Botswana Guided Cycling Safari
This is a safari where action and adventure meet. The first cycling safari of its kind in the Okavango Delta, you’ll get to explore the ancient elephant paths that have shaped the Botswana landscape for centuries, by bike.
With two professional cycling safari guides, one at the front and one at the back on each ride and logistical support, you’ll be in the best hands while cycling along side acacia woodlands, wandering river banks, mopane forests and beautiful savannah grasslands brimming with wildlife, and endless African horizons.
Your safari guides will not only show you the secrets that pave the elephant highways of the Okavango Delta by bike, but also the incredible wildlife that walk these paths along the way. So hang on to your handlebars, this really is going to be an extraordinary cycling experience.
Your guides, having cycled and explored these wildlife areas for years, will take you to places few tyres have dared to tread! You’ll be covering between 25-45 miles per day, exploring this magical Botswana landscape in a unique and spectacular way. So saddle up and get ready for a cycling safari like no other.
Day 1 & 2: Mobile Safari Camp
Day 1: On arrival in Maun by air or road, you will be greeted by your safari guide who will help load your bike and luggage onto the bike trailers. You will then travel together by safari vehicle to our mobile safari camp, just south of the Moremi Game Reserve wildlife area (approx 1.5hrs from Maun).
Once settled in camp, with a refreshment and something to nibble, you’ll have time to do any necessary bike assembly before grabbing a warm shower and enjoying a delicious dinner around a crackling fire.
Day 2: At sunrise you will receive a wake-up call followed by a piping hot cup of coffee. After a light breakfast grab your cycling gear and start following a route from camp through woodlands and plains, created by elephants who are natural trail builders, weaving through mopane forests, and packed with lots of fun.
Your ride will take 5-6 hours, including stops for wildlife spotting and snacks along the way.
You’ll arrive back in camp in time for a warm lunch, followed by a siesta. After a late afternoon wildlife-drive and sundowner, dinner will be served, and you’ll be ready to go to sleep after an adventurous first day in the saddle.
Day 3 & 4: Mobile Safari Camp
Day 3: Today, you will pack your bags before heading off, leaving camp and cycling to a new campsite. Following elephant trails and jeep tracks through woodland and grasslands along the Khwai River. What an adventure!
You’ll spend 5-6 hours on your bike and stop for lunch along the way, with the option to get in the safari vehicle with your bike for a drive into camp. Tonight you will camp next to the Khwai River, enjoying a drink as the sunsets before a hearty dinner and an evening spent around the crackling fire, surrounded by calls of the bush, under a canopy of a stars.
Day 4: Waking as the sun rises, today is possibly the highlight of your trip! You’ll be riding along ancient elephant paths, through wide open plains and mopane forest. You will be tracking the footsteps of giants; with possible sightings of elephant, buffalo, giraffe and even lion.
This is a 6-7 hour ride, depending on the animals spotting taking place along the way. You’ll return to camp after this incredible cycle, to enjoy a lazy lunch and a relaxing afternoon amongst the mopane trees.
Day 5-6: Little Sable Camp
Day 5-6: Today we pack our bags and our bikes after a breakfast and drive to Little Sable, enjoying a picnic lunch along the way.
The next two nights will be spent at this stylish and relaxed safari camp, where you can enjoy all the Delta experiences on offer including day and night wildlife drives, mokoro trips and boat safaris.
Little Sable is located in Khwai Private Reserve, 200,000-hectares of pristine wilderness in the northern reaches of the famous Okavango Delta, and one of the most beautifully iconic landscapes in Botswana. Mopane clusters jostle for space with riverine forest, pretty waterholes dot the floodplains, and waterways wind their way across the landscape from the Khwai River. Bursting with all the signature wildlife, Khwai has an excellent reputation for hiding the rarer species of the animal kingdom, including wild dogs, serval cats, honey badgers and the elusive pangolin.
This intimate and private little camp offers eight traditional style tents, on raised wooden platforms, each with a private viewing deck, en-suite bathroom and outside shower. Little Sable offers understated simplicity and style. In camp you will feel a sense of freedom, where the wide open views offer you the opportunity to connect and immerse yourself with your surroundings on so many levels.
Day 6: Optional Night At Skybeds
Day 6: Add extra excitement to your itinerary and sleep under the stars at our magical skybeds. Swapping one of your nights at Little Sable for this unique sleep out experience. You will fly by helicopter to Hyena Pan, then take a short drive to Skybeds enjoying a stop over at our underground hide along the way, followed by sundowner drinks on arrival and a traditional dining experience before getting into bed.
There are not many places in the world that you can sleep atop a five-metre high, wooden platform with only a mozzie net between you and the stars. The two platforms overlook a waterhole (the only permanent water source for 2,000 hectares), frequented by 400 bull elephants, along with lion, leopard, eland, zebra, and more, making for some pretty outstanding wildlife viewing, straight from your platform. Each platform comes complete with a flush toilet, shower and basin under each sleeping area – no comfort is sacrificed here.
Day 7: Farewell
Day 7: After a delicious breakfast in camp, and a morning walk, you will return to Maun before we bid our farewell in preparation for your onward journey.
What next?
We would be delighted to help you plan a cycling safari to Botswana. Our team of experts has travelled widely throughout Africa and can offer expert advice on the best time of year to travel, flight routes and much more. We can plan the cycling trip alone or suggest other places to travel before or after your safari.
Price: Based on six friends travelling together, a private cycle safari costs from £5,450 per person.
This includes: accommodation, all meals and drinks, road transfers between camps and airstrip, laundry, daily cycling and safari activities, expert guiding (cycling and safari), reserve and conservancy fees, light aircraft flight from camp to Maun.
It excludes: international flights to Maun, travel insurance, tips.
Aardvark Safaris help plan every type of safari from family and beach holidays to riding and primate safaris. Do get in touch – chatting to people by phone or email is what we do best. We listen, we explain, we answer all sorts of questions even those you didn’t know to ask, and finally we make suggestions. If this is your first time to Africa or your twenty first, we have a team standing by to help make the planning easy and the journey the best ever. Please get in touch whatever stage you’re at.
Does anyone offer a guided mountain bike ride on trails around Maun. We will have some time between game drives when we return to our lodge in Maun. I’m thinking about a 2 hr ride. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Good morning Bruce, thanks for your message. One of our Travel Experts will be in touch soon regarding your request. All the best, Katy
The Botswana cycling sounds great. We have been in the Okawango delta already 2 times, selfdriving from Moremi up to Chobe.
Would be interested to experience this type of drive by bike.
Can you send us a proposal for an itinerary, possible for october/november 2024.
Greetings
Klaus
Hi Klaus, many thanks for getting in touch. This is such a wonderful way to experience the bush, especially for those who have already been on safari. I have passed your details on to the team, who will be in touch very soon. All the best, Katy