About Chanoga Safaris
From a place that has always been home
A Place Called Chanoga
In the 1980s, my father left the bustle of Maun and claimed a piece of land along the river in a small, little-known village called Chanoga.
Together, my parents built a simple reed house there. It wasn’t a lodge, and it wasn’t part of any itinerary. It was simply a place to live, shaped slowly over time and surrounded by bush, water, and the quiet rhythm of the Delta.
Over the years, that place became the centre of everything.
There were different ventures along the way. Cattle, chickens, even a strawberry farm. But what remained constant was Chanoga itself.
It was never somewhere guests passed through. It was simply home. A physical base, and something deeper than that, where everything began and where everything returned to.
Chanoga Safaris takes its name from that place, and everything it represents.
Growing Up There
Some of my earliest memories are of being out on the floodplains around Chanoga, sitting quietly and watching the landscape shift through the day.
Of mornings that started before the heat, when everything felt still. Of long stretches of time where nothing seemed to be happening, until suddenly everything was.
I remember learning to pay attention, not because I was taught to, but because that was simply how you moved through a place like this.
There was no sense of it being extraordinary. It was simply life.
Days were not structured. They followed the weather, the water, and the movement of wildlife. You adjusted to it, rather than the other way around.
That way of seeing the bush never left.
It is what now shapes Chanoga Safaris. Not something built around fixed plans or expectations, but around moving with the land and allowing each experience to unfold naturally.
Why Chanoga Safaris Exists
Chanoga Safaris exists as a continuation of something that has always been there.
It is not about recreating the past, but about carrying forward a way of experiencing the bush that feels grounded, patient, and connected to place.
After spending time away from Botswana, it became clear that what mattered most was not just the landscape itself, but the way it had always been experienced. Quietly. Without urgency. With an understanding that the land sets the pace.
That is what Chanoga Safaris is built around.
Today, Chanoga Safaris offers privately designed journeys through Botswana, shaped by the same principles. Small groups. Thoughtful pacing. Time spent in the right places, rather than trying to see everything.
The aim is simple.
To share Botswana in a way that feels true to how it has always been experienced.
Unhurried, grounded, and shaped by the land itself.