Chitabe Trails
Chitabe Trails is one of the Okavango Delta's most remote camps. It is situated on one of the most beautiful islands, surrounded by ancient ebony, leadwood and sausage trees. Chitabe Trails has five tents and accommodates eight guests. The roomy tents have private bathrooms as well as additional outdoor showers, fans and verandahs overlooking the floodplains. All tents are mosquito proofed. Pathways connect the guest tents with the main area. The dining room, lounge and pub areas are under canvas overlooking the waterway in front of the camp. There is also a pool on the grounds.
Chitabe Trails is strictly a game viewing camp – there are no water activities offered here. You will travel out into the field in the morning and afternoon, returning usually after dark when you can often spot the shyer nocturnal animals. Wildlife seen during game drives includes elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and cheetah. In addition, wild dogs are among the major game attractions of the area. You should also see zebra, reedbuck, red lechwe, impala, and all the plains animals. Night drives can be very rewarding, giving you rare opportunities to view animals such as pangolin, civet cat, serval, porcupine and aardwolf.
A portion of the accommodation charges from each guest goes towards a wild dog conservation fund which Chitabe has established. The project is run by Dr. Tico McNutt and is the longest running such project on these endangered creatures – the second most endangered carnivores in Africa after the Ethiopian wolf. Tico, a native from Seattle, has made wild dogs his life’s work residing in the Chitabe consession on a permanently erected tent away from it all, and has been studying these fascinating mammals since the late 1980’s. Dr. McNutt and his wife Lesley Boggs are the authors of Running Wild: Dispelling the Myths of the African Wild Dog, a table book beautifully photographed by Helene Heldring and Dave Hamman who are the owners of Chitabe.