Oddballs’

Some camps announce themselves with polished brochures and carefully composed welcome speeches. Oddballs’ does not. It announces itself with the sound of a mokoro pole moving through still water, the smell of the communal dishes cooking from an open kitchen, and the sight of an elephant moving between the ancient trees at the edge of camp. It has always been this way. Oddballs' is the oldest camp in Botswana, and there is a reason it has never needed to change.

Built on a secluded island on the edge of Chief's Island, accessible only by light aircraft, Oddballs' sits in the heart of the Okavango Delta where the floodplains of the Xaxaba Concession open into one of Africa's great wildernesses. The Moremi Game Reserve borders the island. Lion, leopard and wild dog move through. The birdlife is staggering. And none of it requires an engine to reach.

This is a camp that draws a particular kind of guest, and draws them back.

Who Oddballs' Is For

There is a generation of travellers who knew Oddballs' before the word "ecotourism" existed, who sat on this same deck watching the same hippos surface in the same channel, and who have been measuring every subsequent safari against that first experience. They know exactly what they are returning to, and that is precisely why they return. For them, Oddballs' is not a discovery. It is a homecoming.

There are journalists and writers and people who work in conservation, in travel, in the industries that talk endlessly about places like the Okavango, who arrive here needing to remember why any of it matters. A few days at Oddballs' tends to settle that question.

And then there are the ones we cannot wait to introduce to this place: younger travellers from across southern Africa and beyond, nature enthusiasts who have grown up knowing the Delta by name but not yet by feel, the weight of a mokoro paddle, the sound a herd of elephants makes moving through shallow water at dusk, the particular quality of silence that settles over this island after dinner when the generator has never existed and the stars are very close. For them, Oddballs' is not a nostalgia trip. It is a first encounter with something they will spend the rest of their lives returning to.

The Tents

Fifteen dome tents sit on elevated wooden decks, shaded by old trees that have been growing here far longer than the camp has existed. Each tent is comfortable and honest: good beds, a storage trunk, and a light. The en-suite outdoor bathrooms and showers are positioned to make the most of the surrounding bush. The shower wall opens onto the Delta, and what is beyond it belongs to the animals.

Two family suites are available, ideal for small groups or families with older children. The camp is recommended for guests 16 and above, though all ages are welcome. There is no air conditioning, no WiFi and no motorised vehicles. These are not shortcomings. They are the conditions that make Oddballs' what it is.

The Choice

Here is the thing about Oddballs': you can spend your time here entirely alone, or you can spend it entirely in company, and both are genuinely possible.

Some guests arrive, settle into the rhythm of two activities a day and long hours on their private deck, and find that the absence of connection — to phones, to news, to the noise of ordinary life — is the thing they will remember most. The wind through the reeds. The sound of something large moving in the dark. The particular silence of the bush at three in the afternoon, when even the birds have gone quiet in the heat.

Others arrive at breakfast and do not stop talking until dinner. And at dinner, the conversations continue. The morning's animal sightings traded over food, the afternoon's mokoro route debated, the question of whether that track was a leopard settled and unsettled again. The dining room at Oddballs' is a shared table, and the guests who sit around it arrive as strangers and leave having made the kind of friends that are difficult to explain to people who weren't there.

Both versions of this camp are real. You choose which one you need.

Activities

Every activity at Oddballs' is guided, private and non-motorised. A maximum of two guests per guide ensures a genuinely personal experience rather than a logistically managed one.

Your guide was born and raised in the Delta; his knowledge is generational rather than acquired. He reads the conditions each morning and plans accordingly. In the dry season, this means walking safaris across Chief's Island through the Moremi Game Reserve, where the game paths are well-worn and large animals move in numbers. When the flood rises, the mokoro takes over: narrow channels through papyrus walls, open lagoons under a wide sky, the possibility of spending a night on a remote island under canvas with the Delta entirely to yourselves.

Overnight mokoro expeditions into the deeper reaches of the Delta are among the most memorable experiences this part of the world offers. All equipment and provisions are loaded into the canoe. A tent, sleeping mat and food. You leave camp with your guide and nothing else. Please enquire at the time of booking, and note that guests should bring their own sleeping bag.

Cultural village visits can also be arranged, offering a window into communities whose relationship with this landscape stretches back to the 1700s.

Guided walks at Oddballs' are conducted within the Moremi Game Reserve, where firearms are not permitted. Guides operate unarmed — a considered decision rooted in philosophy and respect for the park, as it is for all Lodges of Botswana camps.

Massages can be arranged in camp, and are considerably more useful after a long morning walk than anything a spa brochure has ever suggested.

Evenings at Oddballs'

The bar opens at sundown, and the deck fills. Whatever happened in the bush that day becomes part of the evening's conversation. The wild dog sighting, the elephant that came too close on the walk, the extraordinary thing the guide said about reading a termite mound. The Okavango has a way of making every day feel like something worth telling, and the shared lounge at Oddballs' is where the telling happens.

Dinner is wholesome and unhurried. The kitchen works from what is seasonal and available, and the food reflects that, simple, good, cooked with care. After dinner, the island goes quiet. The stars are exceptional here. The generator that doesn't exist is not missed.

Oddballs' is part of Lodges of Botswana — the oldest ecotourism operation in Botswana. To enquire about availability, contact info@lodgesofbotswana.com