the dust of the Kalahari highways with enough hot water for Africa, these are the most original shower blocks and bathrooms on the continent.

Base yourself here and you can take guided walks and quad bike trips into the bush and the Pans with our expert Guides discovering the geological origins of what was once the world's largest ever super lake.