The allure of Wilderness Qorokwe

‘Guests’ jaws drop,’ says Cobus Calitz, the camp’s owner and managing director. ‘The approach to camp is unassuming, but you enter and it opens up, with three-metre ceilings and an uninterrupted view out to a beautiful figure-eight lagoon, attracting wildlife come winter, come summer. You’ll probably see several species there at once: elephant, buffalo, crocs, giraffe, hippo... You might see wild dogs hunting there. We had a lioness prowling around the boma the other night.

Not much beats driving into the bush – whether along a sandy track, woodland trail or across a river – searching for wildlife. Smell the pungent wild sage, even the dust; listen for creature calls; electrify, even a little, at the slightest stirring in the distance. Qorokwe is celebrated for its abundance and variety of species: herds of plains game, including antelope such as semi-aquatic red lechwe and comical tsessebe; vast elephant and buffalo herds; and large concentrations of predators – lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, and African wild dog. Game drives, day or night, sometimes intensify when predators are on the hunt. Nature appears, at least to some human eyes, at her cruelest.

'Our guides will follow a hunt only if guests want to,’ says Cobus. ‘We usually view a kill after it happens.’ Photographers, though, come from around the world to capture the graphic fights to the finish.

Night drives reveal a wild world entirely different from the daytime’s. Sometimes a predator, maybe a hyena, on the move; more often delightful nocturnal creatures such as bush babies, porcupines, or Verreaux’s eagle-owls. Aided by the guide’s spotlight, look for eyes glowing in the dark.

Don’t miss a morning nature walk, following an armed guide from camp or other designated place, most often across open savannah. Silently, consciously, immersively, in single file – until the guide stops to share one of nature’s surprises: perhaps a hippo trail, column of fire ants, or spoor recently left in the sand. ‘Sometimes people want to stalk creatures,’ Cobus says. ‘But really, the point is to be on the ground and see what’s around you.’ 

Perhaps the Delta’s real magic appears when you’re on the water – the Okavango River, moving from Angola’s highlands into the Kalahari Desert. Qorokwe’s name signals its watery surrounds, meaning ‘where the buffalo broke through the bush into the water’. With high levels in recent years, Qorokwe has been offering water-based activities year-round.

On a six-seater, canopied aluminium boat, cruise along the Gomoti Channel as wildlife congregates on either side, spoiling you for choice as to where to look. Elephants lumbering down to the water; crocs skimming the river’s surface; hippos popping up and twirling their ears; ubiquitous white egrets and other water birds – kingfishers, fish eagles, wattled cranes, and hundreds of other species – fishing.

Or glide along in a mokoro, a traditional dugout canoe; a standing poler in the stern does all the work, all you need to do is sit back and relax. Inhale, imbibe the Delta’s peace and wonder – whether it’s the astonishingly clear water, laced with waterlilies; the tiniest of painted reed frogs clinging to a stalk of papyrus; or a mammoth elephant bull coming down to drink.

Cobus often goes out in a mokoro with his family, doing the poling himself. ‘I love the silence,’ he says. ‘The animals don’t even know you’re there.’ 

Qorokwe’s striking, eco-chic design – more contemporary than most destinations in the Delta – is a standout for its guests. With a steel substructure, nearly flat roof and geometric shapes, it’s not your typical gum poles and thatch. Yet it blends beautifully with the bush.

‘We were one of the first to make the leap locally with the steel substructure,’ Cobus says. ‘Now many other operators have taken our cue. Termites attack wood; steel stays like that forever. It just made so much sense to erect something with such a long lifespan yet minimal footprint, which could later be dismantled and moved, leaving the environment basically untouched.’

With just eight rooms and a family unit, the luxury camp is spacious, light and airy; its colours derive from the Earth and, more specifically, from the waterlilies in the lagoon. The rooms and common areas rest on raised wooden decks, near the water with close-up views.

Dining at Qorokwe, whether in the dining room or at a private set-up by the pool, delivers delicious, seasonal food drawing on local produce. Pounded beef, Moroccan venison tagine, and vegetable-loaded korma are favourite supper dishes; guests love make-your-own pizza nights and breakfasts of French toast topped with caramelised bananas and ground nuts. Those feeling adventurous can organise an out-of-camp experience: a picnic along the Gomoti Channel, likely to mean lots of large wildlife on hand, or a ‘champagne drop’ on a mokoro ride, with guests stopping to ‘discover’ a bottle of bubbly hidden among the reeds.

At day’s end, enjoy a boma evening of vibrant song and dance. Or gather round the firepit and marvel at the night sky, free from light pollution and brilliantly revealing the Milky Way and countless constellations, often with traditional storytelling. The Southern Cross, for instance, becomes ‘two lions hunting four giraffes’.

Other pampering at Qorokwe? A mobile spa, arriving at your room and offering massage and other treatments in privacy. Sublime. 

Commitment to the people in six local villages – a few thousand residents – is at the heart of Qorokwe’s purpose. Since the Calitz family partnered with Wilderness to open the camp in 2017, Qorokwe has assisted with many, varied community upliftment projects: ploughing local fields during the rainy season; building community structures such as a kgotla (community court/meeting place); repairing and building bridges; sponsoring beds or Christmas gifts of cattle; supporting traditional, subsistence fishing and grass harvesting; and offering education, training and employment to locals.  

‘We have a very close connection with the people here,’ Cobus says, ‘the custodians of this land. I want their stories to be told. For guests to know the story behind the person serving them a cup of coffee. To know what impact their visit here makes.’

To that end, staff profiles and photographs are in the works, to be posted around camp – enhancing the Qorokwe experience.

‘Along with world-class game viewing,’ Cobus says, ‘people make the difference.’