Macatoo Camp – Okavango Delta Horse Safari

You will be met at Maun airport and assisted onto your transfer flight into the Delta. The flight is a spectacular experience in itself as it offers an eagle’s eye view of the Okavango, and lasts about 30 minutes. A safari vehicle (or one of the local ‘mokoro’ boats depending on the time of year!) will be waiting for you at the air strip to whisk you away on your first 45 minute game drive back to Macatoo Camp. On arrival, you will be handed an ice cold drink and introduced to the staff before being shown to your tented accommodation.

After settling in, you will be offered afternoon tea and homemade cake during a briefing from your guide, before heading to the barn for your first chance to mount up. Evening rides are deliberately taken at a slower pace to let you enjoy the sunsets and make the most of those Kodak moments provided by the extensive wildlife. After a hot shower, drinks and snacks are served in the comfortable mess tent before sitting down to a delicious alfresco dinner set by the fire.

If you aren’t woken by the dawn chorus then you will receive a gentle wake-up call and a steaming cup of tea or coffee, from the comfort of your room. A light breakfast is served around the cozy campfire to prepare you for the first long ride of your holiday.

Your morning ride will vary depending on the season but could involve some long canters or gallops across the dried flood plains, swimming through flood waters or navigating the tall grasses in search of giraffe, zebra, antelope, elephant, buffalo – and any other surprises you can find.

Back at camp a hearty lunch will be served daily. This proves incredibly popular after all those miles in the saddle and is often accompanied by a glass of wine to lead you nicely into an afternoon siesta before tea and the evening ride or evening game drives. Sundowners are often enjoyed out in the bush before heading back to camp to freshen up before dinner.

After waking up to yet another glorious African morning, and sipping on a mug of something hot, you will have left any first day nerves behind you and will be impatient to jump on. Taking a new direction, encounter new scenery and the exciting opportunity to see a different combination of game. Enjoy picking up the pace and keep up with some of the larger animals such as giraffe or zebra.

After lunch, if you don’t fancy a siesta, then read, watch the wildlife go by from your tent deck, or enjoy the camp pool – an ideal place to cool down and escape the midday heat. After afternoon treats of homemade cakes or scones, you have the option to swap an evening ride for some sunset fishing off the boat, or from the banks of a pool often home to the odd wallowing hippo. A game drive, accompanied walk or boat rides – depending on the time of year – are also available for those wanting time away from the safari horses or for non-riding partners and guests.

Again you will ride through a variety of landscapes, passing clouds of bushman hair grass to plains dotted with fig trees. You might encounter giraffe or shyer antelope while passing through mophane woodlands. When you hit the flood plains, your pace can pick up as you embrace that feeling of freedom which can only be felt on the back of a horse.

The afternoon offers the possibility of hiring a helicopter for the flight of a lifetime over the Delta (at an extra cost) or finish off the day with a night game drive to find those glinting eyes with the spotlight and seek out game harder to see in the daylight, such as leopard and hyena.

This morning you will have the opportunity to ride deeper into the heart of the delta, to areas where vehicles cannot follow. Traverse high palm islands which offer great sweeping views of the Okavango Delta plains, before sitting down to a deliciously luxurious champagne breakfast under a large baobab tree.

After tea and one of the relaxed sundowner riding safaris, you may find yourself at the fabulous ‘tree house’ where you will have the option to spend an unforgettable night out, sleeping high up in the tree canopy under the African night sky. You can rest easy as you guides will be staying too!

After greeting the African morning from up in the treetops, you are whisked back to camp by vehicle to change before riding out again. Make the most of a bush breakfast, or lunch out in the bush and savour the sights and sounds around you.

The afternoon can be passed as you please and often tricky decisions have to be made as to which of the spellbinding excursions will be chosen today. As usual a candle lit dinner will be served and often prompt bed times are met after last night’s treetop excitement.

Your last morning in the Okavango Delta and it’s time to get wet! Grab your GoPros as you’ll set off to discover the deeper flood plains which are scattered with flowering lilies. The snaps will flow as you wade through (or sometimes swim!) the water, taking in the reflections of the trees, your horse, the blue sky and beautiful flowers. Here, the Cape buffalo can gather in large numbers (anything between a dozen and 2000 at a time). We have to creep up on them using the islands as cover.

After a leisurely lunch you will be able to choose your last evening activity. A last game drive, fish or a quiet evening meander aboard your trusty steed in the now familiar Okavango Delta landscape and watch the sun turn the sky orange and red with the smell of wild sage in the air. Dinner will be a memorable one perhaps with another surprise location in store…..!

If time allows, enjoy one final morning in paradise and a last fun filled and fast paced ride out in Africa’s Eden. You will go splashing through the shallows close to home and getting your last glimpse of the Okavango’s incredible warblers as they spring noisily from the reeds after being disrupted by cantering hooves.

After returning to Macatoo and bidding a sad farewell to your horse you will have time for a quick freshen up before hopping into the vehicle for a game drive to the airstrip. A picnic lunch will be provided to keep you going before you set foot back into life outside the Okavango bubble – a place many can’t wait to return to.