Vumbura Plains Camp

Vumbura Plains Camp

Vumbura Plains Camp - A Botswana Safari Lodge

Vumbura Plains (pronounced Vumbera) Camp is a luxury camp situated to the north of Mombo, in a private concession bordering the Moremi Game Reserve in the extreme north of the Okavango Delta.

The Vumbura Reserve offers both land and water activities in a park that has a wonderful variety of habitats and a great diversity of wildlife. The reserve offers an enormous traversing area of close on 130,000 acres.
The main activity at Vumbura Plains is game viewing in wonderful and varied countryside. Open 4x4 Land Rovers allow close proximity to animals in the savannah and forested areas. The Vumbura area is possibly the only area in the Okavango where one can see Red Lechwe (an animal that inhabits the fringes of the waterways) and a Sable antelope (an animal that enjoys the dry countryside) on the same game drive. Add in Lion, Leopard, Elephant, cheetah and Buffalo along with all the plains animals and one has an excellent all round wildlife experience in a remote and private part of the Okavango. Birding too is great with large varieties and quantities. Walks, mekoro’s and boating give Vumbura's guests the opportunity to enjoy Africa from a different perspective.

Vumbura Plains overlooks a vast, attractive floodplain and the rooms are built under the shade of cool and shady trees. Vumbura Plains consists of 2 x 14 (2 x 12 until August) bedded camps linked by raised boardwalks and each has its own dining, lounge and bar area although all 28 beds or parts thereof can be utilised for larger parties. All 14 of the luxury rooms are raised off the ground on wooden platforms with walkways connecting them to the main living areas. Each room has a large, very comfortable bedroom, a lounge, a "sala" and en-suite facilities with a shower, a flush toilet and an outdoor shower under the stars. The main dining, lounge and pub area is also raised off the ground and tucked beneath a canopy of shady, indigenous trees with a wonderful vista across the floodplains. Each room has its own plunge pool.

A variety of habitats ensures diverse and interesting game viewing. Wildlife seen here includes elephant, Lion, Zebra, Red Lechwe, Giraffe, Tsessebe, Wildebeest as well as Kudu, Impala, Leopard and Bushbuck.

Vumbura, Little Vumbura and Kaparota are situated in the extreme north of the Okavango, about 30km north of Mombo, in what is known locally as the Kwedi Reserve. More formally the Kwedi is known as areas NG 22 and 23. The entire area of over 100,000 hectares has been ceded by the Botswana Government and the Tawana Land Board to the people who live along the Okavango's northern boundary so that they can derive direct benefits from the wildlife and the environment on their doorstep.

These people live in five traditional villages to the north of the Okavango and the Kwedi. To ensure that the benefits from this arrangement are spread throughout all the people in this area, the annual payments we make go to a trust called The Okavango Community Trust. This trust represents the interests of all the people living in the five villages to the north of the Okavango. They also get the first job opportunities, the training and the benefits of other community projects that we run in the area from time to time. The five villages involved in this joint venture are Seronga, Gunitsoga, Eretsha, Betsha, and Gudigwa.

This trust has selected Wilderness Safaris as their joint venture partner, to run and manage the lodges and the tourism activities in this area. Along with this arrangement comes the right to hunt animals - including a large number of elephants leopard etc. Wilderness Safaris have elected NOT to hunt and in doing so we loose about US$300,000 in nett profit from the hunting operations. The reasons we have elected not to hunt are many and varied, but one of the most important reasons is that hunting and photographic tourism cannot mix in the same area for many reasons. One of them is that the animals in the area quickly cotton on that there is hunting and they either move away or become very skittish. As a result of this "no-hunting" policy in the Kwedi area (and because of the wide ranging habitats and permanent water in the floodplains) the Kwedi now has some of the best wildlife viewing in all of Botswana.

The vegetation ranges from the vast open flood plains to dense mopane bushveld and usually and historically has offered spectacular game viewing and birding opportunities all year round.

Wilderness Safaris operates five camps in this area where both land and water activities can be offered. The camps are Duba Plains, Vumbura, Little Vumbura, Vundumtiki and Kaparota. Each of these has its own identity and character while subscribing to the very high standards set by Wilderness. 2004 poses an interesting challenge to us. Operationally the Kwedi will be a nightmare for our maintenance people as the open plains will become filled with water to levels never ever witnessed before. We expect our vehicles, starter motors, alternators and gearboxes to take a hammering with the high water levels. Access to this area is only by air.