Fly into Maun Airport from where you’ll catch a charter flight to Jack’s Airstrip, servicing Camp Kalahari – your home for the next three nights. Here, you’ll stay in one of their 12 Meru-style canvas tents, each with an en-suite bathroom and outdoor shower.

Your African journey begins here, in one of the world’s most surreal and captivating landscapes – the Makgadikgadi Pans. Camp Kalahari sits under a cluster of Acacia trees at the heart of these vast, gleaming white salt expanses, offering a desert experience unlike anywhere else on earth.

By day, you’ll explore the region by quad bike. These vehicles are designed with soft tyres that have minimal impact on the sands of the pans. You’ll be guided in single file across the lunar-like landscape, stopping to talk about the pan’s unique ecosystem and observe hardy desert-adapted wildlife, such as the incredibly curious meerkat.

You’ll spend time in the company of the San people learning valuable lessons through storytelling and gaining insight into life in this seemingly barren landscape. Nocturnal night drives reveal secretive desert inhabitants, while the unpolluted night skies provide some of the world’s most exceptional stargazing opportunities.

This immersive introduction sets the tone for authentic ground-level exploration throughout your entire journey.

You’ll transfer by light aircraft to the Khwai Private Reserve Airstrip where you’ll be welcomed and transferred to your elegant lagoon-side accommodation at Sable Alley. From here, you’ll venture into the pristine Khwai Reserve, where water-rich ecosystems create outstanding wildlife concentrations and exceptional game viewing opportunities.

You’ll explore this remarkable landscape through daily game drives led by expert guides. The reserve’s permanent water sources attract an abundance of animals year-round, creating opportunities to witness lions, elephants, buffalo, and countless other species in their natural habitat.

Daytime game drives reveal dramatic predator-prey interactions and large animal herds, while evenings at camp immerse you in the iconic sounds of the African bush. Water-based activities such as mokoro (traditional canoe) explorations provide more intimate perspectives of the delta ecosystem and its astonishing birdlife.

Each day brings new discoveries as you explore the intricate balance between predator and prey in one of Africa’s finest wilderness areas.

You’ll catch a charter flight bound for Victoria Falls from where you’ll transfer to the Old Drift Lodge located on the river’s edge in the Zambezi National Park. Head out on a river cruise exploring the banks of the Zambezi. Drift past grunting hippos, basking crocodiles, and wading elephants as malachite kingfishers and carmine bee-eaters paint the riverbanks with colour.

Rise early for a game drive through the national park, reading “the bush newspaper”. You may well see buffalo, giraffe, zebra, kudu, impala, and wildebeest. The park has a resident lion pride as well as leopard, hyena, cheetah, and African wild dog.

Witness the spectacular curtain of falling water for which the town is named. A guided walking tour brings you up close to the falls’ raw drama, allowing you to appreciate its scale and majesty. Enjoy the famous “Flight of the Angels”, a chance to get a bird’s-eye perspective of the falls and surrounding landscape.

Your guide will escort you around some of the local markets in town, a chance to soak up the atmosphere of the “wildest city on earth”. There are plenty of opportunities to add to your adventure list here – from white water rafting down the Zambezi to a scenic steam train tour across the historic Victoria Falls bridge.

A morning flight brings you northeast to South Luangwa where you’ll immerse yourself in the wild rhythms of the Luangwa Valley. You’ll stay at Chikunto Safari Lodge in one of five luxury tented retreats overlooking the Luangwa River. The unfenced camp means that game viewing starts at “home”.

The density of wildlife here is staggering: massive herds of buffalo, territorial hippo pods, elephants crossing the river, and giraffes browsing on the floodplains. But the real prize is leopards. South Luangwa has earned its reputation as perhaps Africa’s finest leopard viewing destination.

Each morning, set out early for guided walks learning bushcraft from experienced guides. The vulnerability of being on foot transforms every encounter from observing normally skittish impala herds to appreciating the finer details such as a dung beetle rolling its prize along a rutted animal track.

Late afternoons game drives transitions into night drives. Spotlights reveal leopards on the hunt, genets in the trees, porcupines waddling along roads, and if incredibly fortunate, perhaps an aardvark or honey badger. The density of leopard sightings on night drives is simply unmatched.

On your final morning, you’ll transfer by light aircraft (1.5 hours) to Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport where you’ll catch your connecting international flights homeward bound.