Driving back to camp after a splendid morning tracking a lone Lioness for two hours, eventually finding her plus four two and a half month old cubs. We were just passing an area locally known as Jouberts Island. Here the flood plains are drying up awaiting the seasonal flood to return. It has left pools [...]

In life there are so many situations that may be defined as the mundane, they happen once, twice, one hundred times.  Even some beautiful sights like a picture by the masters can be viewed over and over.  A discovery is a moment that will never happen again. You are the privileged individuals to see that [...]

While there’s no doubt that being alluded to as the Brangelina’s of the safari industry is quite a compliment, there’s much more substance to the work of Dereck & Beverly than appearances. Tiara Walters of South Africa’s Sunday Times weaves a story which we hope will “turn around a billion Chinese”. But it requires your [...]

Last year we witnessed some extraordinary sightings involving a rather eccentric Cheetah we called Sehema, this  means silly in Setswana. Two of the highlights came in as many days.  The first involved some of our Selinda Camp guests who came across what seemed to be a Cheetah stalking something.  Cheetah are our rarest cat so [...]

A new Wild dog pack on the Selinda Reserve has been discovered.  We have named it the “Explorers Pack” which consists of just 4 individuals.  Led by an Alpha female we suspect  that they have split from a pack from the north, possibly the Kwando area. They are incredibly distinct being very dark.  One of [...]

The breeze coming off the spillway in February helped cool the residents of Selinda reserve and the insects were given haven in the long grass, this has lead to some pretty fantastic birdwatching in the area and the lush greenery adds to the feel of really being out in the bush. There is nothing like [...]

We all talk about the “magic hours” of photography.  Those golden soft light periods, just after and before sunrise and sunset. It is often said that the harsher light of midday is just not good enough for great images as it is too bleached and flat.  One tip maybe then to convert to black and [...]

Email from Lizzy at Selinda Camp after asking her about the three little lion cubs we saw near Selinda’s airstrip last week. Hi Dave, The cubs haven’t been sighted as yet however their mother has been spotted and it looks like she is lactating, so we hope there are still alive but just hidden.  We [...]

And here’s how the cheetah vs. leopard sighting at Selinda Reserve transpired. Written by Jamie Hopf, guest and photographer of this extraordinary event. Dicks of Selinda Camp was the guide. Our very first morning drive definitely set the bar high for the rest of our trip! Our guide, Dicks, spotted some cheetah tracks in the [...]

 Boot Camp 2013 Each year, we close our  camps at the end of January for our annual “Boot Camp” – a week of focused intensive training (not military drills!). This was the sixth Selinda Reserve Boot Camp and the second Duba Plains Boot Camp. Each year, there is always the challenge of developing a new [...]

   Weddings Bells at the Selinda Reserve Every year on the Selinda Reserve we bring in the New Year, and the new season, with a fun day for all the staff. Each year is unique, and this year it included the Botswana Olympics (covered in another post). But it was also unique for another reason. There [...]

Botswana Olympics The inaugural Great Plains Conservation “Botswana Olympics” was held in January. The Selinda Reserve, and then Duba Plains, hosted the all day events on 29th January and 1st February respectively. Mirroring our cousins in Kenya, and their Maasai Olympics held in December, we wanted an equally fun day of camaraderie and bonding. With [...]

We have 3 new arrivals on the Selinda Reserve, 3 tiny ten day old lion cubs were spotted for the first time yesterday. Mots (Selinda Camp guide)  was following one of the Wakpuka pride females .  She walked over to an acacia bush to reveal  three tiny little cubs, probably not even 2 weeks old. [...]

Pictured is a frequent visitor to the camp, loving the lush green leaves on the trees at this time of year.  5 tonnes of mass, he is incredibly tactile in camp. Stepping over obstacles in order not to break them.  One amazing site is watching him breathe in so that he can squeeze through a [...]

Let’s transport you to another vision, where you are floating on the HBS Zib in the middle of Zibadianja Lagoon in Botswana’s Selinda Reserve. And get this, you are on a massage bed. Yes, it’s true. “There is always a bowl of water with an orchid in it whenever I go to a spa, so [...]

Recently, Selinda Camp has been abuzz with breeding herds. From the Red lechwes to the impalas to the Blue wildebeest, and even the roan. It’s been a veritable wonderland of new life. A rare hybrid of a Red lechwe and a waterbuck was spotted, leaving many of us quite perplexed at first (see picture, below [...]

The plan was to have a suprise sundowner for our guests at Starpan, so we loaded up the vehicle with everything we needed and set off with plenty of time to spare, an easy evening drive I said. We were busy driving down a road, that had not been used in a number of weeks, [...]

Last night we surprised our Hong Kong honeymoon couple, Flora and Tang, with a romantic moment to remember.  After a special game drive, witnessing a pregnant lion hunting, we walked them back to their room surprising them with a private dinner, and a romantic bubble bath for two!  Bubbles with two flutes of “bubbly” to [...]

The Selinda Pack of African wild dog seem to be thriving. We’ve just recently seen nine of the puppies, each looking like buff teens ready to soon join in the hunting.   This image was recently taken by Johnny Wagner between Zarafa and Selinda Camps.  While you can still see the softness of the fur, there’s [...]

Feb 7, 2013, email from Dollar: “Dav, um in the kitchen for a little bit, then I will move to the front then to the office just to see how everything goes,  they run such an amazing service, I  luv the way they do their salads it really cool, 5*. I’m loving the food and [...]

Dollar’s Diaries Throughout the next month we will presenting a short blog following the adventures of Dollar Ngore on his trip to Ellerman House in Cape Town. Dollar is the manager of the new Selinda Explorers Camp in Botswana.  A legend in his own right, from his chef skills to a master in traditional dance, [...]

Each year, Mr. Harper chooses favorite properties that he has visited over the past 12 months to comprise this prestigious Grand Award list. To be considered for the annual awards, properties must be relatively small in size, possess strong individual personalities, offer relaxing atmospheres and demonstrate a consistent devotion to personal service. We are of [...]

Yesterday, after a huge maintenance day we went on a short game drive/ boat cruise with the entire staff. Kathy made Christmas pudding and we had small (Dutch) presents for everyone. We had our X-mas sundowners in front of the camp. We toasted on a very successful 2012 year and and the anticipation of a [...]

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 [...]

October heat has carried onto November, temperatures reaching the maximum of 42 degrees flushing away the hopes of rains. This has been an amazingly dry season with the wilderness covered with a brown blanket of dying grass and leafless trees. This was a perfect game-viewing time of the year, also a disheartening time to watch [...]

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 [...]

We had an emergency at Selinda Camp last week in the form of a road block created by our Wild Dog pack, the red listed endangered species. With a plane on the way from Maun, our guests were due to fly out that morning.  All was going well, with the transfer, when the car taking [...]

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 [...]

Our friend and fan, Dan Achber of Trufflepig, crafted this entertaining and informative video of the Selinda Canoe Trail. It’s a must-see, if for no other reason then to know what to do when you face a pod of hippos be it in in Botswana, or elsewhere in your life. Glad you enjoyed it, Dan! [...]

“My son and I recently had three perfect days at Selinda Reserve within a month trip to Africa. Our stay at Selinda Camp was by far the  most pleasurable for many reasons but the four main would be Liz,  John, Dukes and the staff. The accommodation, animals, weather, food  and total experience were perfect but [...]