In a prime location deep in the Okavango Delta, on the edge of Chief’s Island and Moremi Game Reserve is Oddballs Camp – one of our rustic essentials for a relaxed, family-friendly, eco-friendly safari experience in one of the world’s most sublime wilderness areas. Oddballs have always been a low-key, chilled out African escape with its own private landing strip endearingly signposted with wooden Departures and Arrivals signs – naturally, surrounded by elephants, giraffes, lions, or whichever inhabitants of the area are prowling or foraging about. Now, Oddballs has made some changes to create more comfort for guests, while staying true to its casual, tented roots.

Scattered in the forest of a large, beautiful and palm-studded island deep in the Okavango Delta, Delta Camp’s chalets are designed and built to take advantage of the many indigenous, old-growth trees of the island forest. Built of natural materials and elevated off the forest floor, each chalet has hot and cold running water, a shower with a view, a variety of beds and areas in which to relax, mosquito netting and solar-powered electric lighting. Each chalet is individually designed and decorated to fit unobtrusively into its setting and to take advantage of the views of the surrounding bush and flood-plains, and each features the work of an indigenous artist.

Born in the Okavango, raised in the Okavango, Delta Camp’s guides are the essence of the place. Using only genuine, hand-made dug-out canoes, our guides will take you deep into the Okavango, through the channels and floodplains, and walking on the many islands in the area. Your guide joins you on your arrival and remains exclusively yours for the duration of your stay. Armed with a lifetime’s experience and eyes like a hawk, senses finely attuned to his environment, he will accompany you on all your excursions, be they brief forays from the comfort of the lodge, full-day outings with a picnic lunch, or extended camping expeditions into the Okavango. The Delta Camp experience is cultural as well as being a wildlife and wilderness one, and spending time in the company of a man who has lived his life in this wild place, and perhaps even visiting his home, is a revelation to many visitors, and a lesson in differing values and perceptions.

Game of all sorts abounds: lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, hippopotamus, crocodile, giraffe, all manner of antelope including the rare lechwe, tsessebe and sitatunga, otters, honey-badgers, the shy pangolin, and a variety of the smaller wild cats such as civets, servals and genets are amongst the many mammal species you may see. Reptiles are well represented – many species of snakes (most of them harmless) occur, as do several of tortoise, terrapin, lizard, skinks, chameleon and gecko – not forgetting, of course, the Nile crocodile, of which some particularly large specimens inhabit the area. Then of course there are the birds, well over 450 species, that bring the forests, rivers and flood-plains of the Okavango to life. Many rare and endangered species call the Okavango home, and keen birders come from the world over in search of them. Bird-song heralds each Okavango dawn.

Overlooking the confluence of the Boro and Metsematsweu channels of the Okavango, Delta Camp’s lounge and dining area is well elevated to command the spectacular vista of swamp and riverine forest that lies before it. A variety of game can usually be seen from the deck, with elephant frequent visitors, and cavorting hippo and basking crocodile common sights. Lion, leopard and Cape Hunting Dogs have all been observed from the deck, hunting. Three excellent meals per day ensure that our guests are well prepared for their walks; tea and coffee are available at all times, and the open bar is on hand to wet your whistle, whether dried by the African sun or a close encounter with exciting game.

Another unique offering from Delta Camp is the opportunity for an extended, fully serviced and catered camping expedition by dug-out into the further reaches of the Okavango. By pre-arrangement, and after spending a night in the lodge to acclimatize, you will set out with all your equipment, guides and camp hands by mekoro into the Okavango for a minimum of two nights, but up to eight, camping as the whim takes you, steeping yourself in one of the world's last great wildernesses, before returning for one last night in the lodge.