Waterfalls and Wildlife (Namibia/Botswana/Zimbabwe)

Fourteen nights in a loop from Windhoek, guided, through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, built around the wildlife rather than the mileage.

The Okavango night is the centrepiece. A chartered flight crosses the Delta, which is a river that never reaches the sea and instead spreads into the Kalahari, and the group sleeps in canvas tents at a bush camp with no fence round it.

Gobabis comes first on the Trans-Kalahari Highway through cattle country, then Ghanzi at the edge of the Kalahari, one of the largest continuous sand surfaces on earth. Maun and the Delta flight follow, with a late game drive and dinner on an open fire, and the sounds carrying through the night are lion, hippo and hyena rather than traffic. Nata comes next by the Nxai Pan and the Makgadikgadi, a salt pan the size of a small country, with a sundowner fire at the edge of it. The Zimbabwe border follows, then two nights at Victoria Falls, with a free day and a long list of options from a helicopter flight to white water rafting below the gorge.

The bike hire is included, with a BMW F800GS as standard and upgrades available; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. A four-day Sossusvlei excursion can be added before the start. The operator describes this as its most popular tour for couples, and the shape of it supports that. No wildlife sighting can be promised, and the dry season from May to October concentrates the game around the water.