Botswana

This park covers approximately 11,70 km2, encompassing floodplains, swamps and woodland. The Chobe River forms its Northern boundary.

There are four distinct geographical areas in the park: the Chobe Riverfront, the Ngwezumba Pans, Savuté and Linyanti. The most accessible and frequently visited of Botswana’s big game country, the Chobe Riverfront is most famous for its large herds of elephants and cape Buffalo, which during the dry winter months converge upon the river to drink. During this season, on an afternoon game drive, you may see hundreds of elephants at one time. You may be surrounded by elephants, as the main Serondella road becomes impassable and scores of family herds cross the main road to make their way to the river to drink, bathe and play.

While driving the loops that hug the river’s edge, you may see up to 15 different species of animals on any one game drive.

Situated on the banks of the Chobe River, Kasane is both the administrative center of Chobe District and gateway to Chobe National park. It also is an important point of debarkation for the nearby victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Livingstone in Zambia, and Namibia’s Caprivi Strip.

Kasane is situated a few kilometres from the Chobe River’s confluence with the Zambezi, where the four countries of Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia meet. At Kazungula, a few kilometers away, there is a ferry crossing between Botswana and Zambia.

On the main road that runs along the river, and further inland, there are a number of lodges and guesthouses.

One of the most sought after wilderness destinations in the world, the Okavango Delta gives entrance to the spectacle of wild Africa such as dreams are made of.

The heart stopping excitement of big game viewing, the supreme tranquility and serenity of an untouched delta, and evocative scenes of extraordinary natural beauty. A journey to the Okavango Delta is like no other.

Moving from wetland to dryland, traversing the meandering palm and papyrus fringed waterways, passing palm-fringed islands, and thick woodland, resplendent with lush vegetation, and rich in wildlife reveals the many facets of this unique ecosystem, the largest intact inland delta in the world. The Okavango Delta is situated deep within the Kalahari Basin, and is often referred to as the ‘jewel’ of the Kalahari.

Rising abruptly, and dramatically, from the Kalahari scrub bush, the rock face turning a copper color in the dying sun, the magnetic power of Tsodilo Hills both captivates and mystifies.

There is an undeniable spiritualism about the Hills that immediately strikes the visitor. Exploring the three main Hills – Male, Female, and Child – is a journey into antiquity. Archaeological research, ongoing for the past 30 years, estimates that Tsodilo has been inhabited for the past 100,000 years, making this one of the world’s oldest historical sites. Pottery, iron, glass beads, shell beads, carved bone and stone tools date back 90,000 years!

The fact that Tsodilo is totally removed from all other rock art sites in Southern Africa adds to its aura of magic. The paintings at Tsodilo are generally unlike others in the southern African region.

Nothing prepares you for the immensity of this reserve, nor its wild, mysterious beauty. There is the immediate impression of unending space, and having the entire reserve to yourself.

Waist high golden grasses seem to stretch interminably, punctuated by dwarfed trees and scrub bushes. Wide and empty pans appear as vast white stretches of saucer-flat earth, meeting a soft, blue-white sky. At night the stars utterly dominate the land; their brilliance and immediacy are totally arresting.

The Central Kalahari game Reserve (CKGR) is the largest, most remotely situated reserve in Southern Africa, and the second largest wildlife reserve in the world, encompassing 52,800 km2. The landscape is dominated by silver terminalia sandveldt, Kalahari sand acacias, and Kalahari appleleaf, interspersed with grasslands, and dotted with occasional sand dunes, pans and shallow fossil river valleys.

Affording the opportunity to see both black and white rhino, as well as an abundance of other wildlife species, the Khama Rhino Sanctuary (KRS) is a delightful stopover for tourists travelling by road to Botswana’s northern reserves, or an ideal weekend getaway for Gaborone or Francistown visitors or residents. A mere 20km from the historically important village of Serowe, the accessibility of KRS is also a draw.

This community tourism project, managed and staffed by local village residents, offers game drives, birding, bush walks, and arts and crafts shopping. It also has an education center where many young children from all over Botswana go for environmental education, as well as a fun time in the bush.

Covering a full 84 percent of Botswana’s land area, the semi-arid Kgalagadi terrain dominates most of the country.

Refuting the classical perception of desert as a barren, vegetation-less, useless land, the Kgalagadi (Kalahari) is rich in natural resources. A land of singular, often hidden, beauty, the Kgalagadi is intensely alive with an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. It has broad variations in vegetation, supporting several savanna types, namely grass, shrub and tree savanna.

Many desert animals, including springbok, gemsbok, eland, and even the Kalahari lion, are supremely adapted to its semi-arid conditions, and can live without water, though they will drink if water is available.

Imagine an area the size of Portugal, largely uninhabited by humans. Its stark, flat, featureless terrain stretches, it would seem, to eternity, meeting and fusing with a milky-blue horizon… This is the Makgadikgadi, a 12,000 km2 area, part of the Kalahari Basin, yet unique to it: one of the largest saltpans in the world.

For much of the year, most of this desolate area remains waterless and extremely arid; and large mammals are thus absent. But during and following years of good rain, the two largest pans, Sowa to the east and Ntwetwe to the west, flood attracting wildlife like zebras and wildebeests on the grassy plains and incredible spectacle of flamingos at Sowa and Nata Sanctuary. Flamingo numbers can run into the tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands, and the sight of it can be completely overwhelming.