This Botswana Safari Camp Is Designed for Watching Mega Herds
Elephants at the water hole, a common sight on the best Botswana safaris.
Wilderness takes travelers to one of the most exclusive concessions in the region.
An elephant sauntered over to the water hole, aware of my presence but unable to see me. As he stood barely three feet away collecting water, I could make out the hairs on his trunk, his thick eyelashes, and practically every wrinkle on his weathered skin. My position in an industrial blind with open windows at ground level allowed for incognito wildlife viewing over a lunch of quiche and salads. I could watch the politics at the water hole, observing who gave way to whom, who kept to which corner, and who left upon another’s arrival. As more elephants showed up, I saw each of them as parts of a whole, like noticing the brushstrokes on a famous painting for the first time.
Wilderness debuted Mokete, one of its newest tented camps, last summer in northern Botswana. In keeping with the country’s high-value, low-volume tourism strategy, the tour operator opened its private concession to limited numbers of safari-goers. Situated on nearly 124,000 acres between two of Botswana’s most important ecosystems, Chobe National Park and the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, the Mababe Depression acts as a critical migration corridor and includes three key habitats: mopane woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands. This makes Wilderness Mokete a prime destination for serious safari enthusiasts who don’t mind going off the beaten path. The only way to get in and out: via helicopter or several hours of sandy four-wheel-drive off-roading.
Wilderness accommodates 18 guests at its private tented camp, Mokete.
I visited Mokete in July, the middle of dry season. While the camp is open year-round, the period from May through October provides the best opportunity to spot wildlife in the Mababe, which Wilderness protects through local community support and conservation. As at the brand’s other camps, Mokete composts waste and purifies water on-site, and Wilderness hires many of the staff from the neighboring village. The nine-tent retreat meets strict environmental standards: It’s off-grid, built on an elevated wooden platform that makes the whole operation fully mobile, if necessary. A layered roof system insulates and cools, offering shade as well as maximized natural ventilation.
From my serene, minimalist tent’s living room, bedroom, and bathroom, I could see across the savanna. At night, I lay under a retractable roof and stargazed from my bed. I heard creatures munching on the trees right outside – a well-timed, 1 a.m. flashlight revealed they were Cape buffalo. Come morning, lion prints crisscrossed the camp boardwalk.
Cape buffalo roam Botswana's Mababe Depression in the thousands.
During a game drive farther afield, a lingering dust cloud in the dry landscape morphed into a seemingly endless line of buffalo trudging slowly toward the river. My guide, Jonah, estimated 10,000 of them, likely from a Chobe herd, forming a wall alongside our vehicle. I learned that buffalo roam the Mababe in thousand-plus herds, creating pathways and sowing seeds along their way. Botswana also has the highest concentration of elephants in the world, and in the Mababe Depression herds can reach over 100. Unsurprisingly, these numbers attract predators such as lions, with one particular pride approaching 30 cats.
Larger herd concentrations of three of the “big five” game animals are due to the Mababe’s 6,000 acres of perennial marsh in an otherwise drought-prone region. Against this backdrop, pangolins, cheetahs, warthogs, antelopes, zebras, wildebeests, and African wild dog puppies poking out of dens add to the Mokete experience.
Cape buffalo roam Botswana's Mababe Depression in the thousands.
On a whim one day, I walked to a small water hole visible from the camp’s boardwalk, where I could hear the elephants eating before I could see them. Mopane trees rustled as five elephants came padding my way. Mothers and babies arrived, and soon a parade of a dozen were ripping leaves from branches, the trees bending and swaying. This was a different group than I’d come across earlier; my guides explained that the Mababe is so wild, many of its animal inhabitants haven’t previously encountered humans. So, I stayed as still as possible while inquisitive eyes sized me up. They must have decided there was enough to go around, and then they returned their focus to the water. At Mokete, there’s room for everyone.
