Botswana Safari

Chitabe Camp & Chitabe Lediba

Okavango Delta, Botswana


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View images of Chitabe Main Camp: Chitabe Images
View images of Chitabe Lediba Camp: Chitabe Lediba Images

View Camp Layout Map of Chitabe Camp: Chitabe Map
View Camp Layout Map of Chitabe Lediba Camp: Chitabe Lediba Map

CHITABE CAMP & CHITABE LEDIBA - OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA
Chitabe Camp and Chitabe Lediba are operated by Wilderness Safaris. Chitabe (pronounced Chi-taah-bee) is located in a 28,000-hectare photographic reserve built on one of the most beautiful islands in the Okavango Delta, in a private area that is bordered on three sides by the Moremi Game Reserve. The reserve's boundary in the east is the Gomoti Channel and the Santantadibe River in the west. The area is made up of a superb variety of habitats, which include waterways and marshlands, dry acacia and mopane woodland, riverine areas, open grasslands and seasonally flooded plains. Access into this area is only by aircraft. The camp has been operational since 1997 and has developed an outstanding reputation, especially with the specialized zoo groups.

Accommodation
Chitabe Camp            For images of Chitabe Camp, click Chitabe Main Images           For Layout map of Chitabe Camp, click Chitabe Map
Accommodation at Chitabe Camp consists of eight spacious East African style tents that are built on elevated wooden decks, beneath a lush tree canopy. Each tented room has en-suite facilities with flush toilets and both outdoor and indoor showers. Hot showers are guaranteed anytime of day or night. Each tent has a nice verandah with superb views of the open savannah in front of the camp. One of the tents is the honeymoon tent.

A separate thatched dining room, pub, lounge, reading room and pool area is linked by raised walkways. The raised decks offer superb views over the open floodplain in front of the camp. Chitabe also has a splendid pool and sundeck overlooking the plains for reading and relaxing during the afternoon while watching the game. The camp area is surrounded by ancient ebony, leadwood and sausage trees. Complimentary laundry services are provided.

Chitabe Lediba Camp            For images of Chitabe Lediba Camp, click Chitabe Lediba Images           For Layout map of Chitabe Lediba Camp, click Chitabe Lediba Map
Chitabe Lediba is situated on the same forested island as Chitabe Camp; however, the two camps are run as totally separate entities, each with its own staff, managers and guides. Chitabe Lediba accommodates guests in the same luxurious tents as those of Chitabe.

Accommodation consists of five spacious and luxuriously appointed East African style tents that have en-suite facilities with flush toilets, and a shower and basin with hot and cold running water. Each room also has an additional outdoor shower, which overlooks the floodplain. The rooms are on a raised deck and each has an outdoor shower. The room interiors are of the same standard as at Chitabe Main.

This camp is ideal for small parties that are interested in their own exclusive camp, as well as individuals who prefer a smaller camp. There is a very nice pool and one of the tents is the honeymoon tent. The camp overlooks a waterhole, where Elephants and plains game often come down to drink during the day. Complimentary laundry services are provided.

Chitable Lediba also offers two family tents.  The family units are tents number four and five. Both units are identical. The back room contains two ¾ beds, bedside tables, a chest of drawers, chairs, etc.  Both units have a door in the bathroom which leads to the back room, so the bathroom is shared by the children and the adults. Both family rooms have extended decks on the front, with a 6-seater dinning room table and chairs, plus umbrella. This is so families may have private meals on their decks (if they so choose) and the children have a place where they can paint and do games, etc. Both family units also include an additional outdoor shower.

All units at Chitabe Lediba (including the two family rooms) are linked by walkways to the main area, pool, curio shop, etc. The family units are not necessarily accessible from main camp, unless guests are driven back and forth. Chitabe Lediba can accommodate two families, using both family tents, even if that bumps the Lediba guest total to over 8.  If this happens, then the number of guests accommodated at Chitabe main camp is reduced accordingly in order to stay within the 24-guest concession limit. So, conceivably if Lediba camp has four people in each family unit and two in the other three units, then Lediba could become a 14 bedded camp. This is fine as the main area at Lediba can easily accommodate 14 guests.

Activities
Both camps at Chitabe offer guests game drives in open 4x4 vehicles during the day and at night accompanied by an experienced guide, as well as nature walks. Chitabe is strictly a game viewing area - no water activities are offered here.

Typically guests leave for a game drive in the morning and again in the afternoon, returning usually after dark to take advantage of the many more elusive nocturnal animals often seen here. The two camps utilize the same game drive areas, so the game viewing experience is identical at the two camps.

Game walks with an armed and experienced guide are also a specialty at Chitabe and recommended for those wishing to get the true feeling of being in Wild Africa. For those guests interested in a true walking experience, consider the new two-night Chitabe Walking Trail (see below).

