Jao Camp

The Okavango Delta is one of the natural world’s most singular creations: a river that flows from the mountains of Angola and empties not into the sea but into the flat, sand-filled interior of the Kalahari, spreading across 15,000 square kilometres of Botswana in a system of channels, lagoons, floodplains, and islands that supports some of Africa’s most concentrated wildlife. The water that falls as rain in Angola months earlier arrives in the Delta as an annual pulse of life, the flood that fills the channels and transforms the landscape from semi-arid savanna to a glittering inland sea.

Jao Camp sits within a 60,000-acre private concession that captures the full range of Delta habitats within a single property, and the experience it offers reflects that variety. A single day might begin with a dawn game drive across the seasonal floodplains and their concentrations of red lechwe, those specialist water antelopes that bound through the shallows in the way most antelope cannot, move to a mokoro excursion through lily-covered channels where hippos regard your dugout canoe from comfortable distances, and end on foot, walking with a guide through the mixed woodland of an island where elephant and giraffe move between the trees.

The architecture responds to the elevated, island setting with suites built on platforms above the ground level, their thatched rooflines blending into the canopy of the trees that surround them. Private plunge pools extend over the floodplain on some suites, and the outdoor spaces are designed for the observation of wildlife that passes beneath and around the structure. Elephant frequently walk within metres of the guest areas, and the birdlife audible from a suite’s deck through the early morning is a wildlife experience in itself.

The birding across the Jao concession is among the finest available anywhere in Africa. Over 400 species have been recorded in the area, from the vivid colours of bee-eaters and kingfishers to the massive Pel’s fishing owl that hunts the channels at night and the African fish eagle whose cry is the defining sound of African water. Dedicated birding activities can be arranged and specialist guide knowledge is exceptional.

Jao is a fly-in property; charter flights from Maun, itself connected to Johannesburg and other regional hubs, take approximately 45 minutes and provide views across the Delta that rank among the most striking perspectives on this landscape. The all-inclusive cost reflects the operational complexity of running a premium camp in one of the world’s most remote and logistically demanding locations, but the result, for those for whom this level of wilderness experience is the point of travel, is without compromise.