- Day 1:
- Arrive in Maun and fly to the Kalahari Desert where you overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Days 2 - 4:
- Spend these days getting a glimpse into an ancient way of life of the Bushmen in a sensitive and non patronising cultural experience. Go walking and hunting with the Bushmen trackers, gather herbs and medicinal plants with the women and join in evening rituals and dinners. You overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Days 5:
- Return to the airstrip for your flight to your onward destination
speak to a specialist about this safari
- Day 1
Arrive by plane at midday and transfer down a dusty red road to a remote campsite deep in the ancestral gathering lands of the Zu/'hoasi Bushmen. After a delicious and refreshing lunch, head off to your hut for a rest.
The campsite will be comprised of traditional style Bushmen grass shelters designed to provide an authentic and non-intrusive interaction and replete with all the accoutrements of a proper safari. Guests will sleep on proper beds between pure cotton sheets and old-fashioned army blankets and duvets. Wooden ladder shelves for hanging and stacking clothing and a wooden trunk for a bedside table will provide space for storage. Private bucket showers and bush loos are situated adjacent to each shelter. Should Guests prefer, tented accommodation is also available.
After a delicious tea, walk through the bush to the nearby Bushmen village where you will be met in a traditional manner by the elders of the community. Around the fire before dinner, listen to the history of the Bushmen people whose origins can be traced back to 30 000 years ago and learn about the complex political challenges that are confronting them today.
Enjoy a delicious dinner under the stars. Sleep peacefully through the night under a fragrant shelter of wild grass thatch.
- 1 x overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Day 2
In the morning, walk out into the bush with the men, women, children and your Guides. The focus of the walk will be to provide a gentle introduction to the Kalahari and Bushmen way of life. Your Guide will point out the distinct ecological characteristics of this area and its animal and bird species. Spontaneous gathering and discussions about the uses of plants and wildlife by your Bushmen Guides provide the link between culture and wild environment that we seek to offer our Guests on these very special safaris. An adolescent Bushman girl knows more than 200 species of usable plants and an extraordinary variety of plants and herbs with both culinary and medicinal value will be found. Find suitable rhygozum plants from which your digging stick, the most important tool of the Bushmen can be harvested.
Back at the village prepare your gathering tool for the next few days by the fire. After lunch and a siesta, return to the Bushmen village where you will learn from the women how to prepare their bush foods using only the most basic of tools and an open fire. You will be able to sample a variety of foods from wild spinach and roast beetles to ostrich egg omelette cooked on the coals. Some of the women will show you how they make beads from ostrich eggs and the simple, but striking jewellery that they make from porcupine quills, seeds and ostrich eggs. Leather is also decorated with both glass and ostrich beads to complex and beautiful effect.
As the sun sets and the evening draws close, the women can be requested to perform the melon dance, around the evening fire. This unselfconscious and free-spirited traditional dance represents the joyful celebration of a successful harvest. Return to camp for a rather more conventional, but still delicious, meal and retire to bed.
- 1 x overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Day 3
After a restful night's sleep, meet the men after breakfast to prepare for a traditional hunt. Walk into the bush and search out the poison grub beetle, gathering suitable roots, sanseveria leaves and branches for the manufacture of rope, bows and arrows.
Return to camp for a lunch and siesta.
After tea, return to the Bushmen village. Watch the men prepare bows, arrows and quivers while young boys demonstrate various traditional games that provide training for the hand-toeye co-ordination skills that will be so necessary when on the hunt.
Retire to bed in excited anticipation of the next day's hunt.
- 1 x overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Day 4
Depart early after a hearty cooked breakfast for a day's traditional hunting with the men. Track, stalk and, hopefully, hunt down some wild quarry using traditional bows and arrows. A picnic on the way under a shady tree enables one to be flexible and react fast to the day's events.
Return to camp hopefully bearing the results of a day's hunt and prepare the meat to share and sample around the fire. Retire to the camp for dinner and to bed early after the day's hunt.
- 1 x overnight in a traditional style Bushmen grass shelter
- Day 5
Bid the community farewell and drive by vehicle to the airstrip to meet up with your light aircraft transfer for your onward journey.
speak to a specialist about this trip
- Cost:
- £2,650 per person sharing excluding international flights (Based on a group of 5 staying 4 nights)
- Notes:
The mobile safaris run on a min of 20 bed nights, which translates to 5 guests for 4 nights or 4 guests for 5 nights minimum. This includes 6 Twin tents, en-suite outdoor bucket shower & flush loo.
All ages welcome, full rate applies to all ages
Zoologist/Biologist Guide included in the nightly rate
- Includes:
- All meals and drinks
- All activities
- Return charter flights from Maun to Kalahari
- Excludes:
- International flights into and out of Maun
- Premium beverages
- Discretionary tips/gratuities
- Travel insurance
- Visas
- Personal travel expenses
speak to a specialist about this trip