On the northern edge of Botswana, bordering Namibia across the Kwando River, the Kwando Concession covers an enormous area of 2,320km2 of very wild bush. It's one of Botswana's larger wildlife concessions. Beside its eastern boundary, the river, is a narrow belt of riverine forest. In the south this opens out into some large tree islands and open floodplains. There are two photographic camps on this productive eastern side.

The vast western part of the concession includes huge tracts of thick mopane woodland. Here, far from the river, there is a seasonal hunting camp.

Getting there and away

Like most of Botswana's private concessions, Kwando is reached by a short flight from Maun, Kasane, or one of Botswana's other camps. Both these camps work their logistics out well in advance. Trips here are always pre-arranged, and they don't welcome 'drop-in' visitors, or ever really get any. There are two main airstrips in the concession; one near Lagoon, and the other near Lebala.

Thus virtually nobody would consider self-driving into these camps, even by prior arrangement. However, if you did then you'd pre-arrange your visit with the camps and take the transit route north through Selinda. It's about 14km in a straight line from Selinda to Lebala, and a further 30km by road from there to Lagoon.

When to visit

Game viewing revolves around the reserve's riverfront on the Kwando River and its adjacent riverine forest. The Kwando's riverfront has broadly similar game movements to the Chobe or Linyanti riverfronts. In short: game concentrates around here when it needs the water, and spreads away again when it can easily drink elsewhere.

This means that the game viewing improves as the land dries out. Then buffalo and elephants move into this area from the west and south and zebra and wildebeest move in from the great plains of the Chobe. Later, when it rains, so the animals will move away – although birdwatchers will find more of interest in the wet season when there's greater variety of bird species, many of which are in breeding plumage.