Singita Elela

Singita has spent three decades building conservation-led safari lodges across South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Elela is its first step into Botswana — and into the Okavango Delta, the seasonal floodplain that draws more wildlife per acre than almost anywhere on the continent. CEO Jo Bailes has said the group waited years for the right concession; NG26, the 175,000-hectare Abu concession, is what it held out for.

The build itself is the headline. Eight circular camps — five one-bedroom, two two-bedroom and one four-bedroom — sit raised on stilts above the floodplain, so the Delta's water can pass beneath them as the seasons shift. Elela means "to flow" in Setswana, and the design leans into that: structures that open in every direction, with private vehicles and guides attached to each camp.

On paper it reads like Singita doing what it does best, in a place built for it. We haven't stayed — doors open 11 December 2026 — so we'll find out then whether the stilted architecture lives up to the renderings, and whether eight camps on a concession this size deliver the low-traffic, high-density game viewing the Delta promises.