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A 12-Day Wildlife Adventure from Etosha Pan in Namibia, to the Okavango Delta in Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zambia

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A 12-Day Wildlife Adventure from Etosha Pan in Namibia, to the Okavango Delta in Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zambia A 12-day wildlife adventure from Etosha Pan in Namibia, to the Okavango Delta in Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zambia This tour offers you a birding and wildlife adventure that combines the best highlights in three countries: Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. We begin our tour in Namibia on the spectacular Waterberg Plateau, which hosts rare birds difficult to find elsewhere in the country. The woodlands and savannah of the arid Etosha Pan provide one of the best game watching in Africa and a totally different array of birds. Tropical woodlands of the Caprivi Strip and the floodplains of the Kavango and Zambezi Rivers offer some of the most exciting birding and animal watching in Africa. We will cross the border with Botswana and enter the Okavango Delta, one of the most pristine and unspoiled wetlands on Earth, with spectacular bird and wildlife watching. For some though, the highlight will be sightseeing of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the spectacular Victoria Falls in Zambia. Such an array of varied of habitats in three different countries provides incredible contrasts and wildlife encounters like no other. To enhance our experience of the African bush, we will have at our disposal a full time local guide and a safari vehicle with a pop top roof. You can expect to see about 350 bird species on this tour. ITINERARY Day 1 Setting down at are excellent for most Windhoek airport in of Namibian’s specials, the morning, you will be including Hartlaub's met by our guide and Spurfowl, Rüppell's myself and transferred to a Parrot, Violet Wood- charming lodge on the Hoopoe, Bradfield's outskirts of the city. After Hornbill, Orange River lunch, we will visit a local Francolin, Tinkling game reserve, where in the Cisticola, Burnt-necked hilly acacia savannah Eremomela, and three landscape, we will look for species of woodpecker: Short-toed Rock Thrush, Violet-eared and Golden-tailed, Bennett's and Cardinal Black-faced Waxbills and Rockrunner. Some Woodpeckers. game might also be seen such as Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra, Red Hartebeest and Giraffe. We will conclude the day with a Day 3 We will continue exploring the area in scrumptious dinner at Windhoek’s most famous the morning and after seeing the target restaurant. species, we will leave the lodge and its stunning landscapes. Our destination for today is the Day 2 In the morning, we will undertake a Etosha National Park, one of the best game journey north to the Waterberg viewing places in Africa. And, once again, Plateau. there will be several stops en route to view birds En route, the likely species we might come and mammals by the side of the road. After all, across include Tawny Eagle, Pale Chanting it is wild Africa! Goshawk, Black-shouldered Kite, Lilac- We will spend the night at Namutoni camp, breasted Roller, Red-eyed Bulbul, Cape Glossy where the illuminated waterhole should provide Starling, Long-tailed Paradise Whydah, Shaft- unforgettable encounters with wildlife at night. tailed Whydah, Rock Martin and Acacia Pied Barbet. Mammals will also be present by the side of Day 4 The most striking feature of the Etosha the road and these might include Chacma National Park is the Etosha Pan. About Baboon, Greater Kudu, Gemsbok, Steenbok, two million years ago, this area was an Damara Dik-dik, Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Red enormous lake. Today, it is a vast, shallow Hartebeest, Southern Giraffe, Warthog and depression that, for the greater part of the year, Springbok. is a bleak expanse of white We will reach Waterberg in cracked mud, which shimmers early afternoon with plenty of with mirages. There are, time to explore the area. The however, a number of Waterberg is a spectacular waterholes scattered brick-red sandstone plateau up throughout this area that attract to 400m high and crowned a large diversity of mammals with lush vegetation where and birds. We will spend a full birdlife abounds. The day in the park, exploring its sandstone cliffs are the only eastern parts and visiting a breeding site of the Cape number of waterholes in search Vulture in Namibia and home of birds and game. to a variety of rock-loving The park is home to 144 species such as Familiar Chat, mammal species, including Speckled Pigeon, Peregrine Black Rhino, Giraffe, Falcon, Verreaux’s Eagle, African Hawk-Eagle Burchell's Zebra, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Short-toed Rock-Thrush. The surrounding Cheetah, Spotted Hyena, Warthog, Blue bushes, forests, river beds and open sandveld Wildebeest, Eland (the largest antelope), sandwiched between Angola and Botswana. With 450 species of birds, it is the most bird- rich region of Namibia and is