Duba Plains Camp

All five of the tents at Duba Plains Camp are positioned on a raised deck and offer beautiful views of the Okavango Delta. Each of the tents includes a lounge area with a writing desk and space to unwind and relax and record the incredible experiences available at the Duba Plains Concession. Guests can also choose to get away from everything else and dine privately in their tents.

Each tent also has en-suite facilities, including a flush toilet, double vanities, a big bathtub to soak and relax in, and both indoor and outdoor showers. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion and hairdryers will all be provided.

There are ceiling fans and an environmentally friendly air-conditioning system in each tent to keep the temperature consistently comfortable. Outside, you will find a private verandah where you can watch the beautiful African sunsets, and capture stunning photographs with the Canon 5D Mark IV Camera which is available to use throughout your stay.

Photographs can be downloaded at no additional charge. The outdoor verandahs also feature a refreshing private plunge pool and shaded area for relaxing outside. The tents are designed to blend in with the landscape, keeping with the natural themes of the camp.

Both indoor and outdoor dining options are available either in the camp’s raised dining room or the extended deck that lies beneath grand ebony trees. Meals can be enjoyed as a group or at individual tables, with a la carte menu options. The camp’s Executive Chef and their team will provide you with three mouth-watering meals each day, on a schedule to suit you.

Picnic breakfasts and lunches can even be brought out to you in the bush during a game drive. All dietary requirements can be catered for as long as prior notification is given, and all drinks and beverages are included. The Duba Plains Camp has its own wine cellar where guests can pick out a delicious South African wine, or imported spirits and champagnes.

Duba Plains Camp’s Toyota Land Cruisers, nicknamed the ‘swamp vehicles’ are perfectly designed for travelling across the floodplains of the Okavango Delta to allow guests to get up close and see the beautiful Botswanan wildlife.

The vehicles are open-sided and canopied with fold-down screens, photographic bars and multi-plug inverters to provide photographers with everything they need. Guests can also bring out the latest Canon camera, which is provided in each tent, to perfectly capture their adventure. Images can be downloaded back at the camp for no additional charge.

The cruisers are designed to seat 4 to 6 guests and will be fully stocked with drinks and snacks to keep you refreshed and full of energy. Daytime game drives usually run from early to mid-morning, and late afternoon to evening, but it is possible to spend full days out in the field and have meals delivered to the cruiser if you wish to spend the maximum amount of time possible with the wildlife.

Watch a herd of elephants play together, or witness a predator hunt. Guests are encouraged to design their own itinerary and guides can help them find whatever species interest them the most.

Night game drives are all about finding nocturnal species that cannot be found at any other time of the day. Search for adorable bushbabies and civets. Night game drives are usually focused on the smaller species, but many predators are most active at this time.

The Duba Plains Camp is situated within the Dube Plains Concession, meaning that the moment guests leave the camp, you will find yourself at the heart of the incredible wildlife that exists in and around the Okavango Delta. Explore the extraordinary landscape on foot, without the noise of engines or the vehicle restrictions of a game drive and discover places that the cruisers cannot reach.

Sneak up to uninterrupted wildlife and watch the game behaving naturally in their own habitat. Walks are led by licensed guides with firearms training, who can teach you to recognise tracks and marks in the bush for tracking different game species. It is recommended to go either early in the morning or in the evening to avoid the hottest parts of the day. Bring a set of binoculars and a good pair of walking shoes and explore a beautiful setting unlike any other.

Take a relaxing fishing trip out in the Okavango Delta’s waterways with a trained guide, and reel in bream, bass and tigerfish. Fishing is temporarily suspended during January and February and is on a catch-and-release basis.

Duba Plains Camp offers a range of fun activities for younger explorers that focuses on educating children about animals and wildlife. Young explorers can expect to learn about animal calls, tracking wildlife, and other facts about the natural world surrounding them at Duba Plains Camp. Bushcraft skills can also be learned, and at the end of your child’s stay, they will be able to become and Young Explorer and Conservation Ambassador, with new knowledge about the environment and what they can do to help protect it.

Take a class in photography with the Great Plains Wild Studio and learn the best methods for capturing amazing images of the game and the stunning Botswana landscape. Make the most of this unique photography experience with tuition that can be done either with your personal camera/s, or the professional Canon camera and 100-400mm and 24-70mm lenses provided. To ensure a tutor is available, classes must be booked in advance.

Duba Plains Camp is part of Great Plains Conservation, which set up the Great Plains Foundation to lead projects that educate and empower people from the local communities. Great Plains Conservation supports the Foundation by providing administrative costs, transport, supplies, and staff time so that more resources can be directed to the communities they work with.

The Great Plains Foundation started the Great Plains’ Student Conservation Camps in order to teach the youth of local communities about the importance of the landscape, ecosystem and conservation. Students are provided with classrooms, field trips and mentors to teach them about resolving human and animal conflict, as well as how to protect and engage with their ecosystems.

Social activities such as sports and games help to build up students’ confidence and social skills, while students are inspired to become the next generation of safari guides and conservation professionals. This program is important for local communities to see wildlife as something to protect, rather than as a nuisance, and provides youth with positive role models.

Pack for a Purpose is an initiative that encourages travellers to benefit local communities by using spare suitcase space to bring much-needed supplies for their Conservation Education Program and Women’s Craft Groups.

Supplies can be dropped off at your accommodation and will be used to aid a local project, such as craft groups, where local woman are taught skills that allow them to make traditional and non-traditional items such as traditional basketwork, hand-sewn and embroidered products and hand-beaded glass and food nets. These items can then be sold to provide incomes, start small businesses and even support the construction of homes.

Duba Great Plains work to keep their carbon footprint as light as they can by offering guests ways of reducing the environmental impact caused by travelling to the camp. The Great Plains Foundation run programs where guests can donate to fund solar lanterns or the planting of new trees to compensate for the carbon emissions caused by air travel.

On average, each guest generates between 2 and 4 tons of carbon emissions when travelling too and from the camp. Donating $100 can provide 4 trees or 3 solar lanterns to help keep your trip as sustainable as possible.

In 2008, Great Plains Conservation opened their Zarafa camp – a luxury safari camp that runs entirely on solar power. Since then, they have continued to build camps with an environmentally friendly focus with projects like the Tesla solar battery system in place at Mpala Jena Camp.

They conserve resources and recycle waste with the use of bio-digesters which take unwanted vegetable scraps to produce methane gas for cooking, composting, grey water recycling, the use of recycled materials in camp construction, and a zero-tolerance policy on single-use plastics. such as bottles and straws. This ensures that minimal waste is produced, and the impact that camps have on the environment is minimal.

Rhinos Without Borders is a conservation project formed by Great Plains Conservation and &BEYOND to help protect Rhinos from poachers. By partnering with South African and Botswana governments, the Rhinos Without Borders project has been able to translocate rhinos from high-risk poaching area to protected and remote wild areas, where they are their calves can live in a much safer environment.

Rhinos Without Borders also work to monitor the rhinos and continue to provide them with security. Their conservation efforts have resulted in the transportation of 100 rhino, and the birth of 40 new calves.

Project Ranger was set up to help with wildlife monitoring, surveying, and to help protect animals from poachers. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, where many industries are struggling, travelling is severely limited and tourism has been temporarily suspended, endangered animals are more at risk from wildlife crime than ever.

Project Ranger’s emergency support aids people who work to protect wildlife from poachers by collaborating with partners and donors in order to fund salaries and training, as well as the crucial work that ensures these creatures are both monitored and protected.