Botswana
Botswana Map - © TheSafariCompany.net
With its incredible concentrations of wildlife, Botswana is one of the best safari destinations in Africa
Botswana is Africa's wildlife wonderland:
from the wetlands of the Okavango Delta to the desert of the Kalahari- from world famous game reserves to small conservation areas - explore Botswana's rich cultural and wildlife heritage.
Botswana is bordered by Namibia to the north and west, South Africa to the sout and Zambia and Zimbabwe to the north east.
Chobe National Park
Next to the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park is probably Botswana’s next most well known conservation area. It is a diverse area, from the border at the Chobe River, to the now dry Savute Channel, and beyond to the borders of the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta. The Park is best known for its concentrations and elephant – some 120 000 individuals, along with good numbers of buffalo, antelope and predators. Birding is also excellent, with many migrants visiting from November to March.
Impalila Island Lodge (Namibia)
Inchigo Chobe River Lodge & the Ichobezi Safariboats (Namibia)
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Central Kalahari Game Reserve
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve forms with its neighbor the Khutse Game Reserve the largest Game Reserve in Bostwana and the third largest in the world.
The Reserve is home of the San people who have lived in the region for thousands of year, wildlife such as lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, hyena, giraffe, Oryx and various antelopes can be spotted.
Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pans
Zebras in the sunset - Jack's Camp
The Makgadikgadi Pan Game Reserve and the Nxai Pan National Park were established concurrently in the early 1970s, in the hope of protecting the entire ecosystem. In the 1990s, the park was renamed The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and covers an area of 7'500 square kilometers. It is one of the largest salt flats in the world and was formed more than five million years ago. The lake was once over 30 meters deep.
The rainy season attracts wonderful array of waterbirds and wildebeest and zebra are moving towards the pan. The rains normally begin in November and end around March. There will still be water in the Pan until April, May. You will be able to see large amount of Flamingo amongst other wildlife.
We believe the best time to visit the Pan is the winter season (from March to September) as days are pleasant and not too hot. You will find a large number of antelopes, wildebeest and zebra moving around the Pan.
Moremi Game Reserve
Moremi, hunted by the Bushman as long as 10,000 years ago, was initiated by the Batawana tribe and covers some 4,871 km2, as the eastern section of the Okavango Delta. Moremi is mostly described as one of the most beautiful wildlife reserves in Africa due to its incredibly large population of mammals. It combines mopane woodland and acacia forests, floodplains and lagoons. It is the great diversity of plant and animal life that makes Moremi so well known.
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is one of the world’s largest inland water systems. Water comes from the rainfall in Angola western highlands. Millions of years ago the Okavango river use to flow into a large inland lake called Lake Makgadikgadi (now the Makgadikgadi Pans). Tectonic activity and faulting interrupted the flow of the river causing it to backup and form what is now the Okavango delta. This has created a unique system of water ways that now supports a vast array of animal and plant life that would have otherwise been a dry Kalahari savannah.
Rains in Angola start in October and finish around March and April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and will only reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July.
Taking almost nine months from the source to the bottom. This slow meandering pace of the flood is due to the lack of drop in elevation, which drops a little more than 60 metres over a distance of 450 kilometres. The delta’s water deadends in the Kalahari – via the Botetle river, with over 95 per cent of the water eventually evaporating.
Tuli Block
'Tuli' is a river in Zimbabwe which has given its name to this region in Botswana. The 'Block' is a large piece of land, some 10km to 20km wide and more than 350 km from north to the south. Tuli Block, historically known as the Tuli enclave, offers easy access to a wilderness area with guaranteed good sightings of game. The Tuli Block contains an abundace of wildlife, a profusion of birds and fascinating topography. The most popular area within the block is the North-East Tuli Game Reserve situated between the Limpopo, Motlouse and Shashe rivers.
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