Mokete Camp
Mababe Depression
Accommodation
Wilderness Mokete accommodates 18 guests in nine tents. A stay at Mokete is a feast for the senses, as only a thin piece of canvas separates the guests and the raw nature - just as it should be. The tents are raised on platforms and connected to the main building by walkways. The rooms are tastefully furnished and include a private plunge pool, lounge, bedroom and bathroom with additional outdoor shower. The tent roof can be slided to one side so that guests have a view of the starry sky as they fall asleep.
The main building consists of two wings with the bar / lounge on one side and the restaurant on the other. In front is the open fireplace where you can enjoy your morning coffee. An inviting pool with plenty of sunbathing space was set up right next to the main building. The camp was built with a lot of passion and care and is a real eye-catcher.
Location
South of Chobe National Park, and east of Moremi Game Reserve, Mababe is the nearest water source for thousands of animals in the dry season. The Khwai River, which flows from the Okavango Delta to the Khwai area, makes a bend to the south and then flows north into the Mababe Depression as the Mababe River.
Botswana was shaken by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake on April 3, 2017, the second strongest earthquake ever recorded in Botswana. Since then, the northern part of the Okavango Delta has been receiving more water than the south, probably due to a tectonic shift. This is one of the reasons why the Mababe Depression is being filled with water and life again after years of drought and has become a magnet for animals migrating there from the dry Chobe hinterland to quench their thirst.
Access to camp is normally by helicopter.
Wildlife
The Mababe Depression marsh fills in the summer season, creating a wetland of some 2,600 hectares. This progressively disappears in the dry season, although never completely, with permanent water feeding nutrient-rich grasslands, welcoming great herds. Here it’s not uncommon to see vast buffalo herds numbering up to 10,000, tsessebe in their hundreds, and large prides of lions following in their wake. Mokete also offers good opportunities to observe very rare animals - during our stay we found the rare pangolin, an aardvark, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, many jackals, a wild cat and the endangered wild dogs.
There is a good chance to fly over a buffalo herd for a solid ten minutes, the spectacle stretching the breadth of the horizon. And with the buffaloes come the lions and hyenas. Lion kills can happen every day, perhaps even multiple times a day. The huge, open area of the depression is also the hunting ground for cheetahs. Leopards are more difficult to find. In the southern part, where the Mababe River flows into the depression, hippos and crocodiles can be observed. Elephants are present in large numbers and migrate daily from the Mopane forests to the depression to drink. There are also many zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, waterbucks, tsessebe and even sable, roan and oryx.
An extraordinary migration of massive herds of zebra pass through twice a year, at the turn of the season in December, and again in March. The zebras move south to the Nxai Pans where they give birth at the beginning of the rainy season and return north once the rains stop.
Activities
Wilderness Mokete offers exceptional and unconventional safari adventures, where guests can choose to stay on a game drive as long as they please, or stop for a lazy bush picnic – or stay out with the predators late at night if they wish. Guided walks can be arranged, or guests may be tempted to spend an afternoon in the sunken hide, eye-to-toe with the elephants.
Mokete Camp on the map
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