Did you know that despite millions of safari photos taken annually, less than 5% ever make it past a casual social media post? Most end up forgotten, buried on hard drives, often due to missed moments, blurry shots, or flat lighting. I’ve been there. Moremi Game Reserve, particularly the Xakanaxa lagoon area, is a photographic goldmine, but it’s also a place where you can blow a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you’re not prepared. I’ve spent years chasing light and lions across Botswana, and I’ve learned a few hard lessons firsthand. Let me save you the grief. Timing Your Xakanaxa Safari: My…

Our final destination in Botswana was the Xakanaxa region in Moremi Game Reserve, where we spent two nights wild camping. On our first full day in the area, we were up once again at 6am and out of the camp by 6.50am for an early morning game drive. It wasn’t long before we spotted our first signs of wildlife – two lion brothers in the grass. We watched on in awe as the pair came together, played briefly, then went their separate ways. Not long afterwards, we spotted an enormous flock of birds in a pool of water in the…

Our time in the Moremi Game Reserve couldn’t have been more different to our experience in Savuti. Whereas Savuti was dry, dusty and quiet on the wildlife front, Moremi Game Reserve was lush, wet and teeming with birds and animals. We spent two nights camping near the Khwai River, before moving onto Xakanaxa in another part of the reserve. On our first full day in Moremi, we were up at 6am and out for our first game drive by 7am. It didn’t take long before we spotted our first signs of wildlife – four giant hornbills by the side of…

When we were looking for somewhere to have dinner in Victoria Falls Town, one name came up time and again – the Dusty Road Township Experience. Described as a Zimbabwean cultural experience, the restaurant was opened in 2019 by Sarah Lilford, a fourth generation Zimbabwean, and offers diners a set tasting menu of traditional Zimbabwean dishes for US$35. Lunch is also available for US$24 a head. Our dinner started with shots of three welcome drinks – a tamarind, munyii berry and rosella iced tea (below); utshwala, a type of local beer; and maheu, a maize-based energy drink. The drinks proved…

The short version: go between May and August, stay on the Zimbabwe side for your first visit, book the helicopter flight even if it hurts your wallet, and skip the sunset cruise unless you’ve already done everything else. Victoria Falls is one of the few places that actually lives up to the hype. Standing at the edge of a 108-meter drop while over a million liters of water per second roars past you — that’s not something you can replicate anywhere else on earth. But timing and planning matter enormously here. Go at the wrong time of year, stay on…

If you want to see elephants in the wild, look no further than Chobe National Park. The 11,700 sq km park in north-western Botswana is home to some 35,000 elephants, the highest concentration of the pachyderms in the world. The sprawling park was opened in 1968, making it Botswana’s first national park, and it has a diverse range of habitats. The area around the Chobe River is home to the park’s biggest concentration of animals. There, alongside the aforementioned elephants, you’ll find giraffes, vervet monkeys, lions, crocodiles, impala, kudu, zebra and more. The park is also home to more than…

Tsodilo Hills is the best rock art destination in sub-Saharan Africa. Not one of the best. The best. Over 4,500 individual paintings across 400 sites, compressed into four quartzite hills rising out of the Kalahari sand. The San people have called it sacred for at least 100,000 years. UNESCO agreed in 2001. Getting there is genuinely hard. That’s partly why it stays worth visiting. Why Tsodilo Hills Rewards the Detour Most travelers skip it. Chobe and the Okavango Delta dominate every Botswana itinerary, and Tsodilo sits 400km southwest of Maun in the far northwest, accessible only by sandy 4WD track.…