I visited Africa's under-the-radar safari hotspot, with excursions from £140

Telegraph

14-05-2025

Damn. Raining. As we drove across northern Botswana, drops hit the windscreen. The drizzle escalated to a proper shower. Then, it stopped. The total duration of precipitation during my ten-day 'wet season' trip to the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area? About three and a half minutes.
Perhaps I was lucky. Or well-timed. It was late March, the death throes of the rainy period, when the landscape is lush and the weather improving after summer's more fulsome downpours – but before tourist crowds and lodge rates have yet to catch up. It certainly seemed I'd picked an opportune moment to visit the largest on-land protected zone in the world.
Nearly twice as big as the UK and sprawling over national borders, the Kavango Zambezi covers its namesake river basins, where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe converge. Within it are 19 national parks, including headline acts – the Chobe river, the Okavango Delta, and Victoria Falls – but also lesser-known destinations such as Bwabwata in Namibia's little-visited Zambezi region (formerly the Caprivi Strip) and Zambia's Sioma Ngwezi.
That the governments of all five nations worked together to create this ambitious entity is considered something of a miracle. Officially launched in 2012, its focus was on transboundary conservation, regional cooperation, and enabling tourism for broader socio-economic development. Now, there's an increased emphasis on marketing to let travellers know this place exists.
Part of that effort is the creation of the Great Kavango Zambezi Birding Route, designed to showcase the area's prolific birdlife – over 650 species recorded – and promote sustainable tourism. Birders often stay longer, visit during the low season (when birding is best), and explore more off-beat areas. All this helps spread the tourist dollar, both geographically and throughout the year.
Now, I'm no twitcher (as I've just proven, by use of what's essentially a birder's swear word). But I like birds a lot, especially the big, colourful, charismatic and copious sorts you get in southern Africa, which are capable of winning over even the most avian-ambivalent. And it's not as if there are no animals around, they're just more widely dispersed. The weather is riskier, and the days get pretty hot, but that means nights stay warm. There are also far fewer tourists, and prices are attractive indeed. I'd come, with binoculars and enthusiasm, to see if I could have an excellent Africa experience, off-season, across four countries, for less.
'This is paradise season,' reckoned Tinolla Rodgers, managing director and owner of African Monarch Lodges, as we sat under the Milky Way at Nambwa, her lodge in Bwabwata National Park, my first stop. 'It's lush and green, the weather's warm, lots of young are being born.'
It's also bargain season – around N$6,000 (£248) a night cheaper than the peak months. 'I've worked in the Mara, the Serengeti, Kruger,' Tinolla continued, 'and Bwabwata is still my favourite; truly special.'
I was getting that vibe. I'd arrived earlier, by boat (only possible when the water is high), skimming channels fringed with reeds and papyrus, slowing for hippos. Nambwa itself felt straight out of a fairytale, the whole place floating in the treetops, raised walkways winding between luxury stilted tents and a vintage-style lounge, with its fire pit and chandelier. It's raised like this so elephants can roam right underneath and to provide views over the Kwando floodplain – in peak season, you might not need to go on a game drive at all. But I did, and was treated to plenty: oxpeckers nit-picking the haunches of kudus, galloping sable, flashy lilac-breasted rollers, elephants wading through horseshoe lagoons.
There are parts of Namibia's Zambezi that resemble the more famous Okavango Delta – only with lodges at a fraction of the price, and far fewer visitors. 'We've struggled for years to get people here,' Tinolla admitted. 'This is the forgotten part of the country.' Just the sort of place the Kavango-Zambezi project is encouraging people to visit.
In truth, Namibia has just made things more difficult. At the time of my trip, the only country requiring Britons to buy a visa was Zimbabwe. In April 2025, Namibia instated visas too. In an ideal world there would be seamless movement between all five Kavango Zambezi nations – it's a long-term goal. But at least the travel was straightforward: none of my destinations were more than a three-hour drive apart, mostly less, on smooth tarmac, with no internal flights required.
Next stop was Botswana, where I checked into the Pangolin Chobe Hotel, on the edge of Kasane, looking down to the wide, wild river. The focus there was on photography. As well as things like game drives and drinks, included in the rate was the use of top-of-the-range digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and lenses I could barely lift. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem, as the hotel's boat was kitted out with aircraft gunner-like seats, enabling you to mount the camera and swivel to the wildlife action.
