Our Story…

We’re Mike and Anna, a husband-and-wife team with a deep connection to Botswana and a shared love of travel in the wild.

Mike grew up in South Africa and has been exploring and camping in Botswana since childhood.

Full logo for Into the Okavango, featuring a mokolwane palm tree silhouetted against a setting sun alongside the company name text.

Those early experiences — the smell of the bush, the wildlife, the vast open landscapes and the feeling of being somewhere truly wild — stayed with him. They ultimately led to a degree in Wildlife Science, followed by time in the western Okavango participating in lion research — darting and collaring lions and then tracking their movements through the wilderness. He later worked as a game ranger in a Big Five reserve in South Africa.

A vintage green Land Rover parked under a large tree in the Okavango Delta during the early 1980s, with a woman sitting on the roof rack looking through binoculars while a man looks out from the front window.
A vintage 1980s safari camp scene in the Okavango Delta, where two young blonde boys stand by the open back of a Land Rover while a man guides one boy holding a safari knife near a tailgate spread of food.

Where it all started — camping in Botswana in the 1980s. Mike, aged five, learning how to carve wood.

A high-angle scenic view looking across rolling orange sand dunes toward the Algerian border under a dramatic, cloudy sunset sky, with a lone safari vehicle parked at the base of a dune.

​That love of African travel has taken Mike far beyond Botswana too, including a seven-month overland journey from London to Cape Town, traveling the length of West Africa and experiencing the continent slowly, independently and at ground level.

The long way south — seven months overland from London to Cape Town, including nights like this deep in the Sahara.

Two local men stack orange plastic jerrycans on a blue chair next to a white Toyota Land Cruiser during an overland trip in Angola.
A smiling man wearing a baseball cap crouches among dense green leaves and grass at the natural source of the Okavango River in Angola.

Deep in the Angolan Highlands — fueling up wherever we could as we searched for the beginnings of the Okavango, eventually reaching a tiny spring that will help feed one of the greatest wilderness areas on Earth. Getting there was very much part of the adventure.

Black background with white text that says 'Good Vibes Only'

For more than 30 years, we’ve planned and organized trips throughout southern Africa for ourselves, family and friends. Combined with decades of independent travel and first-hand experience, Into the Okavango grew naturally from that background: a small, specialist travel company focused on creating thoughtful, tailor-made journeys through Botswana.

We don’t believe there is one “right” way to experience the Okavango. Botswana is rightly known for its extraordinary luxury lodges and safari camps, but that is only part of the story. There are intimate tented camps, remote mobile safaris, private concessions and wonderfully wild places where the experience is defined less by luxury and more by where you are.

Our own preference has always been to get as close to nature as possible — often camping in remote places with little more infrastructure than what we bring with us. There is something very special about falling asleep to the sounds of the bush and waking up knowing that the wilderness begins just outside your tent.

Whether you’re looking for exceptional luxury, a more adventurous safari, or something in between, our aim is simple: to use our first-hand knowledge and experience to create a Botswana journey that feels personal to you.
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No packages off the shelf.   No one-size-fits-all itineraries.   Just Botswana, planned around the way you want to experience it.

A wide scenic view of a vibrant orange and purple sunset over a wetland marsh in the Okavango Delta, with three traditional mokoro canoes pulled onto the grassy bank in the foreground.
“In Wildness is the preservation of the World.”
— Henry David Thoreau