Highlights & Attractions
A water wonderland of wildlife and scenery, Botswana boasts the unique opportunity of observing wildlife whilst paddling through the Okavango Delta in wooden-hulled boats, or experiencing Africa's biggest herds of elephants, huge concentrations of buffalo and thousands of hippos residing around the Chobe River.
Highlights
The Okavango Delta
The Delta is the largest inland delta system in the world and is a maze of lagoons and islands covering some 15,000 square kilometres. It is world renowned for its biodiversity and contrasts - a must see on any African safari. It is also home to an abundance of wildlife making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region.
Kwando & Kwara Concessions
This vast unspoiled wilderness extends from the Okavango Delta, northward to Kwando and eastwards to Savuti and Chobe. Both the Kwando concession and Kwara in the Okavango Delta have substantial permanent water that sustains life in an otherwise in-hospitable environment. A unique wilderness experience.
Moremi Game Reserve
Almost one third of the entire Delta is covered by the Moremi Wildlife Reserve, a diverse ecosystem consisting of riverine woodland, flood plains, wetlands and reed beds, mopane forest and dry savannah woodland. Here the permanent waters of the Okavango embrace the Kalahari thirstland.
Linyanti Wildlife Reserve
This private reserve in one of the most remote, pristine and inaccessible parts of Botswana, is bordered by the Linyanti River in the north and the Chobe National Park in the east.
The Chobe National Park
Some 11,700 square kilometres of the country's northern frontier is considered to have the largest concentration of elephants roaming within the boundaries of a proclaimed National Park.
Makgadikgadi Pans
The large pans are the most visible remnants of a lake formed more than five million years ago. During the rainy season the "thirstlands" are transformed, attracting a spectacular array of birds and dramatic migrations of wildebeest and zebra.
Attractions
Chobe National Park
The Chobe National Park, which is the second largest national park in Botswana and covers 10,566 km2, has one of the greatest concentrations of game found on the African continent. Its uniqueness in the abundance of wildlife and the true African nature of the region, offers a safari experience of a lifetime. The Chobe Park is divided into four distinctly different eco systems: Serondela with its lush plains and dense forests in the Chobe River area in the extreme north-east; the Savuti Marsh in the west about fifty kilometres north of Mababe gate; the Linyanti Swamps in the north-west and the hot dry hinterland in between.
A major feature of Chobe National Park is its elephant population. The Chobe elephant comprise part of what is probably the largest surviving continuous elephant population. This population covers most of northern Botswana plus northwestern Zimbabwe. The Botswana's elephant population is currently estimated at around 120,000. This elephant population has built up steadily from a few thousand since the early 1900s and has escaped the massive illegal offtake that has decimated other populations in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Chobe elephant are migratory, making seasonal movements of up to 200 kilometres from the Chobe and Linyanti rivers, where they concentrate in the dry season, to the pans in the southeast of the park, to which they disperse in the rains. The elephants, in this area have the distinction of being the largest in body size of all living elephants though the ivory is brittle and you will not see many huge tuskers among these rangy monsters. Often described as one of, if not the best, wildlife-viewing area in Africa today, Savuti boasts one of the highest concentrations of wildlife left on the African continent. Animals are present during all seasons, and at certain times of the year their numbers can be staggering. If you allow yourself adequate time here (a minimum of three to four days is recommended) you will probably see nearly all the major species: giraffe, elephant, zebra, impala, tsessebe, roan, sable, wildebeest, kudu, buffalo, waterbuck, warthog, eland and accompanying predators including lion, hyaena, jackal, bat-eared fox and possibly even cheetah and wild dog.
Okavango Delta
Okavango Delta is one of the world's largest inland water systems, the only inland delta of its kind and a unique oasis of life in the centre of the Kalahari Desert. It stretches over 16,000 square km and supports a staggering variety of animal, plant, fish and birdlife. The water was once thought to have reached the sea, but this is no longer the case. After a series of tectonic uplifts and earthquakes running along geological fault lines, the land at the edge of the Delta now lies lower than that of the surrounding area. Hence the water very rarely flows further South than Maun.
