Vumbura Plains

Our final safari stop is a place called Vumbura Plains. It’s located near the top of the Okavango Delta, which is one of the world’s few inland deltas. Most river forms a delta as they empty into a sea or the ocean, but the Okavango just fans out in interior Botswana until it evaporates.

The Okavango is produced by seasonal flooding. The Okavango River drains the summer (January–February) rainfall from the Angola highlands and the surge flows about 750 miles south in around one month. The waters then spread over the 150 x 100 mile area of the delta over the next four months (March–June). The flood peaks between June and August, during Botswana’s dry winter months, when the delta swells to three times its permanent size, attracting animals from all around and creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife.

The Okavango is produced by seasonal flooding

We were very excited to be visiting the Okavango and encountered our first bit of water moments after climbing into our land rover for the ride to the camp. We drove right through it just like Crocodile Dundee.

Elephants were crossing the road ahead of us. They generally had the right of way.

And then about 15 minutes later we experienced a flat tire! Our poor driver had to get out the spare and jack up the truck to get us going again. Fortunately it offered us an opportunity to just look around at our beautiful surroundings and the deafening quiet.

Before we knew it were were at Vumbura Plains and in the main area of the camp looking out at the incredible view.

After chatting with our host we were escorted to our compound. Each of the camps had a boardwalk that was raised up off the ground so that you didn’t accidentally encounter wildlife, especially at night. However, after dark and before sunrise you were required to have an escort just in case. For now our escort was just showing us the way to our room.

Tent 5 was to be our home for the next three glorious days. We had a lovely view of the water channel.

A sunken living room with a wet bar.

Both an inside and outside shower in case you wanted to get even closer to nature. Hah.

Outside we had a private sun deck with our own plunge pool.

We regularly saw elephants coming to the water to drink.

The water channel was filled with hippos that snorted and bellowed during the night as though they were at a cocktail party. It was amazing.