African Safari Guide to Botswana

Botswana Highlights:

• Unspoilt wilderness


• Incredible wildlife viewing with a feeling of privacy - almost impossible to find anywhere else in Africa. One can go out all day on game drive or in mokoro in most areas and not see another person


• Largest inland delta in the world – Okavango Delta


• The Kalahari – see remarkable adapted creatures


• San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert


• Makgadikdagi Pans - ancient superlake and dramatic salt pans


• 600 species of birds


• Tsodilo Hills – important rock art site - World Heritage Site


• Botswana is a safe and secure holiday destination


• Excellent quality safari accommodation and guiding


• Various ways of travelling on safari- camp to camp by light safari aircraft, mobile safari, luxury tented camps and lodges, private wilderness camping, mokoro safaris, horseback safaris

Best time to visit Botswana:

Botswana is a year round wildlife destination. There are certain seasons for special interest groups to take note of:

• Best birding months are November - March when the migratory birds are in the Okavango Delta


• Best botanical months are December - May when the vegetation is lush and green, and when most plants are in flower

Okavango Delta

Okavango Delta Highlights:

• One of the world’s greatest mysteries – water in a desert


• World’s largest inland delta (5700 sq miles)


• Beauty of this amazing wetland habitat, together with excellent game viewing makes Okavango Delta a perfect safari destination


• All the big game plus good sightings of wild dogs


• Opportunity to see the rate sitatunga and red lechwe


• Secretive animals like porcupine, pangolin, aardwolf and genet are seen


• Many various activities to see wildlife: mokoro (a dugout canoe), elephant-back safaris, horse-riding, birding, daily game drives, night game drives, bush walks, game viewing flight over the floodplains


• Exquisite lodges and camps provide unsurpassed luxury in the bush

Best time to visit Okavango Delta

Excellent game-viewing throughout the year. Roads can be bad during the rainy season (November - March)

Chobe River (Chobe National Park)

Chobe Highlights:

• Hundreds of elephants by the Chobe River during the dry season


• Sundowner river cruises with spectacular Chobe sunsets


• Both hippo's and elephants epitomise this park more than any other animals


• 440 species of birds


• Rare Pel’s Fishing Owl seen at night


• unusual antelope species like Roan and Sable, Puku, Tsessebe, Eland, Red Lechwe, Waterbuck, and the rare Chobe Bushbuck


• Fishing on the Chobe River for 20 different species of edible fish


• Spectacular safari lodges and tented camps along the Chobe River


• Exceptional photographic opportunities

Best time to visit Chobe:

Good to visit all year round. During the dry season there is a concentration of game along the permanent watercourses and pans and Chobe is excellent for game this time of the year.

Moremi Game Reserve

Moremi Highlights:

• Reserve is a combination of permanent water and drier areas – making for excellent game viewing


• great diversity of plant and animal life


• Fly in safaris – few lodges can be reached by road


• One of Africa's finest areas for wildlife, with particularly high game densities


• Chiefs Island boasts two exclusive camps – Mombo Camp and Chiefs Camp with some of the best wildlife viewing


• Big five as well as all other main mammal species are prolific in Moremi – great population of wild dog


• Red lechwe


• More than 500 species of bird found

Best time to visit Moremi Game Reserve:

Moremi is a year round wildlife destination .Game viewing is at its peak from July to October, when seasonal pans dry up and the wildlife concentrates on the permanent water.

Central Kalahari

Central Kalahari Highlights:

• Magnificent cloud formations during the summer rains


• Thousands of grazing animals on the grass plains during February to April


• Good numbers of ostrich and giraffe, herds of wildebeest, excellent cheetah and the Kalahari's famous black-maned lions


• Fascinating reptiles, scorpions and insects


• Spectacular African starry night skies


• Bushman communities have survived on the Makgadikgadi Pans for centuries


• Prime wildlife viewing areas such as Deception Valley and Sunday Pan.

Best time to visit Central Kalahari:

Good to visit all year round.

Kwando- Linyanti Area

Kwando-Linyanti Highlights:

• The Narina Trogon are seen here


• Aquatic sitatunga antelopes


• Magnificent-horned sable antelope


• elephant and lion, wild dog and hippo, buffalo and giraffe


• Wild Dogs usually den in this region from around June to September


• intimate luxury lodges, tented and rustic camps with excellent guiding


• Linyanti River, Savuti Channel and woodlands of the interior


• Different experience to the Okavango Delta

Best time to visit Kwando – Linyanti:

Good to visit all year round.

Okavango PanHandle

Okavango Panhandle Highlights:

• Fishing camps, as the tiger-fishing here is particularly good


• Seventeen species of fish can be caught in the panhandle


• Bird-watching is first class - Bird viewing can be done on foot, from mokoro, on boats or from the lodge.


• Night-time boat trips are popular - one can often see the rare and shy birds for which this area is renowned


• Trips to the nearby Tsodilo Hills


• Okavango Houseboats - Accommodating six to twenty people, guests enjoy exceptional birding and angling opportunities.

Best time to visit Okavango Panhandle:

The most exciting time is during September to December – it is the annual barbel run and the best time for Tiger fish.

Savuti

Savuti Highlights:

• Endangered wild dog are seen here


• Thousands of zebras migrating across the plains


• Hyenas are fascinating to watch at their den when the youngsters are around


• Gubatsa Hills - dolomite rock outcrops - create a series of extraordinary hills


• Watch elephants at waterholes for hours


• Safari lodges offer luxury in a completely different environment from Chobe or Linyanti


• Quelea finches gather in flocks of tens of thousands

Best time to visit Savuti:

From May to October the water pans dry up and the animals are attracted to the artificial waterholes. Elephants dominate these while other animals have to wait their turn. September and October can be extremely hot but game viewing is very rewarding as predators are concentrated around the waterholes. November - December thousands of zebras migrate from the Linyanti and move south through Savuti to the grasslands of the Mababe Depression.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Makgadikgadi Pans Highlights:

• One of the world's largest salt pans


• Spectacular saltpans which flood annually, providing amazing bird watching and sight-seeing


• Sowa Pan – breeding site for greater and lesser Flamingo


• Riding a quad bike across the desolate pans


• Explore remote archaeological sites


• Dramatic migrations of wildebeest and zebra during the rainy season


• Species unique to the area such as aardvark, gemsbuck, springbuck, brown hyena and suricates


• Stay in a luxury lodge by the salt pans where Zu/’hoasi Bushmen will be your guides


• Night sky studded with a million of stars


• Vast wilderness of space and timelessness


• Unique ecosystem

Best time to visit Makgadikgadi:

Dry season and wet season (November to March) visits to this park are recommended in order to witness the dramatic appearance of the pans at their driest and to experience the transformation to a water wonderland. See the wildebeest and zebra migrations in the wet season.

Nxai Pan National Park

Nxai Pan Highlights:

• Baines' Baobabs in the south of Nxai Pan National Park


• Springbok and giraffes in large numbers


• Zebra migration and give birth to their young after the rains


• Fossil salt pans and historical sites


• Great birdlife in the rainy season and a wide variety of raptors


• Game drives, bush walks, and cultural tours


• Desert adapted wildlife


• Stunning wild scenery and lunar landscapes

Best time to visit Nxai Pans:

November to April is the wet summer season and the time when Nxai Pan is at its best. Game is abundant from December to April but if the rains have been heavy the roads may be difficult to negotiate.