Chitabe Walking Trail           Jump to The Chitabe Walking Trail, click Chitabe Walking
Walking on safari has always been regarded as one of the finest ways to get a true feeling for the African wilderness. The Chitabe Trail is set in one of the Okavango Delta's best walking areas and it offers a two-night genuine walking trail experience for those who want to get closest to nature. Guests are accompanied by an armed guide who will lead them on informative and adventurous walks through the different habitats of the Delta.

The walking trail experience allows guests to get their feet on the ground and get away from vehicles to get the real feel, touch and smell of Africa. You will walk for several hours per day at a moderate pace. There will be plenty of time for quality game viewing and birding to enjoy the wide variety of wildlife found in the Chitabe area.

Nights are spent sleeping out at two separate hides located in different parts of the Chitabe Reserve. Both hides accommodate guests on elevated platforms with each person sleeping under a mosquito net and the African sky above. Chemical toilets and hot bucket showers are also provided. Simple, but delicious, home-cooked meals on the open campfire are enjoyed under the stars - truly a wonderful way to end an active day in the bush.

The two hides at Chitabe are located in two very contrasting habitats. One hide is situated on the edge of a floodplain that often contains water and enables one to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the Okavango as you sleep. The second hide is built within a woodland area on the edge of an extensive open savannah plain which has an abundance of elephant activity. At night, the silence, punctuated by the nocturnal sounds - the roaring lions and whooping calls of hyenas - is magical and often provides a memory that is the highlight of guests' entire safari. Most guests spend a third night back at Chitabe Lediba camp to end their stay before traveling on to their next destination.

Chitabe Walking Images: Chitabe Walking Images

Wildlife
Game viewing is excellent here, and includes Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Reedbuck, Lechwe, Impala, Zebra and Hippo. Wild Dogs are among the major attractions of this area and a long-standing program to study the Wild Dogs is based nearby (read more on the Wild Dogs below). Night drives can be very rewarding with good sightings of the rarer nocturnal animals such as Pangolin, Civet, Serval, Genet, Porcupine and Aardwolf. Guests will also likely see Zebra, Reedbuck, Red Lechwe, Impala and all the plains game.

Wild Dog Conservation Fund
Chitabe Camps have aided in the support of the Botswana Wild Dog Research Project, which was established by Dr Tico McNutt in 1989. The Wild Dog Project has a study area of about 3000 square kilometres. About 160 wild dogs in ten to twelve packs inhabit this region, and Chitabe lies within this study area. Dr. "Tico" McNutt and the wild dogs featured in the May 1999 edition of National Geographic Magazine and the project has also been featured in a BBC Natural World/Afriscreen film which was released in January 2002, entitled A Wild Dog's Story. For more information on the film please go to www.afriscreen.com. Should you wish to contact the Botswana Wild Dog Research Project directly, you may send them an email here: Wild Dog Research Project.

The Botswana Wild Dog Research Project is run by a group of ecologists who have been conducting a long-term study of critically endangered African Wild Dogs in the Okavango Delta of northern Botswana. As perhaps the largest remaining population, this region's Wild Dogs are crucial to understanding social patterns, communication, dispersal and behaviours of this remarkable species. Wild Dogs require large natural areas in which to roam, hunt and raise young. As rural Africa becomes more developed, conflicts with humans will continue to mean declining populations for these predators through livestock conflicts, disease, poaching and road killing.

Megan Parker, a researcher with the Wild Dog Project writes, "Our goal is to help understand and preserve predators in a developing world by working with local people and the international scientific community. We are working on research for conservation and management solutions between Wild Dogs and human conflicts.

Our tented field camp is located at the south-eastern end of the Okavango Delta on the edge of Moremi Reserve, where we have been studying wild dogs and local people's attitudes towards predators since 1989. This area is not only home to a vital population of Wild Dogs, but is one of the most treasured, diverse natural areas for wildlife remaining in southern Africa. We are associated with the University of Montana and our team has graduate students who are pursuing research on communication, behaviour, conflict management and monitoring of predators here.

African wild dogs are highly social, intelligent, cooperative predators that depend upon their pack to hunt and raise pups. Our current research focuses upon how wild dog packs communicate through scent marking. Because they cover such large distances in their territories and need to communicate with neighbouring packs, they rely upon scent marking to leave information for other dogs to find. We are able to closely observe dogs in these habitats and have radio collars on approximately ten packs of dogs across our 25,000 square-km study area.

We hope to understand how wild dogs use scent marks to define boundaries between packs so that we may use these types of marks to manage dogs in areas where there is conflict with livestock, and potential for disease, road-kills, and poaching. If we can keep dogs from ranging into areas where they are at high risk, we can help wild dogs and other predators co-exist with humans in rural Africa.

Our operational funding is spare, as we are supported through zoological foundations, private donations and conservation organizations. We hope you join us in helping these endangered predators continue to exist in an increasingly fragmented environment."

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Water / Land Activity Table for Botswana camps:  Water/Land Botswana
Flying Times between Botswana camps:  Fly Times Botswana

For further information about the Okavango Delta, click More Okavango
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