Botswana Sight Seeing

The Kalahari Desert:
Known by its earliest travellers as a 'thirstland', most of the Kalahari (or Kgalagadi - its Setswana name) is covered with scrub bush, trees and grasslands along with vast areas of red-brown sand. This largely unchanging flat terrain is occasionally interrupted by gently descending valleys, sand dunes, and large numbers of pans. These pans fill with water during the rainy season. Their hard surface ensures that the water remains in the pans, which are of great importance to wildlife and obtain valuable nutrients from the salts and grasses.

Central Kalahari Game Reserve
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the second largest game reserve in the world. Situated right in the centre of Botswana, this reserve is characterised by vast open plains, saltpans and ancient riverbeds. Terrain varies from sand dunes, trees and shrubs in the north, to flat bushveld in the central area, and mophane forests to the south and east. The main wildlife concentrations of giraffe, brown hyena, warthog, cheetah, wild dog, leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, kudu, red hartebeest and springbok are found in the northern half of the reserve and best seen between December and April, when the animals congregate in the pans and valleys.

Kalahari Gemsbok National Park
The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park is part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Africa's first transfrontier park. The park has huge numbers of large antelope, including gemsbok and eland, as well as many lion and cheetah.

Makgadigadi National Park
Vast lunar-like salt pan covered with grasses and are especially attractive to antelope and birds. Accessible only by 4 wheel drive vehicles, the northeastern region of the Kalahari Basin contains the Makgadikgadi Pans - an extensive network of salt pans and ephemeral lakes.

The Okavango Delta
The largest inland delta in the world and home to a huge wildlife population, best viewed from a mokoro (dugout canoe). In the north-west, the Okavango River flows in from the highlands of Angola forming the 15,000 square kilometer network of water channels, lagoons, swamps and islands. It is a magnet for the wildlife that depends on the permanent waters of this unique feature.

Moremi Game Reserve
Where the delta meets the desert, one of Africa's greatest parks with an abundant of game and birdlife, Moremi is described as one of the most beautiful wildlife reserves in Africa. It reserve contains approximately twenty percent of the Okavango Delta within its borders.

Chobe National Park
Chobe is Botswana's best big game park located conveniently to Victoria Falls and home to vast animal herds, and in particular, elephant. Viewing is best along the Chobe River and in the Savuti region. The park's north and northwest border is marked by the Chobe River, and the river's popularity as a water source has made game viewing by boat a popular attraction.

Mashatu Game Reserve
This is the largest private reserve in Southern Africa. Known as the Land of Giants, it is home to great baobab trees and elephant herds, as well as an abundance of game and bird species. The reserve covers 46,000 hectares of savannah plains, riverine forests, open marshland and rugged outcrops of sandstone.

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