The Selinda Wildlife Reserve is 320,000 acres of private and pristine wilderness where guests are treated to one of Africa’s finest wildlife safari experiences.  The reserve is a private concession ‘owned’ by a few passionate conservationists who are all about wildlife, the environment, conservation, small luxurious safari camps, and offering their guests intensely personal and impassioned safari experiences.  There are only three camps in the entire reserve, between them they host a grand total of 32 guests per day, meaning that this reserve is one of the most private and intimate places to view wildlife in Africa.  When on a game drive you will not see anyone else other than those people from your small camp.  This privacy cannot be overstated – the difference between viewing wildlife undisturbed, by yourself, and on your own time, with the ability to off-road to get close to the sightings, and the option to linger all day at a sighting if desired; and viewing wildlife in a queue of Land Rovers, minibuses and personal vehicles with hordes of people trying to see the same animal that happens to be next to the road, is a dramatic difference in the overall safari experience.  At Selinda, you will see no fences, no power lines, no roads and no crowds of people or vehicles, just untouched ecosystems and loads of animals.

The Selinda Spillway, a sometimes grassland sometimes shallow water river, winds its way through the entire reserve linking the Okavango Delta waters in the west to the Linyanti and Kwando wetlands and rivers in the east. Because Botswana is so flat, the water flows in both directions, but only in years of major water volume does the water flowing from the west meet the water from the east, but water or not, this is an incredibly exciting wildlife area.  The Spillway is an Eden for wildlife, especially in the dry season (May-Oct).  The Selinda Concession is ecologically similar to the Linyanti Concession on Selinda’s eastern border but Selinda has more extensive floodplains.  The landscape is lush savannah, waterways, palm trees, dry woodlands, marshes and lush floodplains.  Like the Linyanti, enormous herds of elephant will be seen in the dry season.  The three safari camps in the concession are luxurious, small, expensive, relaxed, located in fantastic settings, and home to incredible staffs, chefs and safari guides.  Guests receive the highest standard of service in postcard picturesque surroundings with dense game viewing in total privacy on a flexible schedule where the animals dictate activities – when there is game to be seen you can go see it and stay with it for as long as you want!

Activities include – off-road game drives morning, afternoon and night in open safari vehicles, walking safaris, birding, fishing in the Zibalianja Lagoon and canoeing (depending on water levels). The guest experience is all about the animals, flexibility and relaxing in one of natures most spectacular settings.

An endangered African Wild Dog peers at two endangered Wattled Cranes, and a Saddle-billed Stork

Game Viewing

Enormous elephant herds in the dry season, huge herds of buffalo, exceptional predator viewing – Selinda is home to the famous hippo-hunting lions, cheetah, leopard, one of the best places in Africa to see the rare African Wild Dog especially June-August when they are denning in the area, hyena, civet, serval, giraffe, zebra, kudu, roan, sable, eland, wildebeest, red lechwe, waterbuck and impala.

Over 300 bird species including the endangered wattled crane, best birding is during the Green Season, November – April.

* Selinda Wildlife Reserve is partially owned by the famous conservationists and wildlife filmmakers Dereck & Beverly Joubert.  Some of their award-winning films include ‘Ultimate Enemies’, ‘Relentless Enemies’ and ‘Eye of the Leopard’ – all filmed at Selinda.

Selinda Camps

Selinda Camp

Zarafa Camp

Motswiri Camp

Selinda Canoe Trail and Walking Safaris

Dry season: April to October: enormous herds of elephants; easy to spot animals as vegetation is less dense; cool/cold nights, sunny warm days; peak season rates; October is generally the hottest month of the year with temperatures around 100F.

* Thanks to Wilderness Safaris, specifically Colin Bell, Michael Poliza and Dana Allen for the overhead camp image, the Land Rover image and the Zarafa Camp interior image.