Oddballs’ Enclave
Tucked onto a small island just off the south-western edge of Chief's Island, Oddballs' Enclave is the most intimate camp in the Okavango Delta. Consisting of four tents to accommadate up to eight guests with one private guide each per couple. There are no crowds, and nothing between you and the Delta except a raised deck and the sound of water moving through reeds. What the Enclave offers instead is something rare even by Delta standards: a camp small enough to feel like it belongs to you alone.
This is a camp built for small groups and families who want the Delta on their own terms. With a maximum of eight guests on the entire island, there's no shared itinerary to fall into step with. Just your guide, your pace, and the bush unfolding around you.
Your Tent
Each of the Enclave's four mini-Meru tents sits on its own elevated wooden deck, twin or double bedded, with a semi-detached private bathroom offering an al fresco bucket shower and hot and cold running water. Solar lighting and water heating power the camp, and mosquito nets are standard throughout. There's no electricity, wifi, or cell signal. What you get instead is quiet, and a lot of it. Meals are enjoyed on the raised deck, with spectacular views across the floodplains to the distant island forests. Depending on the season, the molapo beyond camp is either flooded or dry, but either way it draws breeding herds of elephant, buffalo, and the odd family of kudu that calls the island home.
Activities
Every guest at the Enclave has their own private guide for the full duration of their stay. Activities are entirely non-motorised, built around two things the Delta does better than anywhere else: mokoro and foot.
The mokoro (plural mekoro) is a genuine hand-carved dugout canoe, poled silently through the channels and floodplains. Water levels dependent. On foot, your guide reads tracks, signs, and droppings the way most people read a map, walking you through magnificent scenery in search of game, birds, insects, and the medicinal plants used by his own community. Full or half-day walks with breakfast or lunch picnics can be arranged, along with cultural interaction at an authentic baYei village. For the more adventurous, the seasonal Chief's Island Walking Trail is a privately guided, semi-participatory wilderness camping expedition.
Please note that mokoro excursions depend on factors beyond the camp's control. Water levels, vegetation growth, channel changes, and hippo activity, and can change quickly. Where mekoro aren't possible, guests are offered equally enriching alternatives on foot.
Children & Families
Children of all ages are welcome, with no age restrictions. Because the Enclave never mixes guest parties on activities, families have no one but themselves to consider while out with their guide. Specialised family guides and children's meal times can be arranged, and with a camp this small and intimate, parents can put children to bed and still make it to the shared table for dinner.
The Setting
Oddballs' Enclave sits on the south-western edge of Chief's Island, deep in the heart of the Okavango Delta and bordering the Moremi Game Reserve. Lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, hippopotamus, crocodile, and giraffe move through the area, alongside rarer sightings like lechwe, sitatunga, and the shy pangolin. Birders will find more than 450 species recorded in the Delta.
The camp runs entirely on solar power, and fuel deliveries are routed to avoid crossing floodplains or forests, part of a Tree Welfare programme that protects the island's old-growth trees from a growing elephant population. Oddballs' Enclave has supported the neighbouring village of Sedibana for over three decades, with staff drawn largely from the village, some with multiple generations working at camp.
We welcome families and small groups of all ages seeking a private, unhurried Delta experience on an intimate scale. Oddballs' Enclave is part of Lodges of Botswana — Botswana's original ecotourism operation. For rates and availability, contact us at info@lodgesofbotswana.com