As I travelled from safari camp to safari camp around Botswana, other camp guests would ask me where I’d been and where I was going next. As soon as I mentioned that I’d be staying a few nights at Vumbura Plains, those who’d been before would catch their breath. As far as safari camps go, Vumbura Plains was (so the stories went) something else altogether. But having been lucky enough to have stayed at numerous top-end camps across Africa I was pretty non-plussed and just thought to myself ‘Well, it can’t be as good as such-and-such camp’.
A couple of days after one of those conversations I was shown into my room at Vumbura Plains, and yes, I immediately sucked in my breath and virtually went into a swooning faint. The rumours understated things. Vumbura Plains, which is one of the flagship camps of the Wilderness Safaris group, is not your average camp. It even made ‘such-and-such camp’ look dowdy.
The first thing I noticed was that there were no brick-and-mortar walls. Instead there were just floor-to-ceiling glass windows that looked out over a horizon-touching half-waterlogged plain. The fact that at the very instant I was shown into my room a herd of elephants was loitering about directly in front of the cinematic windows only added to the ‘wow’ factor.
This is a very different camp to most. There’s little of the ‘safari chic’ to it, but lots of Manhattan cool. The rooms have sunken lounges lit by lamps that can only be described as green glass icicles, an open-plan shower with theatre curtains, and a huge wooden deck with a deep, cool plunge pool lit in luscious blue at nightfall.
And don’t even get me started on the world-class safari guides and the food — ah, yes, the food. It’s as cutting-edge urban cool as the accommodation (just wait ’til you see the afternoon tea spread!).
So if I ever bump into you in a safari camp and you tell me you’re off to Vumbura Plains, then do please excuse me while I catch my breath.
Expert Review
As I travelled from safari camp to safari camp around Botswana, other camp guests would ask me where I’d been...
As I travelled from safari camp to safari camp around Botswana, other camp guests would ask me where I’d been and where I was going next. As soon as I mentioned that I’d be staying a few nights at Vumbura Plains, those who’d been before would catch their breath. As far as safari camps go, Vumbura Plains was (so the stories went) something else altogether. But having been lucky enough to have stayed at numerous top-end camps across Africa I was pretty non-plussed and just thought to myself ‘Well, it can’t be as good as such-and-such camp’.
A couple of days after one of those conversations I was shown into my room at Vumbura Plains, and yes, I immediately sucked in my breath and virtually went into a swooning faint. The rumours understated things. Vumbura Plains, which is one of the flagship camps of the Wilderness Safaris group, is not your average camp. It even made ‘such-and-such camp’ look dowdy.
The first thing I noticed was that there were no brick-and-mortar walls. Instead there were just floor-to-ceiling glass windows that looked out over a horizon-touching half-waterlogged plain. The fact that at the very instant I was shown into my room a herd of elephants was loitering about directly in front of the cinematic windows only added to the ‘wow’ factor.
This is a very different camp to most. There’s little of the ‘safari chic’ to it, but lots of Manhattan cool. The rooms have sunken lounges lit by lamps that can only be described as green glass icicles, an open-plan shower with theatre curtains, and a huge wooden deck with a deep, cool plunge pool lit in luscious blue at nightfall.
And don’t even get me started on the world-class safari guides and the food — ah, yes, the food. It’s as cutting-edge urban cool as the accommodation (just wait ’til you see the afternoon tea spread!).
So if I ever bump into you in a safari camp and you tell me you’re off to Vumbura Plains, then do please excuse me while I catch my breath.