When Ker & Downey was involved with this operation, Abu Camp stood on the site that today is occupied by Nxabega. The new Abu Camp also overlooks a lagoon and consists of five very luxurious tents raised up on teak decking. They’ve been carefully designed using an interior skeleton of wooden poles with walls of canvas stretched between them. Despite being far from most people’s image of a tent, they retain the zipped doors and roll-down windows of more traditional safari tents.
Inside they’re all slightly different, but very stylish; they’re amongst the most luxurious rooms in the Delta. Some beds are mahogany antique ‘sleigh-style’, whilst others are four-posters. The floors are beautifully polished teak, dotted with matching rugs. Bathrooms are all spacious and en suite, with a stand-alone shower, flush toilet, washbasins and either a copper or a porcelain bath. Pictures, ornaments and carvings of elephants (and especially of Abu) are all over the camp. Outside each is a shaded deck with comfy canvas chairs.
The dining area is set on an expanse of tiered teak decking punctuated by jackalberry trees, Diospyros mespiliformis, and sycamore figs, Ficus sycomorus. This stands in front of the main lounge, which has comfy chairs and a small library. The food is good and the service attentive, as you’d expect of a camp which regularly hosts the world’s glitterati as guests.

The costs
This is Botswana’s most expensive camp. Trips here take a maximum of 10 visitors, and last a fixed duration of 5 nights – always starting on a Wednesday and ending on a Monday. (Thus leaving two days of the week when the elephants do not have any guests to deal with!)
Costs for this trip are US$7,500 per person sharing, or US$10,500 if you’re travelling alone, and this includes flights to/from Maun, accommodation, meals, drinks, laundry and all activities.
The terms and conditions of the company’s fine print are, unusually, worth noting as they insist on a high (30%) deposit. Read them very carefully if you’re thinking of booking, and be sure to book at least a year in advance.

Safety issues
In common with many safari camps throughout Africa, all visitors here are required to sign an indemnity form which, basically, absolves the camp from any responsibility for your safety whilst participating in a trip. And as when visiting any camp in the bush, you accept that you’re taking on certain risks to do with Africa’s animals and their unpredictability that you wouldn’t face sitting on the couch at home.
The only difference here is that being in such close proximity to such huge, strong animals does present a greater risk than most normal photographic safaris.
As an example of this, in early May 2000 a 27-year-old bull named Nyaka Nyaka killed one of the camp’s professional guides, Andre Klocke. He had approached the elephant from behind to take its saddle off and accidentally startled the animal. The incident had equally grave consequences for Nyaka Nyaka, who was subsequently shot.
That said, no client has ever been injured by one of the elephants in its eleven years of operation. Despite this sad incident, the camp prides itself on a very high safety record.