Botswana takes its conservation and anti-poaching seriously. Safaris long ago surpassed cattle ranching as the country’s second biggest earner (after diamonds), and 40 per cent of the population in the wildlife-rich north is employed in the trade. Animals are the diamonds up here. The president, Ian Khama, in the same progressive tradition as his father Seretse, banned commercial hunting in 2014, and was a driving force behind the delta’s UNESCO World Heritage listing.
We fly low over an oxbow river, skimming strangler fig trees and scattering giraffes. Hippos and crocs wallow in the mud
Great Plains has three camps in Kenya and six in Botswana, five of which are in (or on the edge of) the Selinda Reserve, in the country’s north-east. Duba, however, is the flagship. In 2000, the Jouberts built a home here on the banks of a papyrus marsh (where they still live), then erected a separate six-tent camp after founding Great Plains. In 2016 they began a complete rebuild of that lodge and a new seven-tent camp set in a forest area overlooking marshland opened in March 2017. In addition, there’s the fresh and contemporary Duba Expedition Camp: six sleek explorer-style tents of light canvas on raised decks, all set around an open-sided canvas dining marquee, with glorious views of a floodplain. Great Plains tends to attract fans of the Jouberts’ films, and all their camps, including Duba Expedition, come with 400mm Canon cameras and heavy-duty Swarovski Optik binoculars for guests to use. It’s the same hi-tech equipment Dereck and Beverly work with.
Of course, the great attraction of Duba Plains is what brought the Jouberts here in the first place: those animals captured so powerfully in Relentless Enemies. The film documents how the Tsaro lion pride, stranded on Duba, developed a taste for the buffalo they share the island with. The buffalo in turn learn to fight back. In one incredible scene the lions swim into the onrushing delta waters to take down their bovine prey. All the while the Tsaro numbers diminish, as the far bigger buffalo become expert at repelling the lions.
Pictured: the dining space at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge
Source link : https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/botswana-safari-holidays-africa
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Publish date : 2019-10-30 07:00:00
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