Moremi magic

It’s May in northern Botswana, and the skies are an ethereal blue. This is the dry season, the thunderous summer rains now just a distant memory. And yet, the grassy plains of the Okavango Delta are awash as the annual floodwaters trickle down from the highlands of Angola.

In a quiet corner of the Moremi Game Reserve — one of Africa’s most glorious wilderness areas — a brand-new camp has thrown open its doors, welcoming travellers to a majestic corner of the Okavango Delta.

Tawana camp is a new opening from conservation-minded luxury operator Natural Selection, the latest in a series of “Premier” camps that create a circuit from the Makgadikgadi Pans to the Okavango panhandle.

It’s a partnership with, and named in honour of, Chief Tawana Moremi, the paramount chief of the Batawana tribe. It was the Batawana, specifically Tawana’s father and grandmother, who first founded the Moremi Game Reserve in the 1960s, setting aside traditional lands to create a remarkable 5 000km2 conservation area. Today the Moremi is renowned for its abundance and diversity of wildlife.

And Tawana has been created with a dramatic sense of arrival, with guests stepping into the camp through a striking portal of wooden poles, a spiral inspired by the woven yikuku fish traps used by the local Mbukushu people. That gives way to Tawana’s wide lounge and dining area, where hanging chairs sway in the warm delta breeze and panoramic views look out across the grassy floodplains.

It’s a wonderfully spacious camp, with lounges and dining areas set beneath stately ebony trees and eight guest suites spread along the banks of the nearby Gomoti River beneath pendulous sausage trees. Linked by raised wooden walkways (to allow wildlife to wander unhindered), the suites — including a pair of two-bed family suites — offer perfect privacy.

Bucking the under-canvas trend, here it’s the sweet smell of fresh thatch that perfumes my suite, a conscious decision by architect Michael Kornmüller to draw on the vernacular architectural style of the Batawana, using natural materials to bring “subtle intervention to the magnificent landscape of huge trees, abundant wildlife, and raised vistas”.

Kornmüller also incorporates natural textures and curved lines to maintain an intimate connection with the environment, from the long viewing deck that runs the length of each suite to the main lodge, where “built forms are intentionally fragmented and, as much as possible, the straight lines of human necessity are allowed to be broken and absorbed by natural elements”.

That sense of place is mirrored in the décor, where a bold use of texture, colour, and pattern extends from roughly knotted grass rugs to bright fabrics in locally inspired geometric designs. Floors made of upcycled cork are a contemporary interpretation of the traditional mud floors found in village homes, with similar attention to detail in the bespoke lighting: colourful string shades inspired by yikuku and delicate lily pads that float above the over-sized bathtub.

While I could happily spend my time in the suite’s private sala, dipping into the plunge pool for respite from the Botswana heat, here days are punctuated by time out in the Moremi. Morning and afternoon game drives bring action thick and fast, with packs of African wild dog and cheetah hunting on the plains. Hippos, of course, provide a constant soundtrack from the deeper pools of the Gomoti.

Back at the camp, executive chef Lungile Mbangi whips together an impressive menu, with meals often served family-style at terrace tables with a backdrop of grazing elephants. Lunchtime could see the pizza oven being fired up — a hit with kids, who are welcomed at Tawana — while dinners see local flavours and traditions given a contemporary twist.

Thirsty? Step into the walk-in wine cellar stocked with a selection of South African wines. In the hours between, in-room spa treatments are available, as well as a 16m lap pool if you need to burn off a little indulgence.

Me? I was happiest in the quiet hours on my private viewing deck, binoculars at hand and wildlife wandering along the banks of the Gomoti. However you choose to experience it, Tawana is a remarkable new addition to the Okavango, a lodge with a sense of place that rests easily on, and in, the landscape.