southern Africa’s top birding hot-spot. While birdwatching along the way, we should reach our lodge by late afternoon. You will be impressed by the location of the lodge, where we will spend the next three nights. Set Gemsbok (Oryx), Springbok, and a plethora of in riverine forest on the banks of the Okavango others. River, the lodge is an ideal gateway to Three-hundred and forty bird species inhabit the fabulous Mahango Game Reserve and one the park, including 35 species of raptors, of of the most pristine wetland habitats on Earth, which six are vultures. Martial and Tawny the Okavango Delta. Eagles, Red-necked Falcon, Greater Kestrel, With two sunset Kori Bustard (the world’s heaviest flying bird) decks on the bank of and Secretarybird should be encountered the river, you will without great difficulty. Ironically, the pan is have the chance to also Southern Africa's most important breeding relax and enjoy the ground for Greater and Lesser Flamingos (in the serenity of the river rainy season). and its wildlife. We will leave the park just before the gates shut and travel a short distance outside the park. Day 7 Our visit Etosha will be concluded with an Today, we alfresco dinner at an upmarket lodge. After the will explore whole day of game viewing, you will enjoy a the Mahango Game little luxury! Reserve which protects habitats ranging from vast floodplains and papyrus Day 5 After morning birding around our lodge, swamps to dense climax woodland. Our bird we will head towards Rundu. We will list will grow here fast and highlights might break the journey with a number of stops, include Dickinson’s Kestrel, Bearded including a visit to the sewage ponds at Tsumeb, Woodpecker, Broad-billed Roller, Long-toed which has a nice selection of waders and Lapwing and the rare Slaty Egret. The reserve wildfowl. is also home to Crocodile, Hippopotamus, At Rundu, we will do some birdwatching in Elephant, Lion, Wild Dog, Buffalo, Kudu, Sable the nearby woodlands in the hope of seeing and Roan Antelopes, the elegant Red Lechwe Rufous-bellied Tit, Red-headed Weaver, Green- and the rare Tsessebe. capped Eremomela, White-breasted and Black Cuckooshrikes, African Golden Oriole and Day 8 Tinkling Cisticola. Today, we will cross the border with We will spend the night at a lodge situated Botswana and go deeper into the on the banks of the Kavango Okavango Delta. We will spend River and set within a lush the entire day cruising the garden. From the lodge’s Okavango Delta (with a break premises, you can see locals for lunch) while searching for crossing the river in mokoro's birds. The target species will be as they travel back and forth Perl’s Fishing Owl, which is from Angola to Namibia! almost guaranteed to be seen here. Other likely species Day 6 Today, we will follow include White-fronted, Carmine the Kavango River and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, eastwards and after a two-hour Western Banded Snake Eagle, drive we will enter the Caprivi Osprey, Brown-throated Weaver, Strip, a narrow piece of land Brown Firefinch and numerous Our accommodation for the waterbirds. next two nights is situated on The handsome African the bank of the Zambezi River, Skimmer breeds here as well, so which runs the length of the no doubt, we will come across it property offering breathtaking too scooping the insects from the views over the water. Species water surface of the Okavango. such as African Fish Eagle, African Paradise Flycatcher, Day 9 You will be treated numerous kingfishers and bee- today to breakfast eaters can be seen from the while cruising on the Okavango veranda of the restaurant here, river – nothing can beat the as well as Elephants, Giraffes, enjoyment of having an omelette Hippos and Crocodiles. Even prepared by your chef while the African Finfoot is a resident being watched by hippos! birds here! After breakfast, we will continue eastwards along the Caprivi Strip, birding en route and Day 11 The lodge’s garden is teeming with reaching one of Africa’s largest rivers, the birds and an early morning stroll can mighty Zambezi, by late afternoon. En route, produce good views of Red-faced Cisticola, we might pick up African Barred Owlet, Purple- Puffback, Black-collared Barbet, Orange- banded and White-bellied Sunbirds, and White- breasted Bush Shrike, Yellow-fronted crested Helmetshrike, amongst others. Tinkerbird, Black Cuckooshrike, Yellow White- We should arrive at our comfortable lodge, eye, Amethyst Sunbird, Dark-capped Bulbul, nestled on the banks of the Zambezi River by Terrestrial Brownbul and Blue Waxbill. late afternoon. A stroll around the lodge’s lush After birding along the Zambezi, we will green garden might produce an array of new cross the border with Zambia and head to species, including Schalow’s Turaco, Brown- Livingstone and the world-famous Victoria hooded Kingfisher, Spectacled Weaver, Bronze Falls. The immense waters of the Zambezi Mannikin, Golden Weaver, White-browed River plunge into a gorge causing permanent Coucal, Olive Woodpecker and even a Willow rain, rainbows and the famous "smoke" which is Warbler.
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