Mokoro Excursions

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Travel Tips, Tricks and informations

Nature Walks

At Serene Tours, a nature walk isn’t a gentle stroll. It’s the moment you stop being a visitor and become part of the food chain. Boots on red Kalahari dust, heart in your throat, following a San Bushman tracker who reads a broken blade of grass like a WhatsApp message. This is Africa at 5 km/h—close enough to smell the lion on the breeze, quiet enough to hear an elephant’s stomach rumble 200 m away.

Why Serene Nature Walks Are Life-Changing

  • 100 % Private & Armed: One professional guide + one tracker + max 6 guests. No conga lines. Every walk is yours alone.
  • Botswana’s Top Walking Zones Only: Khwai Concession, Moremi islands, CKGR fossil valleys, Makgadikgadi pans, Nxai Pan dunes—places where walking is not just allowed, it’s the only way to feel the soul of the land.
  • San Bushmen & Delta Legends: Walk with the last hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari or Bayei polers who become land guides. They’ll show you how to taste water from a root, track leopard by scent, and hear danger before it hears you.
  • Dawn, Dusk & Full-Moon Options: The bush wakes up, cools down, or glows silver—each walk a completely different planet.

Serene Tours’ Secret Walking Trails

  • Khwai “Leopard Whisperer” Walk: Off-road drop-off → follow fresh drag marks → find a leopard feeding 15 m away → sit silently while cubs play → heart-explosion guaranteed.
  • Chief’s Island “Wild Dog Dawn” (Moremi): Mokoro to remote island → track a pack of 20 painted wolves on foot → watch them wake, greet, then explode after impala → only mobile operators allowed.
  • Deception Valley “Lion Shadow” (CKGR): Walk with San trackers who find black-maned lions by reading wind direction → approach downwind → sit 30 m from a pride digesting last night’s kill → silence so thick you hear your own pulse.
  • Kubu Island “Moonrise Over the Void” (Makgadikgadi): Full-moon walk across the salt pan → no torch → baobabs turn to silver skeletons → lie on warm salt and watch satellites cross the Milky Way.

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After travelling more and more to escape our day jobs we soon realised that seeing tourist the world and experiencing amazing trip.

Boat Cruises

Forget dusty tracks. On a Serene Tours boat cruise, the Chobe River, the Okavango panhandle, or the hidden Linyanti waterways become your private highway through Africa’s greatest wildlife spectacle. No rumble of engines in the distance—just the soft purr of our silent electric pods or the gentle slap of water against a double-decker pontoon at sunset. This is Botswana from the water’s edge, where elephants swim trunk-to-tail and crocodiles sunbathe like dinosaurs.

Why Serene Boat Cruises Are Legendary

  • 100 % Private Boats: Never shared. Your group, your skipper, your playlist (or total silence). Max 8 guests on our flagship or 4 on intimate electric pods.
  • Sunrise & Sunset Daily: Two cruises per day included—dawn coffee with hippo yawns, sunset gin with 10,000 carmine bee-eaters exploding into the sky.
  • Electric Silent Mode: Switch to zero-noise electric motors and drift within 3 m of drinking elephants or fishing leopards. They don’t even look up.
  • Upper-Deck Photographer Platforms: Elevated 360° decks with gimbal mounts, bean bags, and charging stations for 600 mm lenses.

Serene Tours’ Secret Boat-Cruise Hotspots

  • Chobe Riverfront “Elephant Highway”: July–Oct: 2,000+ elephants per hour cross the river. Watch babies snorkel while adults form protective circles—closer than any game drive allows.
  • Linyanti Swamps “Predator Channel”: Silent electric pods glide through lily forests where lion prides swim between islands and wild dogs cool off on sandbanks.
  • Savuti Channel Reborn: First operator to run boats on the newly flowing Savuti Channel. Drift past bull elephants drinking knee-deep while fish eagles dive inches away.
  • Xakanaxa Lagoon (Moremi): Double-decker pontoon among red lechwe and sitatunga. Pole-position for Pel’s fishing owl at dusk—the rarest owl in Africa.
 

Mokoro Excursions

A mokoro is more than a canoe—it’s a 2,000-year-old Delta tradition. Hand-carved from ebony or sausage tree trunks (now fibreglass for conservation), poled silently by masters born on these waters. No engine. No noise. Just the splash of a lily, the grunt of a hippo, and the Okavango whispering secrets only you can hear. With Serene Tours, mokoro isn’t an add-on. It’s the purest way to feel Botswana’s heartbeat.

Why Serene Mokoro Excursions Are Unforgettable

  • Private Mokoro Fleet: One poler + one mokoro per guest (or couple). No sharing with strangers—your poler is your private storyteller for the day.
  • Delta-Born Polers: Third-generation Bayei or Hambukushu masters who pole standing, reading water like a book. They’ll name every kingfisher, show you elephant highways underwater, and sing you ancient river songs.
  • Year-Round & All Depths: We operate in permanent channels even in dry season. Water levels drop? We move camps to Jedibe, Pom Pom, or Godikwe—places the flood never leaves.
  • Sunrise to Sunset Options: Dawn mist poling, full-day island picnics, or sunset with champagne floating among water lilies.

Serene Tours’ Secret Mokoro Routes

  • Jedibe Crystal Channels – Narrow waterways so clear you see catfish 5 m down; pole through tunnels of papyrus where sitatunga antelope swim beside you.  
  • Dombo Hippo Highways – 50+ hippos yawning 10 m away; your poler navigates like a Delta ninja while frogs hitch rides on the mokoro.  
  • Godikwe Heronry Lagoon – Pole into a secret lagoon with 10,000 nesting herons; the sky turns white when they lift off.  
  • Chief’s Island Hidden Arms – Exclusive permit routes where you pole right up to wild dog dens on the bank.

Game Drives

At Serene Tours, a game drive isn’t just a ride. It’s a masterclass in reading the wild, led by Botswana’s finest guides in open 4×4 safari vehicles custom-built for photography, comfort, and zero crowds.

Why Serene Game Drives Are Different

  • Private Vehicle Guarantee: Never more than 6 guests per vehicle (usually 4). Window seat for everyone, 360° views, and space for camera lenses longer than your arm.
  • Tiered Seating & Bean Bags: Three elevated rows, swivel seats, and built-in bean bags for rock-steady long-lens shooting.
  • No Time Limits: Unlike lodges with strict 3-hour slots, we stay out from dawn till dusk (or longer). If the wild dogs are hunting at 11 a.m., we’re there. If lions are mating at midnight, we’re there.
  • Off-Road Freedom: In Khwai, Savuti, and private concessions we go fully off-road—track leopards through tall grass or follow cheetah sprints across pans.
  • Night Drives Included: Thermal spotlights, red filters, and guides who know every leopard’s favourite tree after dark.

What You’ll Experience on a Serene Game Drive

Dawn Patrol (05:30–10:30)
  • Coffee & rusks served in the bush at sunrise  
  • Track fresh lion spoor from camp, follow wild dog packs on the hunt  
  •  Golden-hour photography with mist rising off the Delta
 

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Safari

For bookings or inquiries, contact us today and start planning your dream mobile safari.