Wilderness Safari Camps

We started our safari experience with a flight from Livingstone into Botswana on a 4-seater plane that offered pretty good views of the mist from the falls and the Zambezi river. We switched to a slightly larger 14-seater plane which would take us into our first safari camp.

The flight was very exciting as the pilot flew only about 200 feet off the ground so we he had amazing views of the river - and the wildlife (elephants, hippos) in the water.

The flight stopped at a couple of camps before landing at Tubu Tree Camp - or first safari camp. And this is pretty much how it's done. The flights into the camps are part of the well-oiled machinery of the Wilderness Safari experience.

At each camp the plane comes down on the dirt airstrip, quickly unloads and loads passengers, and bags, and then heads back down the airstrip - all without turning off the engines.. the total time on the ground is about 5 minutes. Back in the air, sometimes the flights between camps were also only around 5 minutes, depending on the proximity of the airstrips and the itinerary of the plane. It creates for an exciting experience in itself. But we would soon learn it is nothing to the experience of seeing the animals on the safari drives.

We stayed at three camps total: Tubu Tree, Duba Plains, and Selinda. Each offers a slightly different terrain, clientele, accommodation, staff, and animal viewing experience.

But the one thing that each of the camps has in common is the quality and luxury of the camps themselves. We were not staying at the ultra-luxurious camps but these were still really nice by our standards.

On the game drives we enjoyed not only the animal sightings but also the landscapes and scenery, the sunrises and sunsets, and the snacks and drinks that accompanied them.