Zarafa Camp

Hippos call through the night on the Zibadianja Lagoon, and the tents of Zarafa Camp stand close enough to the water to hear every grunt. The camp lies in the Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana, a private concession between the Okavango Delta and the Linyanti, and it belongs to Great Plains Conservation, the company co-founded by the wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Few safari camps state their purpose so plainly. A very small number of guests pays for the protection of a very large piece of land.

History

The Selinda Reserve covers about 130,000 hectares of floodplain, woodland and seasonal waterways. For years much of it was let for trophy hunting. Great Plains took over the concession in the mid-2000s, stopped the hunting and committed the land to photographic safaris at very low density. Zarafa opened in 2008 as the flagship of that model.

The Jouberts have spent most of their working lives filming lions, leopards and elephants in northern Botswana for National Geographic, and their conservation work runs through the company. The camp's name is the Arabic word for giraffe, an animal that browses the acacia and mopane woodland around the lagoon in good numbers.

Architecture and design

Zarafa was built to leave little trace. The tents stand on raised wooden decks, so that the ground beneath could recover if the camp were ever taken down, and the camp draws its power from a bank of solar panels rather than diesel generators, which set it apart from most Botswana camps when it opened. Canvas, recycled timber, old leather and campaign furniture set the look, with antique pieces in the main area and none of the faux tribal decoration found in many safari lodges.

The main area holds a lounge, a library and a dining deck under canvas, all facing the water. A fire is lit most evenings on the bank in front.

Rooms and suites

There are four tented suites, spaced well apart along the edge of the lagoon. Each is very large by safari standards, with a sitting room, a writing desk, a bedroom under a canvas roof, a copper bath, indoor and outdoor showers and a deck with a private plunge pool. The front canvas rolls up, so the bed looks straight onto the floodplain.

Zarafa Dumatau, set a little apart, has two bedrooms around a shared living area. It is meant for families or friends travelling together and comes with its own guide and vehicle, so its guests can plan their days independently of the main camp.

Dining

Meals follow the rhythm of the drives. Breakfast comes before the dawn departure, lunch arrives in the heat of the day, and dinner is served on the deck, in the main tent or out in the bush by lantern light. With so few guests the kitchen cooks for the table rather than from a long menu, and dietary requests are handled without fuss. Drinks at sunset are taken out on the floodplain, at a spot the guide chooses that evening.

Location

Zarafa lies near Botswana's northern border with Namibia. The Selinda Spillway, a channel that joins the waters of the Okavango to the Linyanti system, crosses the reserve. It flows in some years and runs dry in others, and when there is water, boat trips join the game drives.

The wildlife is that of the wider Okavango and Linyanti region: elephant and buffalo in large herds, lion, leopard, cheetah, African wild dog, hippo, and floodplain antelope such as red lechwe, with sable in the woodland. As the reserve is private and carries few vehicles, guides may drive off road to follow a sighting, run night drives and lead walks, none of which is allowed in Botswana's national parks.

Among luxury camps in northern Botswana, Zarafa is one of the hardest to reach by road, and almost every guest arrives by air. The usual route is a flight to Maun or Kasane, then a scheduled light aircraft to the airstrip that serves the reserve, and a short drive to camp.