Underneath the Mangosteen… We have this huge Mangosteen tree right in front of Zarafa. And every year in November it gives us very tasteful orange fruits. The birds like them, the squirrels, the warthogs, the elephants and the housekeepers. So the battle of the fruits has started. Since we like our animals in camp it [...]

Lara Logan of CBS 60 Minutes profiles “The Last Lions” filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert on location at their Great Plains Conservation Camps in Botswana Scheduled to air Sunday November 25, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT Lara Logan and a team from CBS 60 Minutes profiled filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert at their Great Plains [...]

Great Plains Conservation is not simply a tourism venture. As our name suggests, we are actually primarily focused on conservation and use tourism as a vector to achieve our conservation goals. Hence we we call ourselves a “Conservation Tourism” company. To this end, Dereck & Beverly Joubert founded Big Cats Initiative in partnership with National [...]

At a spectacular ceremony in Italy this week, it was announced that Great Plains Conservation would be breaking new grounds for Relais & Châteaux. ol Donyo Lodge and Zarafa Camp are the first properties ever to be accredited as Relais & Châteaux members in Kenya and Botswana respectively and be accepted into this prestigious association.

I just don’t know where to begin when it comes to the animal sightings we’ve been having in October. Elephants everywhere, several prides of Lion, Leopards hunting and a total of 33 Wild Dogs, divided over 3 different packs. And this is all happening just in and around camp ! Throw in large herds of [...]

Recently our friends and colleagues at Ellerman House, based in Cape Town, hosted the annual ArtAngels charity art auction and party for the first time this year, following the success of the inaugural 2011 event at CIRCA on Jellicoe in Johannesburg where R1.6 million was then raised for charity This year, and going forward, ArtAngels [...]

As many of you know Dereck and Beverly recently made a new movie called The Unlikely Leopard Why not take 2 minutes and enjoy the short clip available here ? Easy Prey scene – The Unlikely Leopard

Forbes’ Hotel Detective recently discovered Zarafa in Botswana Read the article here

Today, 30 September, Botswana celebrates 46 years of independence. The celebrations are in full swing! Watch this space for some more pictures of the action with guests and staff. Pula, Pula, Pula!!!!  

Our local colony of African Skimmers have chicks.  There is an island, that we can see from Zarafa and easily boat to, where a number of these endangered birds are nesting.  When the guests are not enjoying the incredible season we are having, on game drives, they often go out on our barge boat of [...]

There are so many entries for August it is very difficult to know where to start.  The 2012 season is producing some of the most incredible sightings, exceeding all our expectations, in number and diversity of species, including two new species that we have not seen for over a decade.  The reason for this is [...]

Guided bush walks in the bush with your armed guide is an integral activity at Zarafa.  Our guides are experienced professional walking guides, who are all trained in rifle handling. The walks range from a 10 minute exploration through to 3 or 4 hour walks, there is no limit. We have had some incredible sightings [...]

All of our guests today viewed Leopard with cub (feeding up a tree), Lion (stalking and attempting a kill), Cheetah (licking his lips) and Wild Dog (sleeping) Just about all corners of the concession presented a marvelous sighting today. Out comes the champagne later we think…

Congratulations to Barry, Bill and Elaine on your first ever Leopard and Lion sightings.  The Leopard is minutes from Zarafa, she was spotted early up a sausage tree with no kill.  We drove by 3 hours later to find a male Impala at the base.  We are trying to work out what happened but we [...]

The new guest arrivals had a fantastic drive in seeing literally hundreds of Elephants. After a long trip the guests decided to make the most of the camp and watch the sunset as hippos came out in front of deck and they were chased away by a herd of elephants. They are not the best [...]

A few departures today. Guests John, Jeanne, Benson, Peter and Patti Helicoptered off to the Delta, always exciting for us when this happens Other guests, Carol and Steve had a incredible slow departure as they helped track a female hunting.  Their first 10 minutes into the Selinda Reserve happened to see Lions mating and the [...]

Steve and Carol, first timers arrived yesterday, direct in from Atlanta, Georgia USA. Zarafa is their first ever Safari camp. Foster promptly picked them up at 13h55 and by 14h10 they were sitting in the game vehicle watching two Lions mating. After a good hour with their first ever Lions they moved on to a [...]

Our canoe trail reports have been a bit quiet recently but rest assured that’s not due to a lack of excitement and adventure! We had the most incredible trips over the past few months, which have just flown by. We’ve been non-stop since June with every safari (set departure date filled). Now with only a [...]

Red lechwe are an endemic species to Botswana and parts of Zambia.  The semi aquatic antelope is widespread throughout the Selinda Reserve and one of the key species that we aim to protect at Great Plains.  In 2005 our aerial survey counts detected no Lechwe in the area but in 2011 we extrapolated upwards of [...]

You have to see it to believe it!  1000 Buffalo crossing in front of your vehicle on an early transfer to the airstrip.  The morning light provided the warm glow enhanced  as the herd kicked up dust as they went. Buffalo in these numbers are such a joy to watch, but this site would not [...]

Amber is a beautiful Leopardess who has called the Selinda Reserve home for the past 9 years. She has successfully raised many cubs who she has transplanted into her territories over the years, each time pushing herself into a new area. A few mornings ago we spotted her close to our airstrip. She was moving [...]

The month of July will be dedicated the largest of our many diverse mammals – Loxidonta Africana – The African Elephant Simply put, they are everywhere. We have not had rain since April, even then the rainy season provided us with little rain. This has meant that all the water holes all around Zarafa and [...]

This is for all those folks who are looking forward to doing a touch of DIY around the house this weekend… Have a look at what the Selinda Lion Pride did when they saw us wanting to remove an old Jetty we had on the Selinda Reserve recently… Guess it is always a good idea [...]

… just another (harsh) day in the bush… One of our resident leopards at Zarafa Camp was stalking a squirrel for quite some time this morning. The squirrel was going for higher ground within the thinnest branches of tree thinking the leopard was not able to reach him. He was wrong… Text by Willem Bakhuys [...]

The Selinda Pride of 15 lions is still roaming through our remote but beautiful Selinda Reserve. On the night after they crossed through our camp they’ve killed a buffalo during the night. We heard the whole thing laying in the safety of our huge tent. The next morning the pride was already on the move [...]

As we constantly strive to improve on the guest experience at our camps, we took a long hard look at the existing design of the entrances as Zarafa to the guest tents Feeling we could definitely improve upon the existing design each tent now comes with a wonderfully “zanzibari” inspired set of doors which open [...]

It is with great excitement that the Selinda Reserve shares this wonderful news. About 5 weeks ago now the alpha female of the Selinda Wild Dog pack denned in an area we call Fish Eagles nest which is about 25 minutes from Selinda Camp. At that point we closed off all the roads leading into [...]

The Selinda Lion Pride is back… “Our” 15 lions just walked back into the Selinda Reserve this morning, and this time they brought their cubs. They actually entered last night to steal a fresh (elephant) kill from a bunch of hyena who were just behind Zarafa Camp. We were about to go out with the [...]

A stunning selection of David Murray’s wildlife pictures, who is manager of Zarafa Camp in Botswana, are available to view on the BBC’s website – Enjoy! BBC Discover Wildlife website

Great Plains Community Outreach has been very active in all spheres of our outreach over the last few months. Our conservation education program has continued with a follow-up holiday workshop with the Gudigwa Primary School Environmental Club and our craft groups have been working on new products. A workshop was held over 2 days during [...]