Africa

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari is spoken of as a desert, but very little of it is. The famous red-brown sands have been blown back and forth over the African landscape since Gondwana days. Most is now anchored by vegetation. In moister areas, like Angola and Zambia, the sand-cap is covered by lush miombo woodland. With a lower rainfall, Botswana’s Kalahari provides wide sun-drenched areas of sweeping grassland and dusty scrub which offers occasionally spectacular game viewing. Within Botswana, the Kalahari referred to is the central and south-western half of the country; the arid flat landscape home of the gemsbok and the Bushman.
A vital feature of the Kalahari is the pans. Ephemeral shallow natural ponds of rainwater the pans of the Kalahari play a critically important role in this arid environment. Usually areas of smooth saline clay which lines a shallow depression, often firm enough to take the weight of a vehicle, and upon which, generally, nothing will grow, pans can vary in size from a few hundred metres to several square kilometres in extent. Often a pan will act as a drainage basin for quite a considerable area. This water may remain for several months, providing an oasis for animal life.

Wildlife in semi-arid regions has long since adapted to survival without a permanent water supply. Antelope such as eland, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest, steenbok and duiker can manage without large quantities of water, as can giraffe, kudu and warthog. The same is true of creatures such as hyena, jackal, bat-eared fox and a host of smaller animals. So game is seldom seen drinking from pans, and besides, the water is often saline. It is not water that draws game to the pans; it is the salts in the clay and the greater variety of vegetation available. There is a greater diversity of plant species within a one kilometre radius of a pan than there is in any other similar region of the Kalahari, so they are a rich food resource.

The Kalahari, especially in the western regions of Botswana, is remote and harsh, but unspoilt. It is four-wheel drive country, devoid of infrastructures such as surfaced roads, piped water, and convenience stores. Even firewood needs to be on your list of essentials to carry with you. Summers are blisteringly hot, winters warm to cool with bitterly cold nights. This is not an area for easy-option tourism. It’s the double-rugged stuff beloved of seasoned campers, 4X4 experts and wilderness devotees.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Proclaimed in 1961 this is one of the few reserves in the world that was created for the preservation and protection of people rather than animals. Being almost 52 000 km’ in extent, this vast area has no standing water and, until relatively recently, no tracks. Now open to the public, the area was originally set aside as a region where the San or Bushman could continue their traditional way of life.

Today the reserve maintains two airstrips and 15 unserviced campsites, and permanent waterholes at Piper’s Pan and Sunday Pan ensure good game viewing almost throughout the year, but particularly in the dry winter months. The reserve contains large herds of blue wildebeest, red hartebeest, eland, gemsbok and springbok. Lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog and both spotted and brown hyena are often seen.

Roads are little more than tracks and there are no facilities of any kind. Self-sufficiency in these regions includes carrying your own firewood. Only parties with the right equipment, vehicles, experience and attitude should contemplate a visit to the reserve. However, various mobile tour operators will include a safari into this area if you so wish.

It is believed that the San or Bushman are probably descendants of the original inhabitants of most of east, central and southern Africa. In the last thousand years or so they have been absorbed, moved aside or annihilated by almost every other race group with whom they came into contact. Fragmentary groups of Bushman and intermarried relatives survive only in Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
However, the dilemma of maintaining an ancient hunter-gatherers lifestyle is insoluble. While the older generation may well wish to preserve traditions, this not necessarily the choice of the youngsters who wish to be a part of modern life, with all it’s advantages and hardships. Essentially, every person is entitled to freedom of choice.