Owner and co-founder of Pangolin Photo Safaris, Guts Swanepoel is a force of nature. As we cruised down the Chobe river, he pointed out pied kingfishers, pygmy ducks, and red bishops (resplendent in their breeding plumage) while skilfully instructing even novices like me on how to photograph them. It was a brilliant barrage of technical, artistic, and zoological information, with chilled beers, hippos and dreamy sunsets thrown in.
Pangolin Chobe is relatively competitively priced given all the inclusions, and there are discounts for longer stays during low season – a sure-fire way to come home with priceless photos. But Botswana is notoriously expensive. However, such is the compact nature of this area that those absolutely determined to keep costs down could do the country on a day trip instead. For instance, Jollyboys Backpackers in Livingstone, an hour's drive over the border in Zambia, offers not only ensuite double rooms for US$85 (£64) but Chobe trips for $185 (£140), including a morning cruise, lunch and an afternoon game drive.
Livingstone, and its counterpart Victoria Falls, over in Zimbabwe, have the additional benefits of being sizeable towns, offering a choice of urban hostels, mid-range lodges and fancy tented camps in the surrounding national parks. And of course they're the staging posts for visiting mighty Victoria Falls itself.
For this I was well-timed. Peak flow is generally between March and May, after which levels decrease to a dribble until November, before picking up again. I saw the Falls first from the Zambian side (cheaper than in Zimbabwe, US$20 compared to US$50) and felt physically slapped: it seemed less curtain of water than wall of white, thunderous rage. Butterflies and rainbows danced in the drenching spray – finally, I got my wet-season soaking.
The elegant, steel-arch bridge over the Batoka Gorge, completed 120 years ago, may be the world's most scenic border crossing. Over in Zimbabwe, I gained a different perspective of the Falls, as well as a greater sense of the human/wildlife conflict issues that the Kavango-Zambezi hopes to address. The burbling rapids, wide vlei and mopane woodlands of Zambezi National Park are right on the town's edge. A game drive here provided wonderful sightings of buffalo herds and a parade of elephants joyfully kicking up dust in the dying sunlight, but ancient animal migration routes cross the main highway, and I saw many elephants while simply being driven from A to B.
Then, on a tour of the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, I met researchers at work on projects such as DNA testing meat captured from poachers (to identify the species and determine the penalties) and collaring lions. The week before, one of Zambezi National Park's most dominant lionesses had been killed; the team were setting off to collar another member of the pride. The data is used to understand lion movements and devise mitigation techniques: this has led to a 50 per cent drop in wildlife conflict in the area.
I hadn't seen any lions on my trip. My last chance was in Hwange, Zimbabwe's largest national park, bordering Botswana and a key wildlife dispersal area for the wider ecosystem. Deteema Springs camp closed completely for the worst of the rains, and had only just reopened for the year, with rates a third cheaper than in peak season. During the peak, the namesake springs attracted a full menagerie almost to your tent flaps. I had to make do with loping elephants, a cacophony of baboons, and a gazillion birds.
Zimbabwe is renowned for having some of the best safari guides in the business which, based on my experience, seems fair.
Calm, cool, possibly possessing an additional sense to the rest of us, senior guide Ophious Sibanda seemed able to read the bush's every grain and chirrup. I credit him entirely for the most astonishing game drive. Under the hot morning sun, a live-action Attenborough played out right in front of us: a herd of rare roan antelope ambushed by three cheetah; a successful kill; cheetah chased off by two lionesses; lionesses padding off; the arrival of an opportunistic jackal; the lionesses returning – with six adorable cubs.
Oh, and bateleur eagles circling above. I was shellshocked. Ophious remained cool. I asked how this rated in the grand scheme of things. 'Eight out of ten,' he replied. What more do you need for a ten? For me, this – indeed, the whole, enormous, ambitious Kavango Zambezi undertaking – gets full marks.
How to do it
There are numerous tour options for the varied Kavango Zambezi. Cedarberg Travel (0208 898 8533) offers an 11-day, multi-country Kavango adventure trip from £2,878pp including premier and luxury accommodation, private transfers, most meals and some activities, excluding flights. Flight prices fluctuate but start from around £1,000pp. For further info, see uncoverkaza.com and kavangozambezi.org.