It's game on for Botswana safaris
Thursday, May 4, 2017 METRO 43
News | Deals | Round-ups
Escape Escape Bad Week Escape Escape
for... Fliers
.Smart safari: Enjoy game drives. .and canoe trips at Gomoti Plains.
Flight-delay compensation app AirFair says passengers are much more likely to be departing late than they were five years ago. Worst offender Gatwick saw a 21 per cent increase in tardy take-offs.
.andrew howard photo.
for... Wild asses
For… Yams
The unglamorous potato-like root will be star of the menu at this year’s St Kitts-Nevis Restaurant Week in the Caribbean. Former headliners at the July bash include sweet potatoes (which are different) and breadfruits.
For… Lawson stores
It’s game on for Botswana safaris
B
otswana’s sprawling Okavango Delta is arguably Africa’s premier safari spot. When the waters return in spring, so do cheetahs, crocodiles, giraffes, zebras and more, en masse. Camps here are traditionally small, secluded and – for Africa – comparatively expensive. Yet while that applies to this spring’s three new arrivals, each also brings something distinct to the delta. The first is ultra-swish. Duba Plains Camp (from £966 per person per night, greatplainsconservation. com) closed last year and is reopening in a new location. With just five stilted, air-conditioned tents with plunge pools, plus a twobed suite ideal for families, it also has a wine cellar and dining area above the water. ‘Duba Plains is the sole camp within a remote concession in the fertile north,’ says Chris McIntyre, author of the Bradt Guide to Botswana. ‘This is one of the delta’s top big-game areas and is still famed for sightings of lions killing buffalo.’ A cheaper option awaits at the delta’s south-eastern extremity.
Three new camps in the Okavango Delta offer great game-watching en masse, says Richard Mellor One big drain...
The Okavango Delta is 5,500 sq miles of grassy floodplain where the Okavango River drains into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Water levels peak between May and August, when millions of temporary channels and islands form one day and disappear the next.
Ten-tent Gomoti Plains Camp (from £475 per person per night, machabasafaris.com) offers day
and night game drives, plus trips along fig tree-lined waterways in mokoro canoes. The game is good, though rhino are elusive. ‘While modest by Botswana standards, Gomoti Plains is still a relatively smart safari camp by any wider African criteria,’ says McIntyre, who also runs specialist operator Expert Africa. Another cheaper arrival is Sable Alley (from £442 per person per night, naturalselection.travel) in the north, which focuses on great experiences rather than fancy food and linen counts. Not that you’ll be roughing it: Sable Alley boasts a pool and 12 elevated, ensuite tents facing a lagoon and resident hippo pod. Day and night game drives are on offer, as well as mokoro safaris on the beautiful Khwai private reserve. ‘Botswana’s army-backed antipoaching campaign is largely working and boosting the density of Okavango wildlife,’ says McIntyre. ‘It’s great to see.’
D o one to Dubai Already tired of the UK’s stopstart sunshine? Then take matters into your own hands by heading to Dubai for guaranteed sun. JA Jebel Ali Beach Hotel is the sort of all-inclusive five-star resort in which you’ll spend half the time soaking up rays. The perks include balcony rooms, a golf
course, heated pools, a spa and a private Arabian Gulf sandy beach. Save £200 per person on a five-night stay, bed and breakfast, including return Royal Brunei flights from Heathrow. Valid for travel from May 27–September 30, book by May 15. From £699 per person, destinology.co.uk
Offer based on information provided at time of press. Metro is not responsible for any price changes or restrictions on availability
Chef and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain has lauded Japanese convenience stores’ ‘ethereal’ egg sandwiches. They ‘defy logic and science with their deliciousness and Good apparent freshness’, week he gushed.
Conservationists in India’s Gujarat state complained after the tourist board published an ad suggesting tourists could chase endangered Asiatic wild asses in its Rann of Kutch region. The promotion has been amended.
News | Deals | Round-ups
Escape Escape Bad Week Escape Escape
for... Fliers
.Smart safari: Enjoy game drives. .and canoe trips at Gomoti Plains.
Flight-delay compensation app AirFair says passengers are much more likely to be departing late than they were five years ago. Worst offender Gatwick saw a 21 per cent increase in tardy take-offs.
.andrew howard photo.
for... Wild asses
For… Yams
The unglamorous potato-like root will be star of the menu at this year’s St Kitts-Nevis Restaurant Week in the Caribbean. Former headliners at the July bash include sweet potatoes (which are different) and breadfruits.
For… Lawson stores
It’s game on for Botswana safaris
B
otswana’s sprawling Okavango Delta is arguably Africa’s premier safari spot. When the waters return in spring, so do cheetahs, crocodiles, giraffes, zebras and more, en masse. Camps here are traditionally small, secluded and – for Africa – comparatively expensive. Yet while that applies to this spring’s three new arrivals, each also brings something distinct to the delta. The first is ultra-swish. Duba Plains Camp (from £966 per person per night, greatplainsconservation. com) closed last year and is reopening in a new location. With just five stilted, air-conditioned tents with plunge pools, plus a twobed suite ideal for families, it also has a wine cellar and dining area above the water. ‘Duba Plains is the sole camp within a remote concession in the fertile north,’ says Chris McIntyre, author of the Bradt Guide to Botswana. ‘This is one of the delta’s top big-game areas and is still famed for sightings of lions killing buffalo.’ A cheaper option awaits at the delta’s south-eastern extremity.
Three new camps in the Okavango Delta offer great game-watching en masse, says Richard Mellor One big drain...
The Okavango Delta is 5,500 sq miles of grassy floodplain where the Okavango River drains into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Water levels peak between May and August, when millions of temporary channels and islands form one day and disappear the next.
Ten-tent Gomoti Plains Camp (from £475 per person per night, machabasafaris.com) offers day
and night game drives, plus trips along fig tree-lined waterways in mokoro canoes. The game is good, though rhino are elusive. ‘While modest by Botswana standards, Gomoti Plains is still a relatively smart safari camp by any wider African criteria,’ says McIntyre, who also runs specialist operator Expert Africa. Another cheaper arrival is Sable Alley (from £442 per person per night, naturalselection.travel) in the north, which focuses on great experiences rather than fancy food and linen counts. Not that you’ll be roughing it: Sable Alley boasts a pool and 12 elevated, ensuite tents facing a lagoon and resident hippo pod. Day and night game drives are on offer, as well as mokoro safaris on the beautiful Khwai private reserve. ‘Botswana’s army-backed antipoaching campaign is largely working and boosting the density of Okavango wildlife,’ says McIntyre. ‘It’s great to see.’
D o one to Dubai Already tired of the UK’s stopstart sunshine? Then take matters into your own hands by heading to Dubai for guaranteed sun. JA Jebel Ali Beach Hotel is the sort of all-inclusive five-star resort in which you’ll spend half the time soaking up rays. The perks include balcony rooms, a golf
course, heated pools, a spa and a private Arabian Gulf sandy beach. Save £200 per person on a five-night stay, bed and breakfast, including return Royal Brunei flights from Heathrow. Valid for travel from May 27–September 30, book by May 15. From £699 per person, destinology.co.uk
Offer based on information provided at time of press. Metro is not responsible for any price changes or restrictions on availability
Chef and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain has lauded Japanese convenience stores’ ‘ethereal’ egg sandwiches. They ‘defy logic and science with their deliciousness and Good apparent freshness’, week he gushed.
Conservationists in India’s Gujarat state complained after the tourist board published an ad suggesting tourists could chase endangered Asiatic wild asses in its Rann of Kutch region. The promotion has been amended.
