It’s not typically an elephant knocks in your door whilst you’re preparing for dinner.
He’s simply a trunk size away and I’m frozen.
As I peer into his pink snout, now tracing a part of netting on my wood-framed safari lodge, I’m wondering if he is clever sufficient to open the door.
He in all probability simply desires a peek inside my suite. And who can blame him? Because it is extraordinary, alongside with the remainder of the camp that is my dwelling for an all-too-short-while – Atzaró Okavango, which is nestled between the Moremi Game Reserve and the Gomoti Plains in a personal concession in Botswana’s breathtaking Okavango Delta.
The elephant wanders off, denied the probability to examine my bed room, accessible by a winding wood walkway and one in every of 12 suites and two villas.
Panoramic home windows and netting body the suite’s particular person rooms, leaving me with almost 360-degree views and partially uncovered to the components.
At one finish of my suite, named ‘Francolin’, lies a personal deck and plunge pool, and at the different, there’s an out of doors bathe and copper bathtub.
Inside is a king-sized four-poster mattress, a sprawling front room, a sunken bathtub and a bathe. Pinch me.
Jess Hamilton checks in to Atzaró Okavango, a five-star luxurious camp in Botswana’s breathtaking Okavango Delta
Jess arrives at sundown after a ‘thrilling’ helicopter switch from Maun Airport to the doorstep of the camp
Jess is greeted at the camp by a herd of elephants and ‘choral singing from the charming employees’. Pictured is the entrance to the luxurious lodge
The June journey begins with a thrilling helicopter switch from Maun Airport to the doorstep of the camp. The 10-minute experience comes with amazing views of the partially flooded plains of the Delta and units the extravagant tone for the days forward.
We’re greeted at the camp by choral singing from the charming employees as elephants linger close by.
I conclude already that the camp is match for royalty.
The lodge, one in every of the largest in the Delta, seamlessly blends into its environment. The frequent areas, embellished with French mid-century furnishings and housed below pure thatched roofs, embody a lounge, bar, dome-like eating space, and a 20-metre pool, all overlooking the expansive plains.
The grassland usually transforms into a lush lagoon between June and September when water from the Angolan highlands travels southwards through the Okavango River and floods the space.
But the present dry climate nonetheless supplies unmatched views – best noticed from the lookout deck, the place excessive tea is served in the afternoons.
It’s a sanctuary that is exhausting to depart. But enthralling sport drives in a 12-seat jeep beckon, with professional information Maitapiso’ Mighty’ Mosiiwa at the wheel.
During a night time drive we spot zebras, spring hares, impalas, aardwolves, jackals, wildebeest and buffalo. Mighty factors out the animals with brilliant torchlight, amazed at what number of are in the space.
‘The lodge, one in every of the largest in the Delta, seamlessly blends into its environment,’ Jess writes (file picture)
The frequent areas embody a lounge, bar, dome-like eating space, and a 20-metre pool (above), all overlooking the expansive plains
Pictured is the lounge space, which is embellished with mid-century furnishings and housed below a thatched roof
Jess describes her suite as ‘breathtaking’. It’s one in every of 12 suites and two villas at the lodge
Inside Jess’s suite is ‘a king-sized four-poster mattress, a sprawling front room, a sunken bathtub and a bathe’
At one finish of Jess’s suite is an out of doors bathtub and bathe space, geared up with a freestanding copper tub
On a 6.30am morning sport drive, comfortable with scorching water bottles and blankets, Mighty explains that the animals in the space all know that the game-drive autos aren’t any risk.
But it nonetheless does not cease my coronary heart racing after we come throughout a delight of six lions, two of that are feasting on a warthog.
We observe in silence as one younger male playfully drags the stays previous the remainder of the pack, who’ve already had their fill. ‘They’ve had their meal now, don’t be concerned,’ Mighty says as we observe them to a watering gap.
We’re so shut we are able to see the blood on their paws. The sight is hair-raising, however the ever-calm Mighty assures me we’re not a risk except we step out of the automobile.
We see them once more on a day drive in barely much less intimidating postures, lazing in the shade and preventing to preserve their eyes open. Full from the feed, they barely register our presence.
The suite boasts a personal deck and plunge pool overlooking the personal concession
The suites are linked by ‘winding wood walkways’ – with elephants sometimes seen stepping over them (see video)
Elephants graze close to the lodge, which is nestled between the Moremi Game Reserve and the Gomoti Plains
Jess is handled to sundowners in a scenic space ‘the place cocktails, a hearth and smiling Atzaró employees are ready’
Jess drinks a gin and tonic earlier than a ‘hanging pink sundown and a lagoon the place a bloat of hippos are swimming’
Atzaró Okavango charges begin from $690 (£545) per individual and vary up to $1,490 (£1,177) per individual per night time throughout peak season
Jess comes throughout a delight of lions on a sport drive. ‘The sight is hair-raising,’ she writes
After all the pleasure, Mighty decides it is time for sundowners and drives us to a scenic space the place cocktails, a hearth and smiling Atzaró employees are ready for us.
Behind us is a hanging pink sundown and a lagoon the place a bloat of hippos are swimming. Unfazed by their croaks, I discover how shortly concern disappears after a gin and tonic.
It’s one in every of many unforgettable moments of the trip. Other (arguably much less interesting) sights embody a pair of warthogs mating and a lone hyena devouring a useless hippo.
We additionally run into baboons, porcupines, pelicans, a honey badger, bat-eared foxes, an African civet and a pack of uncommon African wild canines.
As we battle the lumpy roads again to the lodge, I ask Mighty if he is afraid of any animals. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I really feel safer in the bush than I do in the metropolis.’
I feel I do know what he means – even the squeals and sounds of snapping branches at night time do not frighten me, however as an alternative assist lull me to sleep alongside, after all, with a king-sized mattress match for royalty.
