The Long Way to Selinda

You land at O.R. Tambo, get met at the aircraft, and walk to your room. No transfer, no traffic, no second airport in the morning. A classic room, a heated pool, and dinner at Quills before the flight north. Breakfast, then back across the walkway.

Tembo means elephant, and the camp is built to their tempo. Four suites and the two-bedroom Zanji sit in thick riverine forest on the river’s edge, stone walls under canvas in a nod to Zimbabwe’s ruins. Each suite holds a private pool, an outdoor dining area, and a professional camera with lenses for the stay. Walking is the main event. Drives run at either end of the light, canoes and boats go out on the Zambezi, and the fishing is catch and release. Painted dog, lion, and leopard work this stretch.

Three guest tents and two family tents on a private concession inside the park, set under sausage, rain, and water berry trees along a stretch of Zambezi shoreline. The camp takes its name from the spring line running through the concession, and the spring is why the game stays through the dry months. Days go to the river. Drives along the frontage, walks into teak and mopane, boat cruises when the water allows. A half-day at the falls is included, close enough that you hear them from dinner.

Three suites, six guests at most, on the Selinda Spillway where it connects the Okavango to the Linyanti and Kwando systems. The design goes to water first, then to rope, thatch, hammocks, and salvaged wood, an African Robinson Crusoe read on what Livingstone would have carried. Each suite has a private pool and a veranda over the spillway, and you usually arrive by boat. Elephant by the thousands. Wild dog on a regular basis. The Selinda Lion Pride the Jouberts filmed for Birth of a Pride.