April is the cruellest month….as the temperatures continue to drop on a daily basis, I was almost tempted to believe TS Eliot but in fact April has been anything but cruel in terms of its safari this month. It all started with African wild dogs who decided to appear at early morning breakfast and kill [...]

Selinda Explorers Camp – Private Safari by Safari Architects Day 1 My guests and I had been waiting for this trip for the last 6 months! After a lot of banter and excitement, the day had finally arrived when we would be leaving for our Selinda adventure.  Both myself and Brad were leading the trip, [...]

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 [...]

27th March 2013 – 6.10am “we hear erratic splashing coming from the water in front of tent 4″. “In the cool of the early morning our guests had been watching the moon set from the main deck.  When there is a full moon you can enjoy its last hanging moments reflecting off the Zibidianja lagoon [...]

Safari Architects’ Brad reviews the wonders of Selinda Explorers Camp on a Private Safari Day 1 My guests and I had been waiting for this trip for the last 6 months! After a lot of banter and excitement, the day had finally arrived when we would be leaving for our Selinda adventure.  Both myself and [...]

Meet Bokamoso The Leopard, she is using this tree to scan for prey not far from Zarafa Camp The Young Female is almost 3 and half years old so she will have left her mother around two years ago. Bokamoso, meaning future in Setswana, is a very appropriate name for this endangered animal. Protecting these species one [...]

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 [...]

On the 1st March we re-opened Selinda Explorers Camp for its second season. It was extremely exciting for us to see the spillway flowing with water, over the summer months it does dry up. The waters have come from heavy rainfall, throughout the wet season, coupled with the flood waters from Angola flowing in from [...]

Fred is back at Zarafa, with  an absence of a few months but he has returned! Good ‘ol Fred, the sleeping elephant.  If you can remember Fred from last year?   He was the famous elephant who liked to sleep on the termite mound in front of camp – all the time and made famous [...]

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 [...]

DON’T YOU WISH THIS WERE YOUR CLASSROOM…. In December 2012, Great Plains Conservation held a week long educational program for the local communities of Seronga and Gudikwa. In order to teach and share ideas, Selinda Explorers Camp’s main area was transformed into a make-shift classroom. Subjects covered were: Okavango Delta and all of Botswana’s ecosystems [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Pictured is a Flap-Necke Chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepsis), taken at Selinda Camp.  They can often be seen in all our camps ambling slowly looking for small insects.  They famously change colour, when stressed, and most significantly their eyes move independently of each other. Did you know? – In Botswana culture the Chameleon can be related to [...]

    A Hippo jumps for joy (with Zarafa in the background) in celebration of Zarafa’s achievement as Best Camp in Africa at this year’s Safari Awards that took place in London this week Thank you Peter Luck-Hille (a recent Zarafa guest) who took this freeze frame action shot from the Zarafa pontoon boat one [...]

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 [...]

We are always seeking new ways to nurture children’s love and appreciation for the bush. And corollary to that, is giving them ways to express their new found adoration for something as magnificent as a shiny dragonfly or gigantic baobab tree or the huge flock of queleas in the summer sun. It’s often as easy [...]

Dear Caitlin: My husband Peter and I had the singular pleasure of staying at Zarafa on the 5/6/7 and 8th of November. Whilst there, we were informed that the next leg of our journey which was to have been Zambia, had to be cancelled due to widespread flooding. Willem and Nienke were solicitous and incredibly [...]

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 [...]

Today, CNN featured both Ride Kenya and Selinda Canoe Trail in its article titled “9 Ways to Travel Africa in Style”. We are honored to be part of this adventurous round-up of authentic African experiences which slough off the glitz & glam and get real in the bush. Come join us soon.

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 [...]

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! [...]

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.