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Author: John Spence

Botswana was where John Spence started in safaris, guiding mobile camping parties through the Okavango Delta’s hidden havens. Like most animals, he views change with caution and even now there’s trepidation mixed with his excitement whenever he returns.


It all seems so long ago that I started in safaris, guiding mobile groups, fixing vehicles, stocking up with supplies and, when I was on safari, generally pretending to know much more about birds than I then did. I loved Botswana then as I do now – there’s certainly nowhere like it for wildlife – but over the last couple of years I’d started to worry about the place. We generally find that it’s the owner-managed camps that provide the best safari experience, and they’re very few and far between now in Botswana. Some managed camps can be brilliant, but staff can move on making it impossible to guarantee consistently high standards. And something I’ve become very aware of is that Botswana has become more and more expensive. From my UK base it was very hard to envisage just how prices from £350 per person per night could really be justified.

My recent visit has done much to put my mind at rest. True, some camps are overpriced and those are the ones we avoid. Others, while expensive, still offer value. The concessions system that underpins conservation in the area – and keeps mass tourism out – means prices can never come down too low, and with camps that, by law, have to be totally eco-friendly you do have to pay for environmental design and construction.

I was also able to test out a small private mobile-camping outfit that’s been set up by brothers Grant and Brent Reed. Calling their operation Letaka after a reed found in the Okavango Delta (they are referred to simply as the Letaka brothers in Botswana) they offer what I consider is the best way to experience a safari. As a small private group, you have your own guide and vehicle, and can plan your day as you wish. After the splendours of many of the camps we saw I felt this was by far the most real/relaxed option.

Because the thing that puts Botswana beyond any cost/benefit analysis is its wildlife. Charlie’s sighting list is a reminder what you can see in a single day, and I saw just as much.

Botswana’s never going to be cheap. But such a pristine natural paradise could never survive the onslaught of tourists in great numbers. A mobile tented option is a really cost-effective way to explore little-visited areas and still recapture that safari feeling, while the more expensive lodges – or the ones we recommend, at least – combine great game-viewing with superb comforts.



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