Flora

The environments found here aren't unique in the Delta, but they are old, established, and have long been protected – and so are basically pristine and undisturbed.

Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most photogenic, habitats here are the shallow floodplains which surround the northern end of Chief's Island. (It's such a distinctive landscape that an image of it has remained deeply engrained on my mind since my first visit here, in the mid-1990s.)

Looking at the whole Delta, you'll realise that this area is very close to the permanent swamps at the base of the Panhandle. Because of this, the floods here are more regular and predictable than they are lower down the Delta. This regular seasonal flooding has created a very photogenic environment of short-grass plains, amongst which are a number of tiny islands fringed by dense, feathery stands of wild date palms (Phoenix reclinata). For me, this is the quintessential Delta landscape – and it's sufficiently open to be excellent for game viewing.

(Away from the Okavango Delta, the only place that I've seen which is similar to this in southern Africa is the Busanga Plains of northern Kafue, in Zambia. These are again consistently flooded every year, and have very little disturbance.)

Go back on to the dry land of Chief's Island and you'll find a range of more familiar landscapes and floral communities. Mopane woodlands are dominant across much of the island, with some areas of impressive, tall 'cathedral' mopane (Colophospermum mopane); often a popular retreat for the game during wetter months.

Running through this you'll find lines of Kalahari sandveld, reflecting the locations of old, long-dry watercourses. Here you'll find sand-loving species like the silver cluster-leaf (Terminalia sericea), the Kalahari appleleaf (Lonchocarpus nelsii), perhaps some camelthorn (Acacia erioloba) and umbrella thorns (Acacias tortilis) and the odd leadwood tree (Combretum imberbe).

Where the land meets the water, there are bands of classic riverine forest including fine specimens of raintree (Lonchocarpus capassa), sausage tree (Kigelia africana), jackalberry (Diospyros mespiliformis), African mangosteen (Garcinia livingstonei), figs (mostly Ficus sycomorus) and some wild date palms (Phoenix reclinata). Throughout the area's forests you'll occasionally find huge old baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) – which probably have lived long enough to see the environment change around them!

Fauna

The game in this area is at least as dense as anywhere else in the Okavango (or indeed the subcontinent), and because the area's a private one, the game viewing is just about the best you'll find in southern Africa. It's dense, varied, and good sightings of predators are virtually guaranteed.

See the Flora and fauna section at the start of this chapter for more extensive comments on Moremi as a whole; in this particular area impala, tsessebe, zebra and giraffe are usually the most numerous of the larger herbivores – although warthogs are remarkably common. (So numerous that they have become a major prey species for both lion and leopard.) Elephant and buffalo are resident here in good numbers, with more individual animals seen during the rains, and generally larger herds recorded as the dry season progresses.

Herds of red lechwe are common in the flooded areas when the water's high, but rarely venture into the drier parts of the reserve. Kudu and wildebeest also occur, as do the occasional reedbuck and steenbok; sable and roan are usually never seen here.

Though most of the Delta's usual line-up of nocturnal animals do occur, without taking night drives most are difficult to spot. The exception seems to be honey badgers, porcupines and spring hares which are sometimes seen around the camps at night.

The area has a justified, first-class reputation for excellent sightings of all the major predators. Spotted hyena are probably the most successful large carnivore in the area, though lion are also very common – as they are in many areas of the Delta.

What's less usual is the thriving permanent cheetah population here. The sprinkling of slightly raised date palm islands and termite hills make ideal look-out posts – suiting the cheetah's hunting style perfectly. The area's open environment makes sightings of cheetah relatively frequent. I've a recent report of one sizeable pair of brothers taking sub-adult zebra and wildebeest – bigger prey than might normally be expected.

As an aside, long-standing guides comment that there were a lot more cheetahs in the Mombo area until a recent demise in the dominance of the lion and a rise in the fortunes of the hyaena. This is really just a small-scale example of the constant ebb and flow of power struggles in the animal kingdom – and cheetah sightings here are still much better than in most other areas of the Delta, or indeed southern Africa!

There are good numbers of leopard around – although their appearances during the day are relatively limited. Originally Mombo, and this area, built its reputation on some of Africa's best sightings of wild dog – largely because of a very successful pack of about 40 dogs (which is a very large size for a pack) that denned here for several years in the mid-1990s. With this pack in residence, visitors were virtually guaranteed amazing sightings, and the area's dry open floodplains proved marvellous for following the animals as they hunted.

Now that pack has broken up, as is the usual process when the alpha female dies. Thus while the wild dog sightings are as good as most of the areas in the eastern Delta, they're not better as there's no sizeable pack in regular residence. That said, the fact remains that if you do see dogs here, the floodplain areas are the perfect place to be able to follow them.

Finally, a real good news story for this area, and the Delta as a whole. Black and white rhino used to occur here naturally, but by the 1980s they had been exterminated by poaching. Finally, on November 9 2001, the first white rhino were brought back into this area. Five of them were set free to roam, and have since settled down well on to Chief's Island. This has been so successful that there are plans to bring in more, and in time it's likely that black rhino will also be reintroduced to the area.

Birdlife

At the heart of the Delta, and with a large and diverse area of dry land and floodplains, this area of Moremi gets periodic visits from virtually all of the birds in the Delta – so singling out a few to mention here is inevitably a flawed process.

However, top of the list for a special mention are the vultures, attracted by the game densities and predator activity. Most numerous are the white-backed, hooded and lappet-faced vultures – though you'll also find a surprising number of white-headed vultures. Palm-nut vultures occur here (usually frequenting the real fan palms) though they're not common.

Also attracted by the game, both kinds of oxpecker are present here – though yellow-billed (which feed on the backs of hippos) seem more common than the red-billed variety.

As happens everywhere in the Delta, when the waters recede, isolated pools of fish are left behind. As these gradually dry up the fish become more and more concentrated, attracting the most amazing numbers of predatory birds. Pick the right day (usually one between about May and October) and the right pool, and you'll be entertained for hours by large concentrations of pelicans, saddle-billed storks, marabou storks, black egrets, grey and Goliath herons to name but a few. It's an amazing sight. In other receding pools you'll find congregations of pelicans or, in those which aren't so frantic, painted snipes can be seen if you look hard (or have a good guide!).

The short-grass floodplains here suit wattled cranes, which are often found in numbers, and on the drier plains watch for secretary birds and kori bustards. The latter occasionally have carmine bee-eaters using their backs as perches. In plains with longer grass you may be able to spot an African crake, while ostriches are very rarely seen (perhaps because there are too many large predators).

On the water look for pygmy geese and dwarf jacanas in the quieter areas – along with many species of more common water-birds. There's often a good number of the relatively rare slaty egrets about too.