Every evening, nature explodes in the African garden of Eden. It is the closest thing to sailing through paradise: our boat stealthily cuts through the silver water while the sun varnishes the leaves of the trees and the water lilies of the river. The silence is deathly and footsteps can be heard on the grass. A few meters away, a herd of five elephants walks along the bank of the Linyanti River, on the border of Namibia and Botswana, and in the background, about thirty adult specimens graze peacefully in a green meadow. There is wildlife everywhere.
From a stalk on the bank, a kingfisher with blue and red feathers scans the water, ready to pounce on an absent-minded fish, and in a nook, at the end of a labyrinth of reed channels, the king rests. On a spit of black sand, he lies a short-maned lion next to another younger male. The explorer David Livingstone was captivated by this landscape.
After spending several months in 1856 in the Linyanti lagoons, in the current Nkasa Rupara reserve, the Scottish adventurer stated in his memoirs that at that exact point he had “found the garden of Eden.”
The place, a stone's throw from the Jackalberry Lodge, a small ecotourism hotel built on a tree, is one of the hidden gems of one of the most unexplored areas of southern Africa, where you can spot herds of elephants, hippos and antelopes and even elusive felines like the leopard.
For Simone Micheletti, director of the Wild Waters group, which runs other exclusive and sustainable accommodations in the area such as the Nkasa Lupala or the Serondela, located on the white sand banks of the Chobe River, the area between the Okavango Delta and the Zambezi or The Linyanti is one of the last secrets of Africa.
“Here you can still find secluded corners, where it is possible to see extraordinary wildlife and enjoy nature in its purest state. If you are excited about wildlife and want tranquility and comfort, this is the place.”
The Linyati lagoons are also located at the heart of a miracle: they are part of the Kaza project, a gigantic natural area, with a surface area larger than that of Spain, and unique in the world because it has agreed on conservation tasks to five countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The result is a green treasure.
The Kaza project embraces within it jewels such as the Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. After staying in luxury, colonial hotels such as the Victoria Falls hotel, built at the beginning of the 20th century, it is possible to enjoy the beauty of the waterfalls on foot or from the sky: flying over the area by helicopter is an unforgettable experience for the senses. .
After being fascinated by the clouds of spray water up to 800 meters high that gush from the waterfalls – not in vain its local name is Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders” – it is time to enter the flooded canals of the Okavango Delta, home to the world's only population of swimming lions. Parks such as the Chobe or Moremi reserves are untouched sanctuaries of fauna and flora where you can spot the big five: the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the rhinoceros and the buffalo.
Teamwork between governments is responsible for this animal Eden. According to the last census, some 227,000 elephants, more than half of all African specimens, live and move in this region.
After more than 30 years traveling around the continent, Miquel Ribas, director of the Catalan agency Kananga, specialized in trips to Africa, has no doubts. “I have traveled all my life to all corners of Africa and there are few places as wild, unexplored and full of fauna as this one. The explorer Livingstone was right...
