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Meet Brian, one of our travel experts for Botswana.
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Brian has always nurtured his passion for travel in his spare time. He's traveled the world, visiting over 40 countries.
Over time, this passion grew to the point where he began to search for opportunities to work in the travel industry. He's been an African Specialist at Mango Safaris since early 2006.
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Camp Site
Jao Camp is located on a large, remote island in a private concession in Botswana , bordering the Moremi Game Reserve in the heart of the Okavango Delta.
Photo copyright Wilderness Safaris-Jao Camp.
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Overview
An exclusive high-end safari camp located in the spectacular Jao Concession in the Okavango Delta where you will enjoy a great variety of game viewing and activities. The whole of Jao is raised on wooden decks above the lush palms below and is beneath a dense canopy of ancient indigenous trees. Each room has thatched roofs with canvas walls. En-suite facilities include a bath, flush toilet, basins, as well as an outdoor shower.
The Jao Concession is 60 000 hectares in extent and is in the north-western area of the Okavango Delta below the Panhandle. The Moremi Game Reserve forms the eastern boundary of the concession.
The Okavango Delta rests between shallow fault lines at the end of the Great African Rift Valley. Deserts are low on annual rainfall and the Okavango Delta is no exception. However, each year floodwater flows into the Okavango Delta from its source in the moist African highlands over 1000 km away. These floodwaters flow from their catchment southwards and into the Kalahari Desert to create a unique wetland that supports and sustains the huge diversity of wildlife in the Okavango Delta.
Lying as it does in the very heart of the Okavango Delta, the Jao Concession embodies all the magic and mystique of Botswana. Narrow water channels cut their way through the papyrus and reed beds in the permanent delta to the north and east of the Jao Concession, providing the perfect environment for the elusive sitatunga and the rare Pel's Fishing-Owl. Beautiful lush palm islands dot the water, begging to be explored.
Further west the area gets progressively dryer and Hunda Island, which is the tip of a large 'sand tongue,' is the largest area of dry land in the Jao Concession during the flood season. Hunda Island has sandveld vegetation supporting many species of nutritious acacia and grewia shrubs which provide excellent browsing.
It is perhaps the birds for which the true wetland areas of the Okavango Delta are best known however. The largest concentrations of endangered Wattled Crane are found in this area and Slaty Egrets, Rosy-throated Longclaws and African Skimmer are some of the specials that can be seen. Hallowed species such as Pel's Fishing-Owl and Slaty Egret are found alongside more conspicuous and commonly seen Coppery-tailed Coucal, Pygmy Goose, while the specialised African Skimmer (from which Wilderness Safaris takes its logo) may be seen on the larger lagoons and channels in the Jao Concession.
The Jao Concession is set in the most densely populated wetland area for sitatunga antelope and red lechwe, and of course hippo and crocodile are regularly sighted. In the dry season lechwe, tsessebe, elephant, wildebeest and zebra occur here, and lion, cheetah and leopard are often sighted on the floodplains. The lion prides in this area of the Okavango Delta have been extensively studied in recent years, thereby building up a more intimate knowledge of their behaviour.
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