Botswana Safari

Selinda Concession is one of our favourite privately owned concessions in Botswana. A beautiful concession with great scenery, excellent guiding and a high standard of privately owned lodges.

The two camps in this area are Selinda Camp and Zarafa Camp (used to be called Zibalianja Camp) and are excellent for both wildlife viewing or just sitting back and taking in your surroundings. Admittedly they are fairly expensive (approx USD$900pppn and $1,400pppn in high season) but the standard of guides, accommodation and service levels is excellent.

As a private wildlife concession it does mean that you will pay more for your safari. The advantages of this however are that you are able to drive off-road and do not have to stick to the tracks; you are also permitted to do night safaris. Both of the above mean that your wildlife experience is greatly enhanced as you have access to game viewing throughout the concession rather than just what you see alongside the road (as is the case in Moremi Reserve and Chobe National Park). The other huge advantage is that as a private concession you will only ever see the vehicles from the few lodges that are in the concession, meaning that on any wildlife sightings there is no crowding and you often end up with some fantastic wildlife viewing to yourself.

Owned by the famous film maker and photographer Beverly and Dereck Joubert. the Selinda concession has featured in numerous wildlife documentaries and photographic displays.

Wildlife of Selinda:

Selinda consists of various open grasslands spotted with a number of palm fringed islands which are home to a variety of resident game throughout the year. As with other concessions such as Kwando, Linyanti, Savuti the game populations do increase from June onwards, this is not to say that the game viewing is not good at other times of the year. When the author visited Selinda in December some of the highlights included leopard, a herd of 50 plus elephants crossing the marsh at sunset, some powerful male lions patrolling their territory, a pride of lions waking at sunrise and a pack of wild dogs on the hunt! Wildlife safaris to the Selinda concession are also particularly good as the dry season progresses as the permanent waters of Zibadianja Lagoon attract huge herds of game, which, in turn, also attracts even more predators.