I Spent My Honeymoon Travelling Throughout Southern Africa – This is My Actual Itinerary
I all the time knew I wished my honeymoon to be an journey. It needed to be the kind of immersive journey you solely make as soon as in a lifetime, a bit like getting married (effectively, hopefully). My husband and I didn’t wish to spend the most effective a part of two weeks doing nothing, despite the fact that that is what a majority of {couples} want after the years-long chaos of planning a marriage whereas nonetheless attempting to operate as a considerably competent grownup. However we wished to make reminiscences, and loads of them. The ‘doing nothing’ might wait till we had been again residence.
We rapidly settled on a mix of a safari and seaside vacation, which predominantly happen throughout Africa and the Indian Ocean. As a contract journey author, I’d heard Botswana talked about as the final word safari vacation spot continuously through the years. Many vacationers usually overlook the distant, sparsely populated nation for its southerly neighbour, South Africa. However in Botswana, you’re rewarded with secluded, uncrowded wilderness – actually, on lots of our sport drives, it was simply the 2 of us (extra on this later). Within the Okavango Delta, the most important inland delta on this planet, the water attracts a stunning number of wildlife, from herds of elephants cooling off within the mud to leopards, lions and wild canines stalking prey within the tall grass. Suffice to say, Botswana was a should.
For the ‘seaside’ a part of the itinerary, the preferred locations to go to after Botswana are Mauritius, Mozambique and the Seychelles. My husband and I obtained engaged in Mauritius in April 2024, and as a lot as we beloved it, we wished to expertise someplace new. I might been to the Seychelles years earlier than on a piece project, so we rapidly settled on Mozambique. We additionally determined so as to add a number of days in Zimbabwe, after realising the Delta’s proximity to Victoria Falls. When else had been we going to be this near the most important waterfall on this planet?
However packing this all in to 2 weeks required a number of planning. So, after in search of recommendation from Yellow Zebra Safaris, one of many main African tour operators, we pulled collectively the beneath itinerary. If you happen to’re pondering of doing the same journey, bookmark this web page and use the beneath as a information. You will not remorse it – it actually was the journey of a lifetime I hoped it could be.
Botswana
Day 1-3: Jao Concession
We started by flying from London to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo, earlier than boarding our connecting flight to Maun, Botswana. Right here, we had been collected by a consultant from Wilderness, a number one conservation and hospitality firm with over 60 camps and lodges throughout eight African international locations. After a 40-minute flight on their non-public constitution airline, Wilderness Air, we arrived at our camp within the Jao Reserve, deep inside the Delta’s Hunda Island.
With simply three tents, that is in all probability essentially the most intimate safari expertise within the Delta. In actual fact, we had been the one company staying right here, so every sport drive was utterly non-public, which was an actual luxurious. All tents have en suite loos with non-public decks and out of doors showers overlooking the floodplains, whereas the meandering, wood platforms make you’re feeling as if you are tenting in a treehouse. The principle eating space is shaded by a tree cover, there is a bar for sundowners providing panoramic views of the plains, and a swimming pool deck for cooling off and stress-free between drives.
Courtesy of Ali Pantony
Courtesy of Ali Pantony

