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Botswana tour of a Wild kingdom

A land of wild tablelands, verdant grasslands, arid salt pans, and the mighty Kalahari Desert, landlocked Botswana is prime safari country. Wildebeest and antelope roam Botswana's savannas, while the world's largest inland delta, the Okavango, is home to everything from elephants to zebra and more birds than you can shake a camera at. With numerous parks and reserves, a Botswana safari is a natural choice for wildlife enthusiasts. If it's the Africa of nature shows you're looking for, this is the place.

Why Travel to Botswana? by Luke Hardiman

Botswana is one of Africa’s top game viewing destinations and with good reason given its expansive game parks, high concentration of game and unspoilt natural wonders. An African success story, Botswana is a politically and economically stable country adding to its allure as an ideal destination for the African Safari adventure of a lifetime.

Nearly three quarters of this prosperous landlocked country is covered by the Kalahari Desert, into which the Okavango River flows in the north forming the world largest inland delta, the lush Okavango Delta.

Botswana owes its strong economic position to its diamond industry, service sector, tourism and manufacturing. The major tourist attraction in Botswana is its game parks, being home to some of the most pristine game reserves in Africa. This country of contrasting landscapes, from desert to delta and woodlands, covers an area of 600 370 sq km’s. The sheer size of Botswana, about the size of France, has resulted in large areas of land not having roads and therefore remaining unspoilt by mass tourism. The game reserves of Botswana allow for secluded safari experiences, where you can drive for hours without seeing another vehicle. 

Botswana Travel Highlights

The Okavango Delta - Botswana's Jewel

The Okavango Delta is a lush oasis of permanent and seasonal waterways and lagoons inhabited by an abundance of birds and other wildlife, such as hippos, giraffe, elephant, buffalo and crocodile. Other wildlife includes wildebeest, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena rhinoceros, zebra and various antelope species. The delta also boasts one of Africa’s highest density populations of the endangered African Wild Dog. The Okavango Delta is home to more than 400 bird species among them the Crested Crane, Hammerkop, African Fish Eagle, Sacred Ibid and ostrich.

The winding channels of this unique delta are best explored by traditional dug out canoes, known as Mokoros. A popular activity is a scenic flight over the delta water system, which can be easily arranged. The wildlife-rich gem of Botswana, the Okavango Delta is a must see visual feast consisting of crystal clear waterways dotted with remote islands of thick vegetation. 

Moremi Game Reserve - Beautiful Wilderness Area

Moremi, one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in the world, covers much of the eastern side of the Okavango Delta. This game reserve consists of a wide variety of habitats that support one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife including one of the largest populations of the endangered wild dogs in Africa. The park offers stark contrasts in its landscapes consisting of permanent waters, thick mopane woodlands and dry floodplains. Chiefs Island and the Moremi Tongue are the two most prominent land features lying within the waterways of Moremi. 

The Moremi Game Reserve is teeming with wildlife, including lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and jackal, as well as buffalo and giraffe. Antelopes such as impala and red lechwe can also be found in Moremi and an African Wild Dog research project is centered in the park. Almost 500 bird species can be found in the reserve, ranging from forest to water birds, with the lagoons being excellent sites for bird watching. In addition to the wide variety of lush and watery ecosystems, Moremi also offers superb 4x4 game viewing on its open savannahs. 

Chobe National Park – Elephant Country

Chobe National Park, considered the most diverse of Botswana’s game parks is famous for its large population of African elephants, boasting the highest concentration of African elephants in the world. 

The park stretches from the Chobe River to the Savute Channel and on to the borders of Moremi Game Reserve on the Okavango Delta, covering about 10 566 sq km’s. Botswana’s first national park, Chobe is home to huge herds of buffalo and zebras, as well as a variety of antelopes and predators. Lion, leopard, lechwe, Chobe bushbuck, hyena and cheetah are also found in Chobe National Park. Chobe is also an excellent birding destination with about 350 bird species, including Pel's Fishing Owl and the African Skimmer.

The park can be divided into three ecosystems, namely the Serondela area in the northeast on the Chobe Riverfront; the Savuti Marsh area in the west and the Linyanti Marsh in the north-west the hot dry hinterland lying between the Linyanti and Savuti Marshes. These areas differ in vegetation and water availability attracting different wildlife species, which allows for different game viewing opportunities from season to season as well as between the different sections of the diverse Chobe Park.

Kalahari Desert & Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

The flat plain of the Kalahari Desert stretches north from South Africa through Namibia to Angola and Zambia, covering almost 70% of Botswana, in what is one of the most extensive sand basins in the world. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana’s Kalahari is the world’s largest game reserve. 

The name Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word "Kgalagadi", which means "the great thirst". The Kalahari is famous for the San Bushman people, traditional hunter-gatherers, living in this challenging terrain. The vast open spaces and arid beauty of the Kalahari make this semi-desert a fascinating and unforgettable safari destination. The Kalahari isn’t a true desert as it does receive rainfall and is well vegetated, particularly in Botswana where grass, trees and scrub grow. Parts of the Kalahari are mostly very dry, such as the extensive salt pans of the Makgadikgadi Pan in northern Botswana.

FISHING IN BOTSWANA

Author Dominic Chadbon

Fishing in Botswana is one of those right-place-right-time experiences. You might enjoy a productive afternoon of fishing on an Okavango Delta lagoon one month and return a few months later to find the water gone and the boats high and dry. And between January and February, fishing is prohibited in Botswana for fish breeding purposes.

But depending where you go and what you’re fishing for, you can enjoy some seriously good fishing in Botswana. You can fish with artificial lures or bait or even go fly-fishing. Some lodges operate a catch and release policy; other lodges will cook your catch for supper. And of course you’re in big game country too: most water-based safari lodges supply fishing gear, offering an exciting mix of game viewing and fishing trips.