Once the rains begin, around November, the floodwater begins its 250km journey downstream from the Angolan highlands towards Maun. Because of the gentle slope of the Okavango Delta floor (1: 36,000) the floods take approximately six months to travel to their eventual destination. The hottest month is October with mean maximum temperatures of 350°C. The coldest months are June and July with a mean minimum of 60°C. The rains usually fall between November and April with the heaviest downpours occurring in January and February.
The Okavango Delta consists of a multitude of main channels, smaller tributaries and lagoons as well as floodplains, islands and mainland areas. The watercourses are constantly changing due to annual flooding as well as a combination of sediment transport, seismic activity, the construction of termite mounds, and the continual opening up of new channels by feeding hippopotami and the closing of others by new vegetation growth. There are two fairly distinct areas of the Okavango Delta - the permanent swamp, which is inundated with water all year round, and the seasonal swamp, which is flooded annually and dries gradually with the onset of summer.
The vegetation of the permanent swamp includes groves of wild date palm, swathes of papyrus, islands fringed with forest and lagoons covered with floating water lilies.
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. Moremi 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.
The idea to create a game reserve first originated in 1961 and was approved by the Batawana at a kgotla in 1963. The area was then officially designated as a game reserve in April 1965 and was initially run by the Fauna Conservation Society of Ngamiland. Moremi was then extended to include Chiefs Island in 1976. In August 1979 the reserve was taken over by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. A further extension was added as recently as 1992 and now the reserve contains within its boundaries approximately twenty percent of the Okavango Delta.
Moremi is best visited in the dry season and game viewing is at its peak from July to October, when seasonal pans dry up and the wildlife concentrates on the permanent water. The winter months of May to August can be very cold at night, but pleasantly warm, under clear blue skies, during the day. From October until the rains break in late November or early December, the weather can be extremely hot - both day and night. The reserve enjoys a wide diversity of habitat and is well known for the height of the trees in the mopane tongue, which covers the central area. However, the mainland part forms only about thirty percent of the reserve and is, in many ways untypical - the remaining area being part of the Okavango Delta. Birdlife is prolific and varied, ranging from water birds to shy forest dwellers.
Elephants are numerous, particularly during the dry season, as well as a range of other wildlife species from buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, hyena, jackal and the full range of antelope, large and small, including the red lechwe. Rhino, both black and white, were here in the past, but most of the few remaining have been sought out for translocation to the protection of a sanctuary, away from the attentions of illegal hunters. Wild dog, whose numbers are so rapidly dwindling elsewhere, are regularly sighted in the Moremi and have been subject to a project being run in the area since 1989 so these animals are often seen wearing collars placed on them by the researchers. It is claimed that the Moremi area contains about thirty percent of all living wild dog.
Central Kalahari Desert
Larger than Denmark or Switzerland, and bigger than Lesotho and Swaziland combined, the 52,800 km2 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 and saltpans.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve is situated right in the centre of Botswana, this reserve is characterised by vast open plains, saltpans and ancient riverbeds. Varying from sand dunes with many species of trees and shrubs in the north, to flat bushveld in the central area, the reserve is more heavily wooded in the south, with mophane forests to the south and east. Rainfall is sparse and sporadic and can vary from 170 to 700 mm per year. The people commonly known throughout the world as Bushmen, but more properly referred to as the Basarwa or San, have been resident in and around the area for probably thousands of years. Originally nomadic hunters and gathers, the lifestyle of the Basarwa has gradually changed with the times and they now live in settlements, some of which are situated within the southern half of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Game viewing for animals which include giraffe, brown hyaena, warthog, wild dog, cheetah, leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, kudu, red hartebeest and springbok, is best between December and April, when the animals tend to congregate in the pans and valleys.