CHITABE CAMP – CHITABE CONCESSION – OKAVANGO DELTA

Chitabe is a Wilderness Safaris camp and is situated in a private concession area on an island in the south-east of the Okavango Delta. Playing host to a breathtaking mosaic of open floodplains, waterways, marshlands, dry acacia and mopane woodland, riverine forest and open grasslands, the area is famed for its incredible numbers and diversity of wildlife, in particular predators.

LOCATION

Chitabe is located in the Chitabe Concession, which covers 22 000 hectares of pristine Okavango Delta wilderness.

CAMP

The camp’s eight spacious Meru-style tents are built on elevated wooden decks amongst trees. Each tent has twin beds, en-suite facilities and an indoor as well as an outdoor shower. The thatched dining, bar and lounge areas are built on raised decks to provide superb views across the floodplain, and a pool allows you to cool off in the heat of the day.

Chitabe is committed to raising the living standards of its employees to ensure upliftment for employees’ families and the communities in which they live. As such, Chitabe won a Silver medal in the “Poverty Reduction” category at the African Responsible Tourism Awards 2016.

ACTIVITIES AND WILDLIFE

This unique area harbours a massive variety of habitats within close proximity giving rise to a surprising diversity of species. The mix of Okavango and Kalahari makes for an excellent home to an abundant array of herbivores: giraffe, buffalo, red lechwe, tsessebe, impala and elephant, which in turn support the larger predators: lion, leopard, spotted hyaena, cheetah and wild dog.

Activities include 4 x 4 game drives and evening drives provide opportunities for you to see nocturnal mammals such as civet, genet and bushbabies, as well as owls and perhaps leopard.

Walking safaris with skilled guides offer you the exciting opportunity of coming across big game on foot as well as observing the small wonders you miss when travelling by vehicle. The birdlife is excellent and varies throughout the year, depending on water levels and season. It includes African hawk-eagle, ground hornbill, scarlet-chested sunbird, red-billed hornbill, gabar goshawk and red-billed francolin.

Explore Chitabe on a back-of-house tour to find out more about the day-to-day camp operations as well as our eco-friendly initiatives.

A dinner in the bush is the ultimate safari experience –dine under a star-studded sky while listening to the evocative sounds of an African night.

GIVING BACK

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust is the longest-running large predator conservation research programme in Botswana. Started by Dr JW McNutt in 1989 as a research project focused on Africa’s most endangered large carnivore, the African wild dog, it now has a record of life histories of thousands of wild dog over more than ten generations. The project expanded to become the Trust, which now serves as an umbrella organisation for all large predator conservation research (lion, leopard, cheetah, hyaena and wild dog). Chitabe supports the programme financially and the researchers logistically; Chitabe guides help in data collection.

Since 2009, Chitabe and Chitabe Lediba have been involved, financially and logistically, in an annual Aerial Survey of the concession. Annual aerial surveys help to establish data on the wildlife populations in an area.

In keeping with Wilderness’ objective of reducing energy consumption and fuel use at all its camps, this camp is 100% solar powered, with electricity and hot water provided via solar panels and inverters. Waste water (sewage and grey water) is treated in an Above Ground Sewage Plant, ensuring that the water is clean before being allowed to enter the natural environment. In order to reduce our use of bottled water, reverse osmosis filtration is done on site to provide guests with high-quality drinking water. Like all Wilderness camps, this is managed and monitored against very strict in-house environmental standards, so only approved eco-friendly detergents and chemicals are used.

OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND

CHILDREN AGED 6 AND OLDER ARE WELCOME – FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN AGED 6 – 12 MUST PREBOOK A PRIVATE VEHICLE