Drives, walks, birding, night skies and rest. Planned each day with your guide.
Our guides take you across the oldest paths of this open land, by vehicle and on foot.
Two drives a day are the base of every stay: one at first light, one into the evening. In between there are walks, hides, the pool and long lunches.
Every vehicle seats six. Children under twelve drive in a private vehicle.
Our guides read the bush as it happens. Tracks in the sand, alarm calls in the trees, vultures circling over a kill. Each sign adds to the story around you.
Most guides grew up within sight of the reserve and trained here for two years before taking guests out.
1
This stretch of the river holds lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino all year. Selowe guests drive 11 600 hectares; Kavari guests drive 14 900 hectares of open land.
Drives leave before sunrise and in the late afternoon, three to four hours each, with a stop for coffee or a drink.
2
Riverine forest and open savanna hold over 420 recorded species. Migrants arrive from November to April, including carmine bee-eaters and woodland kingfishers.
Birding drives and hide sessions can be booked with a specialist guide.
3
On foot, the small things show: dung beetles, termite towers, tracks of the night before. Walks run for two to three hours with an armed guide and a tracker.
Walks are for guests aged sixteen and over.
4
Treatments in your suite or in the spa pavilion, using oils and clays made by a cooperative in the Mavhu villages.
Book a day ahead through the lodge manager.
5
With no town lights for sixty kilometres, the Milky Way is clear most nights from May to September. Evening drives run on into the dark with a red spotlight.
A star bed on the hide deck can be booked at Kavari Camp.
6
Hartley's Camp keeps a grass-and-clay court behind the old stables, with rackets and balls on loan.
Open from 10:00 to 15:00.
Drives follow the light. The morning drive leaves before sunrise, when cats are still moving; the evening drive runs into the dark, when the reserve changes hands to the night animals. Guides plan each route with the tracker team after the morning radio round.